I bet you think teachers just go to the beach in the summer...

Okay, I admit, I do spend a lot of time at the beach in the summer. And I do travel a lot.

But, seriously... if you are not a teacher, I bet you think we just relax during break....

If there are teachers out there that do this, I would love to know, because I have found it not possible. In fact, I thought that I had found a happy balance by forcing myself not to work on anything for a few weeks, but all I have done is put myself behind and give added stress. There is so much I need to get done. Do any other teachers feel like the first month of school should be teachers paid only, but no students? Do you know how much I could get done with a month of paid planning time? Particularly paid planning time with the other teachers actually there? I would love to have a day to meet with the English department, a day to meet with just the 10th grade history teacher, a day to meet with all the 10th grade teachers... but alas, that would never work.

I have my unit plan for August mostly done, just not plotted on a calendar. It will be the same for my honors and regular class, so that is good. My unit plans for September are semi in my head, but not totally on paper, and the honors and regular are completely different. Now, normally, this semi-formation in my head would work for now, but I could go into labor any time during that unit, and I definitely will not be the one finishing it, so I really need to get it written out in great detail to ensure that what I want to happen actually happens with the sub. Then October has again two very different unit plans for honors and regular, neither of which I have completely written. The good news is, I did almost all of this last year or the year before, although somewhat different, so I am not starting from scratch, but it is still a lot of work... that isn't done yet, and should get done for the sub. I will come back some time in November, but I don't think I am going to completely write that unit in advance. I will probably write the culminating assessment for it and then see how it is going with the sub and the other teacher who is teaching 10th grade this year. Why do more work than I have to?

Speaking of sub... I now have a phone number for someone who I think will be great, but I do need to actually call him and work out details.

Now, before I start on writing any of those units, I need to finish up scoring work from an assignment I was given in June that I am disgustingly late on. Time sort of ran away from me....

And there is still so much left to do for the baby's room. Bleh. I am moving into teacher nesting mode, but I am not at all ready to be finished with mommy nesting mode.