What Teachers Do During the Summer

The summer holidays are either here or about to come for many students in the United States. That happy time of vacation and joy for many children around the country. The utter dismay for parents, when they realize that they cannot unload their children on the school for about eight hours. It is a magical time of year, one that is far less in past years, as summer vacation continues to shrink with each passing year.

What about the teachers? What is their summer like?

I'm sure many of us are not alone with the fact that it was hard for us to really imagine our teachers with any kind of life other than being teachers. I know when I was a youngster, it was hard to reconcile the fact that my teacher could have existed outside of the school walls. The fact that they had families, friends, even children of their own. Many us thought that teachers were just powered down and put into storage for the summer. It might seem absurd right now to think such a thing.

Yet, in reality, teachers are not too much different from the students. I'm sure they are embracing summer vacation like the rest of us.

Just put yourself in the shoes of a teacher, even if you love your job, dealing with children nine and a half months out of the year, five days a week, can really be something that can wear you down. Dealing with a child can be problematic. Throw many children around, with all of the drama, all of the bickering, and just every point that goes along with the chaos in the classroom.

That is just the problem with the lower levels of education. High school is even worse and college, well just because the students are adult, doesn't mean that they are one hundred percent mature.

Teachers look forward to their summer vacation, perhaps in a slightly different way. It is a break from all of the insanity. Of course, when summer vacation nears its end, they have to worry about what they are going to do when school starts again. They worry about what the new crop of students will be like, administration meddling, government meddling, and if they can adequately teach children due to the budget that the school has been dealt with.

Not to mention that there are teachers who question what they are doing to begin with. Teachers come in all forms. The type who actually are trying to make the difference in the youth of today. And then there are those teachers who are just out for a paycheck.

The moment that they find another job, they are gone. So those teachers spend their minutes of summer, wondering if this is the year where they can leave it all behind. Yet, even the most qualified teachers find themselves strained and pushed to the limit.

Students dread going back to the old grind after the summers but teachers do in a way as well. They just have to maintain an attitude of professionalism and just get right back on ahead of their students. They cannot just stumble and bumble around like students do in the first few weeks. Teachers are the ones that have to right the ship.

Teachers will sit back and enjoy the moment of being on break from the insanity of school for a moment. Much like students, as the weeks pass, they will realize that summer vacation does not last forever. So they scramble to get ready, to psyche themselves up for school.

It is amazing how much alike students and teachers are. The concerns will be different, but the attitude can have some similarities with summer vacation and the inevitable returning for another year.