Summer for Teachers

This is a photo of  a beautiful vine in my garden. I planted this last summer to replace a climbing rose that didn't do as well as I had hoped . In artwork, in gardening, in teaching, and in life sometimes things don't quite work out and you have to change plans :)

Summer is such a unique time for teachers. We idealistically have "time off", but realistically, it never feels like it! First of all, it's not like teachers have mucho bucks to do anything big... and I usually have classes to take, and I always have reading to do, plans to make, supplies to figure out, blah blah blah. I think about school all the time. I'm constantly thinking about how to improve my teaching, I can't turn it off just because it's summer. I have already started the teacher dreams- teachers, you know what I mean, where you dream that either your room is chaos or you don't know where anything is, or you are in the middle of some sort of ridiculous, anxiety ridden situation!
This summer I was hoping to have time to paint, draw, create, and improve my skills. I was hoping for lots of time in the garden. I was also hoping to organize things at home, and paint a room or two. I was hoping to finish making slipcovers... all the things I have no time for during the school year. I was mostly hoping for precious family time.
Well, luckily I have been on "vacation" because we have had lots of hospital and dr. visits for our parents. and even luckier, they all seem to be on the upswing now- but we have many more dr. visits ahead.
Plans rarely go as planned :) That's one of the things that make life so interesting, you never really know what's going to happen next. The classroom is like that too. You can plan, but you never really know what's going to happen. That challenge is part of what's fun about life, and about teaching. What are you going to do when things don't go as planned? How are you going to make the best of it? How are you going to use the situation and turn it around to have things go even better than you could have possibly planned?
Anyway, for any of you who do not know a teacher, and are thinking that we all spend our summers on the beach drinking slurpies- all I can say is... I WISH! ...maybe I will have a relaxing summer next year!