Summer? What Summer?

"Teachers shouldn't make more money, they get a whole summer off!" "Teaching is one of the easiest professions, you get so many breaks!" Have you ever heard comments like this? I find myself chuckling and sometimes even laughing out loud when I listen to someone try to explain how easy teachers have it. Granted I am not pulling a brain out of someone's head and putting it back in, but I do have impact on what goes into the brain! To accomplish this important yet often underappreciated task, we teachers remain on the job from the time the sun comes up until the moment we finally get our brains to stop thinking at night. Let me give you a few examples:

~ The day after a teacher packs up her classroom, she is reorganizing her room with a brand new theme in her mind. Scouring websites, teacher stores, and blogs for inspiration all while filling up bulletin boards on Pinterest.

~ Tourists go to the beach for a vacation and unwind. The teacher in the group spends her time considering how to create a unit on erosion, collecting shells and sand dollars to give to her students, and thinking on how to integrate a beach unit into all subject areas.

~ Yard sales are opporunities for teachers to hunt down more books for the classroom library.

~  Manipulatives are made from kitchen supplies, cereal boxes into organizers, and pennies are pinched in order to create a learning environment for an entire group of unknown students.

Summer is not a time to rest, it is a time to plan for the new year! The few examples I have given do not even scratch the surface of a teacher's work during their "time-off." Yet, this summer has flown by so quickly for my family that I feel like I am playing catch-up all while preparing for next year. While closing up last year's curriculum, I am looking to make some changes for next year which I am sure I will be blogging about later. For now, I will rest in the fact that my endless efforts are going towards enriching the lives of my three greatest treasures.  What is some work you are doing this summer during your "vacation?"