Must be nice to have 3 months off...

School is out...

Time to sleep in, relax, and forget about everything school related...

After all, 3 months off during the summer is the only reason why we, teachers, do what we do... "Must be nice to have the summers off."...Right?

Last Thursday, was my last day of school.
My books are packed, and my classroom is "boxed up" and ready to be cleaned; my computers are unplugged, ready to be re-imaged. No more lesson plans, no more "counseling" students, no more schedules...
But if you think for one moment that my mind is off of school matters, that I'll be spending the next 10 weeks in a   "no school talk" mode, then I say you are out of your mind.

Unless you are an educator (or live with one), you have no idea/concept of what summers look like. Most of us use this time to catch up, on all the things that we would love to do during the school year but are unable to due to time constraints, and other restrictions.
Summer is a time of reflection, continuing education, and action...

This year, I was able to jump right into that phase, and I am so thankful for the opportunity... My husband had to be in the Chicago area at 7 am on the Tuesday following Memorial Day... (Side note: Gotta love Corporate America), and he suggested I ride up with him... I could relax, read, enjoy the hot tub at the hotel etc... Pretty enticing if you ask me... But the real excitement for me, was the fact that a plan was already forming in my head... My "Twitter friend" Jon Orech's school is located in the Chicago area... What if I could tie the trip with a visit to his school?  This could be fun... I never have time during the school year to go observe other schools... Plus this one is a different state.. different standards... different requirements... This could be eye opening and give me ideas.

DM Jon, schedule Skype call.. Done, planned and organized.. Wednesday June 1st, I would be visiting his school and talking to his teachers... And "eye opening" it was....

I'm not even sure how to verbalize how exciting, invigorating, and inspirational this visit was... Here I am, only 3 days out of school, and unable to stop babbling about what I saw, what I'd like to apply to my school, and how I'm going to get it done..

Best way for me to share with you, is to make a list (yes I am a list maker) of random reflections and comments:

• They have more than 3200 students in the school... we have 2100 total in my whole district...
• They have 240 Teachers... That's half of the entire student population at my school...
• They don't have a "bring your tractor to school day" during FFA week... we do...
• They don't have to worry about reminding students not to bring guns or bows and arrows on school property (cars in parking lot) during hunting season... we do...OK, yes I am pushing a little (not really, we do have tractor days, and have made the shotgun announcements)... but you get the point.
• I was expecting Smartboards and projectors in every room, you know how rich those suburbans districts are... What I found was... technology was present and integrated in every class, but we seem to have a higher ratio of "equipment" per classroom. The difference seemed to be in the "planning" of the equipment distribution and integration.
• What surprised me the most about Jon's school, is how casual, and relaxed the whole atmosphere was for such a large school ... Even though it was the last official day of school before finals... I got to observe master teachers leading students in revision activities. 240 teachers, and Jon seemed to know every single one of them.
• My favorite part of the school day, was to be able to observe the library... What a buzzing place it was... Most definitely the heart of that school... The library staff was pretty amazing... checking books out, helping locate books, helping students in several of the "computer labs.".. They even took the time to discuss with me which e-readers they bought for the school, and all the procedures for students to get them...

But my favorite thing about the Downers Grove South Library, was the teachers Summer book check out... When my school, makes sure that all books are turned in, and on lock down for the summer, theirs allows every teacher in the building to check out as many books as they would like to read over the summer. Almost every teacher in the building came down to the library, and walked out of there with between 5 and 10 books.. Anything from catching up with what their students were reading, to books recommended by their librarians, to professional development books... I had never heard of that... I know my school doesn't do it, but I had not even heard or thought of other schools doing it... What a simple and genius idea... Why not use those fantastic resources? Why not make sure that every teacher was given the resources to keep improving themselves? Isn't that a form of professional development? I think so.

So to get back to the point of this blog post... "Must be nice to have 3 months off?"...
Well YES IT IS... because it provides us with the time to do these extra things... Read, collaborate, exchange ideas, plan and organize the next year and even visit and observe "out of State schools"...

And for all you skeptics out there... If you think I'm an exception..., if you think there are not plenty of other educators out there who are doing the same thing... Let me just suggest you take a trip in "Twitter-land", and see what's buzzing... Educators all over the world, are not disconnecting during the summer... they are RECHARGING...

And that my friends, is one of the keys to a successful, happy experience in the world of education...

It's my opinion and I'm sticking by it...LOL