Ten Ways to Relax, Revitalize and Rejuvenate Yourself This Summer:
Ideas for Teachers and Librarians
Cathy Belben, Librarian, Burlington-Edison High School
“It will not always be summer: build barns,” wrote the Greek poet, Hesiod, sometime around 700 B.C., proving that throughout history, humans have felt an undeniable urge to use the long, warm, free days of the season to accomplish tasks that can’t be done the rest of the year. Perhaps more than anyone, teachers and school librarians feel this pressure—to catch up with reading, to learn new skills, to cram in a little relaxation before the return to highly structured, bell-driven days. What are your plans for this summer? And how can they combine pleasure with practical accomplishments that can benefit you when school resumes?
Many of you probably stagger out on the last day of school, crumpling under a pile of books you plan to read, new units you hope to devise, and projects that you’re finally going to get to. Chances are the pile looks similar summer after summer. There’s no harm in planning to build your barn, as Hesiod suggests, but what about constructing a few outbuildings this year? The following list offers some suggestions for librarians and teachers—ways to revitalize personally and professionally—over the next 8-10 weeks.
Classes abound in most cities and towns. Look through the parks and recreation flyer in your community, call the local community college, or inquire with a craft store about learning a new skill that you can teach in your classroom or library. I took a simple book construction class one summer, and now it’s now a tradition to collaborate with the creative writing teacher and teach her students to make books for their poetry. We look forward to our annual one-week bookmaking frenzy when the library is transformed into a bindery. Other educators enjoy getting outside for the summer. Penni Cyr, librarian at Moscow High School in Moscow, Idaho, says the Project Wild workshops she took were extremely rewarding. “We crawled into bear dens, netted bats, observed baby eagles…and then wrote teaching units about everything we studied. I was able to bring the library into the lessons as well as push the idea of collaboration!”
We often intend to connect with others during the school year, but lack the time and energy. This year, before school’s out, make a list of the same-subject teachers or librarians in your area, and plan a time to meet for lunch. Exchange ideas and form some connections that you can continue to develop during the school year. Having other professionals who you know personally and can email or call for help or ideas when you get “stuck” during a busy work week can be a huge advantage.
Knowing the personnel at your local bookstore can be enormously rewarding. Through my connections—Sarah Parker at Scott’s Bookstore in Mount Vernon, Washington and Chuck and Dee Robinson at Village Books in Bellingham, Washington—I’ve been able to host young adult authors, request special information, get free advance reading copies, and have a cadre of other book professionals readily available to make recommendations and offer help. Stop by local booksellers in your area this summer and introduce yourself, strike up a conversation by asking what they suggest for summer reading, and then follow-up with a thank you note. You’ll be rewarded with a relationship that lasts for years.
“I spend a lot of my time during the summer reading books that I can recommend to my students,” says English teacher Anna Johnson. “This is one of the best parts of my summer.” If, like Johnson, your summer plans include catching up on the best new young adult literature, try scheduling a retreat—a solo camping trip or weekend at a spa—just to catch up and relax. Besides getting some work done (albeit highly enjoyable work), you’ll give yourself the gift of relaxation and solitude, too. “My mom and I did this once for a week in Italy,” said assistant librarian Blythe Bodman. “We each read a book a day. It was great.”
In his book Personal Village, Seattle author Marvin Thomas writes about the importance of consciously establishing connections with people in order to enrich our lives. “We scurry here and there with such speed that we do not take the time to stop and have a leisurely conversation,” he writes. “And when we do slow down we too often are seduced into plastering a phone to our ear or watching the television instead of simply talking in a contact-rich way with the people who are right in front of us.” Forming a “coterie” (as he refers to them) of people who slow down and share similar interests regularly can foster new relationships and bolster existing ones. Consider inviting a group of friends over for a craft night like the women featured in Wild With a Glue Gun by Kitty Harmon and Christine Stickler, or getting a gang together to go to and discuss a film each week. Again, free time in the summer offers the perfect opportunity to create and strengthen lasting bonds.
We hear about librarians and teachers who invite in guest speakers or host high-interest presentations, but we’re often mystified about how they find the time to locate them. Make a list of your acquaintances, think carefully about their skills, careers, and hobbies, and contact them about visiting your students to share their expertise. You can build a unit or a book promotion around their talents. This summer is a great time to make phone calls you’re too busy to make during the school year. Call your friend Todd the rock climber, your Ultimate Frisbee playing friend Joanna, or that neighbor who races bicycles. You’ll learn from them, and so will your students!
One summer isn’t enough time to learn organic chemistry or advanced quilting, but it can be an excellent opportunity to learn a new, simpler subject in more detail. Becoming an expert in a particular topic can make you indispensable, even if only to a few people. Rent and watch all of the Simpsons episodes or learn all you can about MP3 players or Eminem or the movies of Tim Burton. Watch every film featuring Ashton Kutcher or study Emmylou Harris’s songs. Once you set the goal, pursuing its attainment will become a game—and you’ll become a one-person of compendium of information about something arcane. One of my colleagues has read dozens of books about prison life; his fascination makes him the first person I call when I’m helping a student write a report on Alcatraz or Sing-Sing. He’d be my lifeline if the topic ever came up when I’m on Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Whose lifeline can you be?
Or a collection of feather boas or colored wigs or t-shirts with ridiculous slogans. Just as being an expert in some arcane subject will give you stuff to talk about at parties and make you indispensable to a certain population, becoming the staff member with the wacky hats or every episode of Seinfeld makes you the go-to person when someone’s in need. Start trolling for goodies during the summer garage sale season!
This could be the scariest of my suggestions, but it might be the one with the greatest pay-offs, as long as you don’t feel obligated to walk around with your underwear showing. If you take time to absorb the world of your students, you’ll learn a lot about how they think and what they like. Some ideas: read their magazines for clues about the trends that influence them and the pressures and problems they are facing. You’ll find out what makes them happy and what scares them, and you’ll be even more prepared to meet their needs and help them grow when fall arrives.
“Summer is a promissory note signed in June, its long days spent and gone before you know it,” wrote author and naturalist Hal Borland. How true—that the beginning of summer promises endless free days, and how often we reach the end of the summer and bemoan the speed with which the passed. Make it a goal, this summer, to make the most of your days. Plan for personal and professional growth and build a barn of a different color. You’ll be glad you did—you’ll return to school in the fall feeling accomplished and rejuvenated.