Thursday, July 22, 2010

Summers Off?

As teachers, we are often told that all of our problems are not that big of a deal because we get "summers off". I've not had a "summer off" from education since I started teaching. I taught summer school for a few years, taken summer classes for a Masters Degree, worked camps, attended conferences and spent countless hours reading and writing blogs for personal professional development. I might get away fro a week or so, but the majority of my summer is working on making myself a better teacher and planning for the next school year. I also love every second of it. If I didn't, I wouldn't be a teacher.
I wanted to get one last post out there before I head off the grid (well as off the grid as I get) for the next week. I'm heading out to a local college to be a camp counselor at the Michigan Association of Student Councils/Michigan Association (MASC/MAHS) of Honor Societies Summer Leadership Camp. I get to spend a week working with high school students who want to improve their leadership skills so they can make their school a better place. There is nothing better than seeing students passionate about learning and making a difference. I'm going to spend a week teaching leadership skills, team building, singing camp songs and making new friends. Student Government can be stressful, but this camp makes everything worth it.

Anyway, I have some pretty exciting things in the cooker that I can't wait to tell everyone about once I get back from camp. Please take care of Blogosphere and Twitterverse while I'm out. :-)

- The Nerdy Teacher





5 comments:

  1. Great post! By doing what you do you are showing your students what a life long learner looks like.

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  2. I keep waiting for a summer off and have yet to accomplish one yet! The ones who have the best end of this deal? Students! Now they truly get summers off :) Enjoy your time at camp and off the grid.

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  3. I agree. I intend to take the month of July completely off every year, but I always have a project of two that I want to accomplish before school starts. All of my projects are intended to help my students accomplish their goals, blogs, resources, new engaging lessons, or just becoming an improved version of me. I don't think that they ever use these resources but I do know that I have made the effort and I think that these tasks make me a better educator. So hurray for all of the committed teachers out there.

    Keep up the good work. You are the teacher that I want for my own kids.

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  4. You are a real lifelong learner and dedicated to helping students become the best they can. If they grow up to be anything like you, then the world will be a terrific place.

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  5. Interesting comments. I just wanted to say that I liked this blog, and wanted to say that "lifelong learner" is a somewhat problematic phrase for me.

    I think we need more correlation between learning and doing. I think that this must be one of the reasons why teachers struggle with this false notion that teaching is not work, or that teaching is something you do when you don't do anything else.

    How could we work to make doing a more rigorous part of our learning and teaching?

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