Hi, teacher readers! Please share this with anyone you think might benefit. Almost all of you are off now. I have friends doing a last week here or there, but mostly the grades are done and the classroom cleaned. If you are lucky, you managed to leave most your items waiting for you in August. My condolences to those who had to move classrooms, those who have been relocated or those who do not know where they will be teaching next year.

If you are in a Title 1 school and have been riffed, I’d like to reassure you that I was riffed five times and always got recalled. Still, you have the best of all reasons to get out and look for another, better position. Principals know that great teachers get riffed simply because they have too few years in the system. They like to rescue the riffed sometimes, too.

Summer is here! Maybe we technically have a few days to wait, but the pools are open and the iced tea and lemonade are everywhere. No more homework to grade unless you opted into summer school. No more behavior to manage. Relatively few or no meetings to attend. If you decided to help the Curriculum Committee or some other summer group, kudos to you for your concern and dedication. I did a few curriculum summers.

What now?

Now I strongly suggest you take time off. If you have to plan a curriculum or teach English, fine. But you need to recharge too. May I suggest treating yourself? Let the house go. This is your chance! Go swimming. Pick up the books your favorite authors slipped by you. Find or buy the television you missed. Catch up on Colony or Game of Thrones. Go for a walk in a state park. Enjoy a museum without having to count heads and keep children off exhibits. Make hot chocolate with sprinkles. Create the perfect Arnold Palmer. Do a jigsaw puzzle. Write a haiku. Write a book. Take a ceramics class. Hug people you love.

And put all the pressure down. The grades are in, the papers home or in the trash. You may still be running, because running becomes a habit. Working all day and night can become a habit. Teachers! If your habits have you cleaning the basement, please put the Windex back in the bucket. Take the kids or just yourself to Dairy Queen instead.

Embrace the summer.

“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present.” ~ Bil Keane