I’ve been slacking. It’s true. Now, I’m definitely not one that people would view as a slacker. I’m uber-organized, I’m constantly doing something, I even serve coffee in my room on Fridays. But every year at about this time I start to kind of check out on the current year to turn my attention to the upcoming school year. I start thinking about changes I want to make, printing out and trying new kinds of planners, and generally gearing up for the work I will need to do over the summer to make the next school year flow smoothly.
I think I’ve already shared that I’ve had a hard time this year hitting a groove. Things have always felt just a bit off kilter. It wasn’t anything big, just a niggling in the back of my mind that I wasn’t performing as well as I’d like. I attribute this to a couple of things: Having a coworker battling cancer and my oldest daughter going off to college. This has definitely been the year of dealing with all sorts of feels.
The beautiful thing about teaching is that you get to hit the reset button each year. You can try new things with a new group. You can make changes so that your lessons engage the kids more and produce better results. you can go to conferences and learn new stuff. Generally, I see the summers as a way to reinvent myself and be a better teacher than I was the year before.
We have our state test in a couple of weeks, and maybe that will make things feel less stressful and more laid back. Probably not, but a girl can hope.
