FAQ: What do teachers do in the summer?

One frequently asked question I receive from non-teacher friends and relatives is, "Why do you need the summer off? What do you do all summer?"

 

Well, to answer the first question, I don't know if we NEED the summer off.  Do we enjoy it?  YES!   I like to think of the summer as comp. time.  :)   Many teachers I've talked with over the last few years, while we all enjoy the long vacation, would love to see year round schools.  Teachers that support year round schools say they would like frequent breaks during the year that would give us the time we need to plan, collaborate, and come up with valuable resources, and to prevent students from what we call "the summer slide" where they actually lose progress over the summer from not reading, writing, or practicing math facts for 3 months.

 

To answer the second question:

During the summer we rejuvenate.  One of the things I noticed when I was student teaching is there is no down time during the day at school.  I've heard on the news (not sure it is believable) that many employees shop online, are on Facebook or other social media sites, or playing games on their phones or computers during the workday.  Wow!  IF that is true, how???  When??? Parents, you know how it is when your children are young, you can't even go to the bathroom alone.  Well imagine that you are home alone all day, but instead of 2-3 kids it is 22-30 kids.  :)  And not only are you home alone, you are all in one big room.  It's an entirely different point of view isn't it?  :)  We love what we do, but we appreciate some down time too! 

 

Most of us read.  We read for fun and to grow as people and teachers.  We read professional books. Books about teaching reading, writing, math , science, social studies, books about what we teach in social studies and science.  We read books for fun - beach reads, cookbooks, and how to improve your golf swing. 

 

Many of us take classes.  We  have to take classes to renew our teaching licenses.  Each state determines how many classes or hours in class we need.  We are allowed to take online classes, go to workshops,  take graduate level college classes, or attend professional conferences.  The summer gives us more time to do that. 

 

We travel and spend time with our families which "fills our buckets" it gives us stories to draw on for when we model writing.  I used a family trip to North Carolina to my cousin's wedding for both science and social studies lessons last year.  My students enjoyed those connections and it helped their brains hold onto the concepts I was teaching. 

 

We also do home projects, volunteer and supplement our incomes.  Things you might do in the evenings and weekends, we do in the summer. 

 

Finally, we work during the summer.  Not full time, but we do work.  As an elementary teacher I spend the beginning of vacation in June organizing and purging in my classroom.  I rearrange what worked and didn't work to have a new and improved plan next year.  Then in August, once the summer cleaning is finished, we go back into the building as soon as they let us to start setting up our rooms and getting ready for the next year.  One friend commented she went into school this week to get her materials for her Earth Science unit so she can work on that this summer. 

 

A great book that shows this seasonal process is Mrs. Spitzer's Garden by Edith Pattou. 

 

Just in case you were wondering, that's one teacher's answer. :)