If you’re a teacher, you’re undoubtedly tired of hearing, “It must be nice to have the whole summer off!”
The reality of being a teacher is that there is some time off, but not as much as people think! If you want to continue to make ends meet, you might teach summer school. You also end up in meetings and doing professional development.
Making the most of your summer is essential, of course, because during the year, you work long hours teaching, grading papers, meeting with parents, and more.
Here are three ways to use summer to prep for the next school year.
Update Your Lesson Plans
Even if you teach the same subject to the same age every year, you still need to adjust and update your lesson plans.
Education technology and the curriculum map are constantly changing, kids have different expectations over time, and you’re dealing with other challenges every year. As a result, the quieter days of summer can be a great time to reflect on what went well and what you might want to change.
You can always make lesson plans more relevant, engaging, and helpful. For example, you might want to incorporate new STEM activities into your elementary class or find new ways to incorporate your school’s learning technology.
However, you approach it, adjusting your lesson plans is an essential part of using the summer to prep for next year.
Classroom Planning
Each year you need to think about how you’re going to organize your seating, classroom decoration/learning props, and much more.
The summer is a great time to take care of this when you don’t have to worry about a new flock of kids coming in within the next 15 minutes. Think about the various units you plan to teach during the year, and consider what learning materials you’ll need.
You can also think through some new ideas, like Fun Friday activities and interactive education technology use during teaching time.
These are all things that are very hard to incorporate on the fly when you’re just trying to keep the lessons moving and get papers graded before the next homework assignment is due.
Get Actual Rest!
Too many teachers – and people in general – don’t get enough downtime. As a result, half of all vacation days go unused in the U.S. across all industries. As you might expect, this leads to burnout, disengagement, and poor performance.
You don’t want that to happen to you as a teacher. So don’t be shy about taking time to truly relax, whether you can afford a tropical island vacation or not. Summer is the time for you to recharge and spend time with the ones you love. Make sure you do!
Get a Head Start on Education Technology This Coming Year
Want to learn more about how to harness education technology in the classroom, help your students learn from their electronic devices, and more? I’d love to help.
You can gain a variety of additional tips and tricks from the blog, and you can take a look at the education technology resources I’ve developed to make your life easier. Then, you can download them in seconds!
I will also share many tips and tricks during July and August over on my Facebook Page and Instagram. So be sure to come to hang out with me to learn more.
I hope you have a great summer. Let me know if I can be of any assistance!
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