At some point in a teacher’s summer, one’s thoughts turn to the coming school year. Instead of hitting the snooze button 47 times in a row, you hit it 32 times one day, then 18 times soon after, until you’re finally down to just twice. You find yourself glancing longingly at your local teacher store when you’re on your way to the community pool. When you see the “School Bus Stop Ahead” sign when you’re driving to the beach, you wonder if you’ll see students standing there.
Just this past weekend, I took a small army of young boys to the movies. Before the previews began, we watched several variations on a back-to-school commercial for a nationwide red bull’s-eye retailer. While the kids cringed, I was awash in nostalgia for my days as a classroom teacher and dreamed briefly of what I’d do differently if I was heading into school again.
Lately, we’ve been getting rain here in North Carolina’s Piedmont. If I were still a teacher, I’d have happily spent these rainy afternoons with my August/September issue of The Mailbox magazine and online with my Companion extras. Knowing about the lotto card maker, spelling list tool, whiteboard activities, and access to thousands of The Mailbox ideas and resources, I’d surely be a MyMAILBOX Idea Center Gold member too.
So I am curious. What is your summertime tipping point? Surely there must be some kind of cue or clue that starts you thinking about returning to your classroom. And, for you year-round teachers, how do you take advantage of the short time you have to put the wraps on one school year before starting the next? Tell us!
As a homeschool parent, I just hit my tipping point with the snooze button. Still late nights, but no more late mornings!
I also homeschool. My tipping point comes when I receive my CPI papers in the mail. I start thinking about when we’ll start, what curriculum we’ll use, how will I keep the kids, and myself, motivated this year…