Tuesday, June 16, 2009

All in Due Time

Are you glad that school's almost over?

I dread that question, because the answer is, quite honestly, no. Am I looking forward to a break? Sure. This is an especially long summer, too, because Labor day was early last year, and it's late this year. But I hate the transition and work that comes with the end of the year. I hate saying good-bye to my students and the colleagues that are moving on, hate taking all the things off my walls, hate packing up my room, hate the sudden change of pace from GO GO GO to the unstructured days of summer vacation.

I don't hate getting to sleep past 5:30, though, and I won't miss being tired anytime I stay up after 10. And I like being able to travel and do errands in the middle of the day in the middle of the week when there are fewer people on the road. I like going to the movies on Wednesday when there is free popcorn and matinee pricing. That's fun, especially if the weather is too hot or too rainy to do much else.

I like having the time to read books for pleasure and books about teaching, too, but it's hard for me to make the abstract concrete when I don't have any real students to apply it to. (Is that just me?) I'm really looking forward to more time to write, and I hope to continue with my writing group's novel challenge again this summer. I have a couple of professional development projects that I've been asked to work on, too, so I'll be a little busy thinking about and researching those.

I understand that it's not very sympathetic to whine about a 10 week vacation, but all I'm saying is, that if you asked me today if I'm looking forward to the school year ending tomorrow (for the kids, Friday for us) I'd have to say, "No," but if you ask me next week, when I'm at the beach with my whole family, if I'm enjoying my summer, you'll get a different answer.

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