One of the reasons I decided to become a teacher was to have my summers off. However, in my 7 years of teaching I have taught summer school most of those years. I have not taught the last 2 summers though which has been wonderful. I could definitely benefit from the extra money but I opted for keeping my sanity instead. Because of that decision many people, mainly fellow teachers, have asked me, "What on earth are you going to do with all your time if you're not working?" I respond with, "Anything I want!" which for me, really is the whole beauty part of being a teacher and having summers off. For many teachers, teaching is their life but for me it is my job and I have other interests and activities I enjoy and that fill my time. I want to make it clear that I LOVE the children I work with but I'll be honest, if I won a million bucks I would quit teaching in a heartbeat!
Anyway having summers off allows me more time to travel (finances permitting), spend time with family and friends, scrapbook, enjoy nature, finally get to my "books I want to read" list, exercise (yes, I know I should do this year round and no, I haven't done so well this summer), take classes and just in general have fun and do things I don't get much of a chance to do during the school year.
This summer in my ongoing quest for a lane change*, I have taken several classes to earn credit towards that goal. I took a beginning and intermediate guitar class which I absolutely loved. It was taught by Michael Christianson from Utah State University (Go Aggies!). I took a guitar class from him about 20 years ago when I was at USU. He's an incredible guitarist and it didn't even bother me when he'd name drop and say things like, "When I played with the Eagles..." or "Eric Clapton once told me..." (wait a minute, am I name dropping???) Anyway, I can play a mean version of "She'll be Coming Around the Mountain" and I will hopefully continue practicing and be able to add to my repertoire.
I also took a photo editing class and a math & technology class. Since I am not very computer savvy I learned a lot of new stuff. Towards the end of each class my brain started to shutdown from information overload but at least I now know some basics and will be more willing to play around with the different programs and learn even more.
In the photo editing class we were given a "blemish" assignment. We went to an acne medication website, found before and after pictures and we edited the before pictures (with zits) to look as good as the after pictures (w/o zits). After completing this assignment I really don't believe any of those before/after pictures or for that matter, any of the supermodel pictures in all their airbrushed glory. I never trusted them before but now I really don't! If computer unsavvy ME can make a before picture blemish free then I can't trust anything the professionals do.
The math/tech class was great not only for the vast knowledge I gained but because they gave us all free digital cameras. I only paid a $15 registration fee for the class so I'd say that's a pretty sweet deal.
Oh, sweet summer! You're coming to an end far too quickly.
*lane change - after earning a certain number of credits a teacher can move up lanes and each lane represents a pay raise. Yeah!
4 comments:
That was fun to read. You write about some of the things you have done during the summer which will be great in your blogbook that you will be making some day. You have a fun way of writing also that makes it enjoyable to read. Keep up the good work!
How many more classes do you have to taken until you get a lane change? I wish that I was a teacher too to enjoy all of those fun things with you!
First off, I miss having you here! I'm looking forward to coming up in a couple of weeks, but there's just one problem, I have to wait a couple of weeks! I'm trying to keep busy until then though. I'm glad you had fun with your photo editing class. If you look at the wedding photos I put on my blog for our anniversary you will see that they are blemish-free. I did that in Photoshop, it's great!
What fun to take all of these different classes! I am glad that you are finding some fun things to do this summer. You really deserve some time to yourself, you work so hard!
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