As a teacher, spring break is a highly anticipated and much awaited time of year. I know most of us spend the time after New Year’s counting down the days and weeks until we have another break from the daily grind. For me, though, I always have thoughts of the things that I would like to get accomplished over my break. This year, however, I narrowed it down to four things and I’d like to share them with you. This plan will be my blueprint for future breaks to come.
- Plan Time to Rest. Teachers work HARD! I know we only work 10 months of the year and get many breaks, but the days that we are in the building we are on from bell-to-bell. There is rarely time to use the restroom or eat lunch, let alone time to just decompress from the stresses of the job. Add to that, many teachers take work home with them each day (not me, but that’s a topic for another day) you NEED to take to time to relax. If that means getting a good book from the library (my personal favorite), going to get your nails done, or hitting the beach, plan time to do it. Even if it is just for an hour, it’s worth it.
- Do Something Fun. Throughout the school year we don’t often have time to do as many fun things that we would like because when we get home we’re so tired and on weekends we have chores. So, plan time to do something fun that you wouldn’t ordinarily do. If you are able to go out-of-town, go, if not, find something in your city that you’ve never done. Whatever it is do something that’s fun to you so that when you get back to school and you’re working through that last few months of the year you can think back to spring break and remember that fun thing that you did.
- Catch Up on Household Duties. I know I just got finished telling you to rest and have fun, but one way to make sure you return to work with no regrets is to do your best to catch up on your chores. The last thing you want is to get back to work and think to yourself, “I wish I would have taken care of ____ chore”. That only invalidates the fun and rest that you did have, because then you feel like you wasted your break. So, when you head back to work make sure your basics are taken care of: laundry done (for the week anyway), bathrooms clean, groceries bought, and dishes washed. That way, when you get home from that first day back at work you can look around the house and be glad that you took care of those things.
- Prepare for Your Return. If you did not plan your lesson for the day you get back do it the night before! Do not wait until the morning before school starts to try to come up with a lesson. Your brain will be mush from all the relaxing and fun you have been having. If possible, plan to be in the library or the computer lab (my personal favorite) when you return. Low prep and low stress is the way to go. Something that is engaging to your students (they’ve been relaxing and having fun too), but also challenging will be best. If you need to use the copy machine, plan to get to work a little earlier than usual as undoubtedly some of your colleagues will have the same idea.
I hope this has been helpful to you. If you have other ideas or want to share how you spend your spring break I would love to hear it! Please share in the comment box.
Martina