On my Instagram Stories, I asked teachers what they love best about summer. I got lots of replies and it made me wonder – how can we keep the summer vibe going as we begin another school year?
First – think about what you love about summer.
Here were some responses to my IG story.
Longer stretches of time to work on tasks or projects
More sunlight
More time outside
More time with family or friends
More sleep or rest
Time to watch movies/TV/Netflix/etc.
Time to read books for fun
Time to read education books I don’t have time for during the school year
Time to scroll Pinterest and Instagram and find great ideas for next year
More leisurely mornings with coffee and a book
Less of a schedule
Now think about how can you keep some of this in your schedule/routines when you go back to school.
Here are ways to do that.
To have more time to work on personal tasks or projects:
Plan your week at home. While you will definitely have less time during the year, scheduling even 15 minutes once a week will help you make some progress and feel like you’re getting a chance to work on projects that matter to you.
More sunlight and time outside:
Arrange your day to take advantage of hours of daylight.
Could you get up earlier and spend a bit of time outside before you go to school?
Could you walk around outside at some point during the school day?
Could you eat your lunch outside or do some of your planning/prep outside?
Set a “stop time” for work every day (or as many days as possible) so that you can come home earlier and take advantage of daylight hours.
More time with family & friends:
I’m going to sound like a broken record here, but plan your week at home! When you do this, you can build in some time every week to do something fun with friends or family.
Sad to say but if you do not schedule the time, it won’t happen since school work will always seem to take precedence and will fill the time available.
More sleep or rest:
While we won’t be able to stay up as late as we want or sleep in as long as we want, we can still think about ways to get more sleep during the school year.
Think about how much sleep you absolutely need. It’s probably around 7 – 9 hours (although I’ve been guilty of trying to get by on six hours).
Think about a bedtime and wake-up time for yourself that will ensure you get the rest you need. Now make it a goal that you will stick to those times as many nights as you possibly can. You might also schedule time for a nap on the weekend if you can manage that!
Time to watch movies/TV/Netflix, etc.:
Keep a running list of the shows you want to watch. When you do have an evening to yourself, you’ll have a list and won’t waste the time scrolling through your options.
Even if you don’t get a chance to watch anything during the school year, you’ll have a list for your weekends, long weekends, or your next break!
Time to read books for fun:
Keeping a running list helps here too. It also helps to plan to read for a few minutes at bedtime. You probably won’t get through any book as quickly as you can during the summer, but at least you can carve out a little bit of time to read for fun.
Time to read education books:
In my first year of teaching, a wise older teacher suggested that I give myself 10 minutes three days a week to read something related to education. It could be a book, a blog post, an Education Week or Edutopia article, whatever.
I started doing that and I have been amazed at how much reading I am able to do during the year when I devote that time. This may not work for you, but if you can carve out a few minutes of time (even five minutes), you’ll probably be surprised at how much you can read!
Scrolling social media for classroom ideas:
I love doing this too. The problem for me is that I can easily let 30 minutes go by and not even remember what I’ve seen.
So I have a couple of suggestions here:
One suggestion is to set a time limit for your scrolling – 5 minutes? 10 minutes? Whatever you can spare.
Another suggestion: if it’s an Instagram post, set up a page in the Notes app of your phone and share the link to the appropriate note. If it’s Pinterest, you can pin it.
Then the last suggestion is to schedule a time to look at the fun things you saved or pinned and decide if you want to use the idea.
Leisurely mornings:
I am a big fan of having time to drink one (or two) cups of coffee, reading a devotional (Just Rest by Melanie Redd is my current book), and just generally having time to get my day started without feeling frantic.
So I started thinking about all the things I would like to do before my teaching day starts and how long these tasks would take (if I weren’t taking my sweet time, that is). I then developed a morning routine that gets my day started in the right way for me. (If you want my tips, here’s a link.)
School mornings will never be as leisurely as summer or weekend mornings, and that’s okay. But starting my day with routines that help me get the day off to a positive and productive start helps a lot.
Less of a schedule:
This is a hard one to keep in your school year routine. I try to look at this as just part of the rhythm of the year. For instance, I love it when everything slows down when school ends. But I also try to see getting back into a “schedule” as a positive part of the late summer/early fall routine.
I live in a college town. When the students leave in mid-May, suddenly the traffic eases up, we can get into our favorite downtown restaurants much more quickly, and everything seems quieter. Then – just when we’re getting bored with the quiet – the students return in mid-August and there is new energy to the town.
I try to look at the positive sides of both times of the year. So enjoy your summer with less of a rigid schedule, but also look at how you can keep the fall schedule from becoming insane. Limit your kids’ after-school activities to one or two, try not to schedule too many appointments or meetings in any one week, and leave some “white space” or buffer time in your calendar so that you can have time to do whatever you want to do.
Enjoy what remains of your summer and let me know which one of these tips helps you!
