What I Learned On My Summer Vacation

This summer has flown by! With the many snow days we had this year, it certainly was a shorter summer. I sometimes find myself wishing that I had just ONE more week to enjoy being home. However, seeing my new kiddos this week at registration has given me (as it always does) an extra boost of adrenaline and has definitely gotten me "pumped" for going back to school. Before I become completely immersed in my teaching life, I thought I'd take some time to reflect on some things that I learned and discovered this summer.

1. I have truly found some new hobbies/interests. I have thoroughly enjoyed my summertime that I spent blogging, playing around on Pinterest, making new crafts,decorating, and baking. I'm discovering some hidden talents in myself and have found pure joy in creating new things. I am glad that I had this time to discover this character trait.

       

2. I am so thankful to have summer vacation. I think a lot of teachers take summer vacation for granted. Yesterday I was chatting with one of my former kid's parents (who is also a teacher) and she and I were discussing how we have such little "vacation" time left. Then, she said, "You know, I can't really sit here and complain that I have two weeks of vacation left, because that's the total amount of time that my husband gets off work in a year." When she said that, I had an "eye opening moment." I love my summer time spent running errands, mowing the lawn (gasp-I know) and taking care of things around the house, and I am thankful that my career allows me to have so much time off while still getting paid.

3. It's okay if some things aren't clean, perfect, etc. I am a die hard perfectionist. Over the summer, I took a personality survey that my dear friend Missy gave me which reaffirmed that I am a "planner," someone who likes deadlines and being under pressure, and a perfectionist. I am, as the survey put it, a "Gold" personality. This summer I definitely improved on my "Type A" personality and let some things...go. I didn't freak out about laundry being done every day. I cleaned the house only 2, sometimes 3, times a week (yes, I know that's a lot to most people but not to me). I spent more time enjoying pastimes than worrying about everything being perfect-and that is definitely an accomplishment for me.

4. Exercise makes me happy. I went jogging almost 5 times a week this summer in addition to lifting weights, ab exercises, and yoga. I LOVED it! I even started to feel happier in the mornings after my workout! I think that I have discovered that I am definitely a "running outdoors" person (no treadmill for me) and I love working out in the early morning. I plan on continuing this ritual when school starts.

5. Old/new friends and time with family is awesome. I was fortunate to spend a lot of time this summer with friends, old and new. It was great meeting new faces and expanding our "friend circle. "I also spent some time with my family and my brother, who will be a senior this year. Spending time with him makes me realize that we only have a year left before he leaves for college. The older he gets, the closer we get personally, and I plan on spending as much time with him as I can before he leaves.

6. Educational Technology is where it's at. I finally decided to pursue my master's degree in educational technology. I am very excited! I think it perfectly fits my point of view and will allow me to utilize my master's degree in any grade/subject. I start in the Spring!

7. I am a passionate, energetic, driven teacher, and it's okay. This summer I have done a lot of reflecting on teaching and my philosophy on education. I am one of those teachers who will do anything for her kids, whether it is dressing up like Sir Isaac Newton to teach gravity and inertia, or re-writing the lyrics to pop songs to be about rocks and minerals. I will do anything to keep my kids engaged and help them learn the subject, retain it, and apply it. I also wholeheartedly believe that every student can succeed and can be motivated to learn, and it is my job as their teacher to help them become the best they can be. I don't "give up" on kids. As strongly as I believe this, some teachers in my building were less than amused by my over the top teaching techniques and off the wall costumes and lesson plans, and just like any workplace, some of them expressed their less than nice opinions about me and my classroom. I used to let their negativity get to me. I'd go home in tears, wondering if I should just go back to teaching "direct instruction" and stay out of the spotlight. For my first three years of teaching I struggled with trying to "prove myself" to them. I knew I was a great teacher, my administration and parents said so, but I couldn't seem to shake it off. It was the kids, I finally realized, that gave me all of the "proof" I needed that I am in the right place, and doing the right thing. I saw a quote today on my good friend's Facebook that read, "If you'd accept that it doesn't matter if everyone likes you & ultimately have no control over that anyway, you'd be happier." That is going to be my mantra this year. As long as I wake up every day with the attitude 

that I am "here for kids," that is all that matters.

                                    

8. Living in the present is so much better than living in the future. Since we have been together for almost ten years, the conversations about marriage and babies seem to haunt my boyfriend and I wherever we go. I used to dwell on the idea that we don't have kids yet (since some of our friends do). I have come to realize that living in the "now" with a plan in mind for the future is so much more relaxing than stressing about it. We both know that we want to have a "destination wedding" and want to start having kids before we're thirty, and frankly, that's a good enough plan for me.

9. St Louis isn't such a bad place. I had the privilege of taking a few "mini field trips" this summer to different destinations around St. Louis. I went to Six Flags, the zoo, the science center, a new frozen yogurt place called Orange Leaf, and have since discovered that I live in a pretty okay place. There are more fun things to do than I realized, and it was fun getting to know my city a little better.

10.. Never stop learning. I have learned so much this summer about myself, about teaching, and about the importance of trying new things. I have so many new lessons and units planned for this school year from my summer spent research effective new materials and can't wait to implement them! I have always thought of myself as a "life long learner"-after all, I am a teacher, and that mindset has definitely become more apparent over this summer.