During the summer, many students enjoy having a long pause from school. But what many students don’t realize is that teachers also enjoy this long break from school as well. The summer is a time of relaxation and tranquility and many teachers and students like to fill this time with activities and hobbies that they didn’t have time for during the school year.
Many teachers do different activities during the summer. Some teachers feel like the summer is the perfect time to do certain activities to prepare them for the upcoming school year.
“In the summer, I also do professional development so I’ll take different classes to help me prepare for the coming year,” said Laura Haskell, history teacher. “But that being said, I have all these great plans and oftentimes, I don’t get to them so I just kind of procrastinate a little bit on those great plans.”
While other teachers feel like summer is a time to relax. Some teachers find ways to balance relaxation and preparing for the next school year during this time.
“So my favorite thing to do is go to the beach or sit by a pool,” said Laurie Rominski, marketing teacher. “I love being outside and being in the sun. I like to swim for exercise and I just love getting time to read books.”
Similar to teachers, students also do many different activities during the summer.
“During the summer I like to go on family vacations and be with horses,” said junior Kaitlyn Davis.
Although teachers and students both explore different activities and hobbies during the summer, there are still stereotypes that are spread by students about what teachers do during the summer.
“I think that a common stereotype is that teachers work all summer,” Davis said.
Teachers and students may have different views on how they spend their summers but they have more things in common than they think. A common misconception of what teachers do during the summer is that they work all summer but in reality teachers do very similar activities to what students do during the summer. For example, students and teachers spend their summers enjoying the activities that they like while others, not just teachers, take the time to get ready for the next school year.
“But I think sometimes the misconception is just that the kids sometimes forget that we have a totally normal life going on outside of school that hopefully for most people,” Rominski said. “Teachers also have a lot of things that they love doing besides just teaching. Obviously, we’re in the career because we love kids. And that’s our focus, but there’s other things that we love to do, too.”
The summer is a time that is needed for teachers and students. Many students think that the people who enjoy the summer are students but teachers enjoy having summer break just as much as students do.
“So I know some people think, oh, we should have school all year round,” Haskell said. “But for me personally, I think that summer is important for both teachers and students to destress and just do some of those things that they don’t have time to do during the regular school year and then come back for the next school year ready to learn and teach.”
Despite the differences between the different activities that students and teachers do during the summer, the summer is used as a way to conquer stress or eliminate future stress for both students and teachers.
