Teachers and their summer vacations.....I hear all the time that I am so lucky that I get a long summer vacation.
Actually, I don't. I'm actually in between contracts. That's right, technically, I'm unemployed at the moment. But that's okay, I'm enjoying my break.
I thought I would give some insights as to how the rest of my summer is going. I spent some time packing up my classroom. I'm changing grades next year and the kindergarten classroom I was teaching in had to move to another room, closer to the kindergarten playground. So I had to pack my things separately from kindergarten for the moves. It took me a couple of weeks (I didn't work every day in my former classroom) but as of June 23rd, I was done with Room 5.
Just in time for a 3 day training at Sanford University. It was a specialized training for a specific student I am getting next year, so I won't be going into exactly what the training was for....but it was so specific that it was directed to the teachers specializing in the issue and not really for general education teachers like myself. I said something to the organizers, (not as a complaint just during the daily survey) and then one of the organizers met with me during lunch. Other experts joined in and I was able to have an excellent conversation around my specific needs with my student.
I had a lot of fun exploring the area with another teacher from my district who knew the area. We walked around the campus and then drove up the mountains to an out of the way place for dinner in the middle of the mountains. It was beautiful and I had a delightful time.
I took a week off and did nothing. 4th of July, lunch with friends, massages, etc.
But tomorrow, I am heading to my new classroom to start organizing it. I may take a weekday off here and there but right now, it's such a mess that I don't know exactly where to start and I'm worried that I won't have enough time to get things ready.
I am going to take home books to read in the evening to start learning my new 4th Grade curriculum.
I have 4 weeks until my training in New York City for a week. Then when I get back, it will be time to officially go back to work. My contract starts on August 17th. I am on a committee that meets the day before that AND my union work starts the 16th as well.
I want to show people how much work a teacher really puts into their off time. Especially when they happen to be changing grades.
