Summer Break

   Welcome back, fellow educators.  I hope my blog finds you well.  I shall divert a little and write about summer break.

    I taught one summer school in the year 2000.  The money was good, but I swore I would never do it again.  

     Summer is the time to renew my Self, invigorate my Spirit, replan my lessons for the next school year, and take a lot of naps. It's also a wonderful time to spend with my wife and daughters for hours instead of a few minutes throughout the day.

     A colleague of mine called me this morning asking me why I was not teaching summer school with him and others among our staff who were there.  I told my friend that I was writing.  

     As soon as I said it, I regretted it.  My friend's long pause made me feel uncomfortable as if he expected me to say I was doing something important.  There is always the feeling that writing is tantamount to being lazy and idle.  My guilt was not well founded.

     I just attended the Coastal Savannah Writing Project.  That consumed two weeks of summer break like a whale gulping plankton.  No amount of money can replace what I learned.  Indeed, the school system will be getting a much more effective teacher because of it.

     I have this week to blog, to write my implementation plan for the Coastal Savannah Writing Project, and to squeeze in a few days of fun in order to celebrate the USA's birthday, (age 237 and still growing).

     The implementation plan is six pages due in two weeks.  I have to finish that this week because next week I will serve as a counselor at a church camp. That is five days gone in sixty seconds.

     Only three weeks of summer break will remain after camp.  I am hoping for a vacation (not from blogging) and hoping to attend a few books that have been screaming out my name since school let out.

     There will be planning.  There always is.  It's funny how many times I've heard people say that teachers do not deserve a whole lot of pay since they get a two month vacation, as if we do not work during all that short time that passes so quickly. 

     Tomorrow, I hope to share some strategies I learned at the Coastal Savannah Writing Conference.  I hope to see you here.  Teach on...