Summer isn’t a break for teachers.
In addition to all the prep, the research, the curriculum revision, programming, conferences, and on and on, teachers have another even more important job.
Teachers are collecting.
Teaching, almost as significantly as the physical and intellectual labor, is emotional labor. Teachers must collect a surplus of emotional bandwidth that the can use to perform that labor through the school year.
Some teachers see the world – I have educator friends across Europe, the Sahara, and beyond.
Some teachers retreat with their families – like the week I just spent off the grid in the Berkshires.
Some teachers take summer jobs, filling their wells with work that challenges and renews them in different ways.
Whatever it is that supports you, make sure you’re doing the work collecting your resources. The work you do today will lift you in March.