What Do Teachers Do in the Summer?

Based on the memes I have seen over the past few months, most people seem to think that teachers spend their summers drinking wine like water

and watching Netflix in their pajamas all day. What do I love about summer? Sleeping in past 5:30, working out when I want to, peeing when I want to, not needing a nap, staying up past 10, and catching up with friends. I am not going to lie; it's been great! However, I have spent several hours each day reading books about teaching writing, working on my website and blog, reading countless educational articles on Twitter, lesson planning for a new class I am teaching, and learning new ways to incorporate technology in my classroom in meaningful ways.

I use my summer to reflect on the past year and to set new goals for the upcoming year. Here are my goals so far:

1) To make my classroom one that kids love to walk into. To connect with my students and get them fired up about learning.

2) To spend more time giving feedback WHILE students are working on an assignment rather than after they finish.

3) To make my classroom much more student centered. To include more personalized and project based learning. To make assignments more meaningful and relevant to students.

4) To use Screencastify as a way to share information with me and for them to present information. I just learned how to do this today!

I usually only set one big goal, but I am aiming high this year!

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