According to my CPAP I slept for 8.1 hours last night.
8.1 HOURS …
… and I feel AWESOME!
As I finish my first full week of Summer Break I have not been very successful of becoming a professional couch surfer, but I am doing things that give me a sense of personal satisfaction. Too often, as Educators, we struggle with releasing the teaching stress that has filled our lives for the previous ten months. So much so that we participate in chats to talk about how we will learn over the Summer. People posting pictures of stacks of books they will be reading and how they will be jet setting across the country attending conferences, and weekends at EdCamps. I am all for learning, but I also think we need to be able to take a step back and
Rest, Recharge, and Reflect.
Rest.
For many educators the alarm clock sounds hours before the Sun rises and we lay our head on the pillow while the late show creates our background noise. There is nothing wrong with resting over the Summer. This time of year may be the only time we do not carry the teaching stress around with us. We can go to sleep without waking up in a panic about some school related issue. Embrace the opportunity to wake up without the assistance of an alarm..
Recharge.
Find your place of solace and just be. Sit in your comfy chair with a new book and just get lost in the adventure. Sit on your porch with some music playing and just watch the day go by. Go to the beach, mountains, or some other place of beauty and just soak up the positive energy that is provided by nature. The best thing you can do is get back to good. Too often during the school we do not even realize how drained we are and if we don’t take the opportunity to recenter ourselves we begin the next school year at a deficit and over time this only hurts us.
Reflect.
As your head clears from the noise of lesson plans, meetings, data collection, evaluations, grades, and school related work you will gain a sense of clarity and through this clarity you can begin reflecting. I know many people like to reflect immediately after the year, but I like to reflect after my head clears and I get an emotional disconnection from the year. Amazing how the ideas that flow with a clear head are actually inspirational and not reactionary. My thoughts are not about how to correct a deficiency (reactionary), but rather an idea to take learning in a new direction (inspirational).
What are your thoughts?
How are you spending your break from school?
MSTRDILL 