The Transition...

I have now been in education for 10 years. I feel like I live the movie Groundhog Day over and over each June for all 10 of those years. The transition is horrible.

Let me explain....

For 10 months, the educator works 40-60 hours per week lesson planning, grading, teaching, serving in lunch duty and recess, and so much more. This does not even begin to capture the emotional hours educators put in from Sept-June. You know what I mean... the issues that wake you up at 3am and continue with no clear-cut solutions. 

Now it is mid-June and life as you know it has come to a screeching halt. All of a sudden, you are on summer vacation. There is a to-do list a mile long. After all, the house hasn't been cleaned sufficiently in 10 months, moldy food is in the fridge, a ton of household projects have been waiting for summer to arrive, and the kids are home and bored so put on my entertainer hat. In addition, at the end of each unit I teach, I add it to my summer to-do list to refine it. Throughout administration meetings, I keep a list of "future admin projects" and plan on fleshing out details while on summer break.

However, instead of accomplishing anything, I find myself sitting on the couch doing a bunch of nothing.

If I was content on the couch that would be one thing. However, I feel guilty for not doing something! After all, I've been doing "something" constantly for 10 months. So for the first 1-2 weeks of summer break for the past 10 years, I feel like I'm in a period of melancholy as I adjust. It has taken me 10 years to put into words how I feel each June. I doubt I'm alone. If you are in my boat, take heart is knowing there are other educators who feel the same. There is hope too. The melancholy days end and the to-do list begins to be accomplished. I never get everything checked off the list, but I make a huge dent... eventually, once July hits. 


"All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another." ~Anatole France