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A Teaching Perk: Summer
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Mr. Kevin Bibo
Kevin Bibo teaches high school computer multimedia in Southern California. He holds a Master’s of Education degree and is currently a teacher credential program instructor. In addition, Kevin is the author of Cal Teacher Blog.
Most importantly Kevin loves spending time with his wife and five children.
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Summer is a wonderful time full of relaxing days strolling down sandy beaches, all-day-long hikes on serene mountain trials, and day after day swimming in the pool. Right? Well, for some. Sure, being a teacher includes a long summer break (8 weeks for me) where we can recharge our batteries and forget about teaching for awhile. A well-deserved break from the day-to-day nuttiness of education is something all teachers look forward too. But how long does your summer vacation really last? How much “vacation” do you really take?
Many teachers teach during summer vacation. Crazy, I know. Whether it’s teaching remedial courses during summer school, picking up an adjunct position at a local university, or mentoring at a specialized summer camp, many teachers CHOOSE to teach during their time away from teaching! Not because they didn’t teach enough during the school year, but mostly because they have so much more to teach that it doesn’t all fit into the 186 regular calendar days. Plus, it’s fun to teach outside of the regular teaching assignment. (Yes, I just wrote “fun” in relationship to work.)
Teaching is fun and it is work. Teachers are lucky this way. Not everyone that I know would use the words fun and work in relationship to their own jobs in the same sentence. But some teachers do. I do. You should. If you don’t have fun when you teach then maybe you should consider it sometime. And if you do enjoy the fun side of teaching then it makes sense to spend your fun summer time doing something fun. Even if it is what you already do all year long. What other job in the world is like that?
Other teachers I know, and this includes me, spend their summers preparing for the subsequent school year. I write my own curriculum; it’s just easier for me to teach that way. Every summer I spend time reviewing my notes and making changes to my lab manual. Over the years (8 exactly) I have created a polished work with many of the wrinkles smoothed out. Of course, there are new wrinkles and new issues to handle every year that I can’t get to while I am teaching, so the summer is an obvious and convenient time to review, reflect, and revise.
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This summer I am also spending time at the computer writing this series, A Teacher’s Transcript. Sixteen essays in all. I figured it would be easier to write them in my time off while my mind is clear and undistracted by the daily challenges presented by teaching. Plus writing like this is an excellent opportunity to purge my mind of all things teaching. I can completely clear out all of my thoughts and observations on the previous teaching year as a solid step towards preparing for the upcoming school year.
When I go back to work in August I will be teaching a full schedule of classes. At our campus we call it a six period day. (You may call it torture). It means that I will give up my conference period and teach a sixth class of students. So my preparation this summer break is especially important. It may sound like gluttony but it’s really closer to greed. Not that I am greedy mind you, but with five kids and my wife to support, I look for opportunities to get paid for teaching every way that I can. The six period day is also very good for my multimedia program. Being an elective teacher and living and dying by the number of students in my classes, six full periods means that I can keep on teaching my multimedia curriculum for awhile longer and keeps me out of teaching English (not that there’s anything wrong with that.) But some English teachers spend their summers catching up on grading essays, and that’s just not for me.
Why do teachers choose to work during their time off? Are we gluttons for punishment? No. We are teachers, and teachers teach, like writers write, or actors act. It doesn’t matter when, where, or how. Our natural instinct it to teach whoever whatever they need to learn. Much like doctors who take the Hippocratic Oath, true teachers are dedicated to their craft 24/7/365. So even though we are given all of the extra time to “take it easy,” most teachers I know either spend their non-teaching time teaching or preparing to teach. It’s who we are. Ain’t that cool?
