It’s the last week before winter break, and what a break it’s been! We started the week with 2 days of 2-hour delays due to the snow that fell. On Monday, we even had an early release. As I write this, it’s Tuesday afternoon, but I honestly had to check my calendar because I wasn’t completely sure!
I know that these final few days before break are going to be CRAZY. Sometimes student behaviors ramp up. The upcoming holidays can bring out stress in all of us (adults included). But before we know it, it’s going to be Friday afternoon, and the bus radio will go quiet. For some of us, we’ll be running out of the building, possibly almost as excited about the break as most of our students. Others may stick around to wrap up a few things after the school goes quiet. At some point though, we’ll all hit the point on Friday where school is done.
The reality is though, as teachers, often a break isn’t something we completely afford ourselves. Due to technology, most of us are never truly disconnected from school and our students. Some of us may religiously check out email first thing in the morning, while we’re eating lunch with our family, or right before bed. We want to make sure that we haven’t “missed something important”. And it’s hard for us to turn that off over a break. Others of us can’t stop thinking about our students. Many of us will have kids that we’re worried about for a multitude of reasons. Maybe it’s because you don’t know if they’ll get a hot meal every day of the break, or maybe you worry that they’re going to struggle because they won’t be in their normal routine.
If you’re anything like me, that will take up much of your thoughts over the first 3-5 days of break. Eventually you’ll get to the point that you can disconnect, but it takes time.
Then, when we creep into the second week of break, we’ll probably all start thinking about what we’re going to do with our students when they return after break. Some of us may spend a day or two in our classroom doing end of semester grading or beginning of the semester planning. We may use the time to come in and work on reorganizing something in our classroom that we’ve been putting off.
What I know and love about educators – we all have a hard time turning it off.
So, let me take a moment to make a suggestion: Take advantage of the break! During those first couple of days of break when you feel the desire to check in on your email, know that it can wait.
Here’s the way I’m planning to disconnect over break:
- No email until after Christmas day – if there’s an emergency, most people who need to get hold of me have my cell number
- Put my “school bag” away for the beginning of break – out of sight = out of mind. If I don’t see my bag with my school stuff in it, I won’t be as tempted to pull school stuff out.
- Limit my email usage after Christmas until at least New Year’s – I’ll peek at my email to get rid of junk messages from time to time, and if there is anything that appears to be really important. Other than that, it can still wait.
- After New Year’s, I’ll probably start ramping up a little with work stuff, but I’ll limit my work to times the rest of the family is in bed.
I want you to take the time to think a little about your plan to disconnect over break. What commitments are you making to yourself? Write them down, maybe share them with someone – a family member or colleague who can be an accountability partner. We all need a break in order to recharge. I believe that for each of us to be out best self as an educator, we have to take the time to take care of ourselves first. Use the break for that purpose!
If you’re looking for some additional ideas for how you might recharge over break, check out this short article from Todd Finley on Edutopia:
https://www.edutopia.org/article/use-winter-break-to-renew-spirits-sense-of-purpose-todd-finley
What other ideas do you have? Is there a tried and true recharge strategy that you’ve used in the past? Share with us in the comments below!
The View from 518 