Summer Goal #1 is a Clear Head

A final project for Spanish class! Muy creativo!

All clean!

School officially ended yesterday for students.  Today was our in-service work day. In one month, I leave for Mexico. My house is a wreck. The pantry is already empty and the exclamations of "There's nothing to do!" have already started.

Some teacher appreciation treats!

I have to admit that I really don't feel the same excitement and happiness so many other teachers experience when summer vacation begins.  Instead, I'm filled with a range of emotions that go from sadness to fear to happiness to anxiety to exhaustion and back again. Transition times are often more stressful than we anticipate.  There are loose ends to wrap up and new beginnings to consider.  There is the purging of things and the organization of things.  Then you have all the planning for summer activities, camps and travel mixed with the lingering grade report or email that just has to be answered. Truly, the mental acrobatics of a teacher mom never slow down.  This transition is hard for me. That's not to say that I don't cherish the opportunity to have these transitions in my life.  Most people who work in fields other than education never get the opportunity to experience this pivotal change every year when one job ends and a new one begins.  For me, it's a very emotional experience that is hard to describe in words. I'm in between worlds right now. Once the dust settles on the 2014-15 school year and I get my first opportunity to spend an entire week sleeping later than 4:45am, I'm hoping to have a clear head. For me, this means a mind that can process thoughts without interruption from emails, students, administrators, schedule changes, fire drills and other unplanned events.  I ache for a clear mind that can float from topic to topic because there are no time constraints for days at a time.  A clear mind.  That's goal #1 on my summer bucket list.

The End is Near

One way a middle school teacher can tell that the school year is coming to an end is that the best, most well-behaved students start doing things that wouldn't even have been within the realm of possibility earlier in the school year.  Take, for example, the boy who cut another boy's hair when given scissors to cut out pictures for a poster yesterday.  Having to tell girls not to glue their hair to their cheeks was another example.  It's time for a break, for all of us!  Which brings me to the purpose of this post.  It's only 39 days until I leave for my trip to Mexico.  It is coming so quickly and I feel so unprepared.  When school gets out next week, I will shift into preparation mode...big time!  The next few days will be spent wrapping up the school year with food fiestas, country projects, tearful goodbyes, locker clean-outs and lots of hugs.  After that, I'm on my own voyage toward self-discovery and renewal!