The Summer Permission Slip Teachers Actually Need...Whatever your summer looks like, it's enough

June is here, and somehow the pressure didn't leave with the students.

The guilt is real - no matter what you're doing

Some teachers spend the summer planning. Some spend it resting. Some are working a second job or teaching summer school. Some are doing all three before noon on a Tuesday.

And somehow, nearly all of us find a way to feel guilty about it.

The teacher who planned all summer wonders if she should have rested. The teacher who rested wonders if she should have planned. The one who worked wonders if she even had a choice. The guilt doesn't care what you actually did. It just shows up anyway.

What I did, and why it worked for me

Last summer, I planned. A lot. And honestly, I loved it. It was the right thing for where I was personally and professionally.

This summer, I made a decision before anything else could make it for me. I gave myself one week — a real week — to simply do what I wanted to do. Sleep as long as I wanted. Pick up a book with no agenda. Re-binge This Is Us because that show deserves at least two full watches. Have a long, beautiful luncheon with my fabulous and fashionable friend and colleague from my days at the James Oliver Johnson High School. Spend an hour and a half on the phone with the mentor of all mentors. Have slow, unhurried conversations with my husband about the yard, the neighborhood ducks, the incessant rain, and what benefits the elephant ears most.

And then, right in the middle of that intentional stillness, I found out that summer school had been canceled. More time. More space. More breathing room than I had originally planned for.

And instead of immediately filling it with productivity, I just let it be a gift.

Here's your permission slip

Rest if you need it. Plan if it energizes you. Work if that's your reality or your preference. Do a combination of all of it.

But also, give yourself permission to just be a person for a little while.

Binge that Netflix series you have been putting off since September. Get lost in a book for hours with nowhere to be. Add an extra twenty minutes to your morning walk or your yoga practice just because you can. Spend thirty minutes on a skincare routine that makes you feel good. Sit still long enough to actually hear yourself think. Do the things that have nothing to do with lesson plans, rubrics, or standards, and do them without an ounce of guilt.

You spend the entire school year pouring into other people. The summer is one of the few times you can pour back into yourself. Take it seriously.

Just stop apologizing for whichever one it is.

The job is hard enough during the school year. The summer is yours. Use it in whatever way allows you to walk back through that door in August as the teacher your students need.

💜💚 Teaching: The Real — Real texts. Real topics. Real thinking.