Summer's quick conclusion - rules for a school teacher's summer.

As summer progresses to its bitter conclusion, I usually start to think about wasting time, or confusing that with quality down time. I start to think about all the things I haven't done in the summer, things I used to prioritize when I first started teaching 17 years ago, that included entire self improvement plans. I would envision summer as an infinite amount of time just waiting for this self motivated person to become the vegetarian, yoga practicing, thin, poetically inclined, gallery obsessed, hiker who listened to books on tape (now replaced by endless podcasts) while driving across the Western US to the majestic and mystical sun rises that should fill summers, making them the most memorable parts of my life.

Most of that has not panned out, but I do have a couple of simple rules for summer, that lead me every year to what I consider successful summers. Since Janine is not a teacher, neither are my best friends or close family, most of this list is geared towards individual goals or activities, that include Janine, friends or family when they have the time off.

First, let me say that I live in the heart of the beautiful city of San Francisco. With nothing else to do, taking a half hour walk can take me to some very incredible places practically around the corner, since I live in the geographic center of the City. I can also walk to over 20 cafes in 15 minutes, matched by many more bars and restaurants, and at least a dozen venues to hear live music. I must qualify this, since I have lived here for over twenty years, leading to the habit of avoiding certain streets and blocks sheerly out of habit. Last year, I decided to find the best macchiato in the vicinity, taking me to over 23 cafes in 21 days, finding several excellent cafes nearby. This was a relatively inexpensive effort, in contrast to searching for a specific dish at the thousands of restaurants in this city. It was also good exercise, as well as launching this blog, which my other three readers thoroughly enjoy to this date.

So, rule one - take a walk somewhere new everyday, rain or shine, hot or cold.

Second, document your experiences. As an avid journal writer and photographer, I write about my new routes, the cafes I have searched out and have photographed the architecture, urban fawna, and setup shots to add to my FB photo collection.

Another rule, involves breaking the link between work and the beginning of summer. I have found that when I have lingered at home at the beginning of summer, I can't seem to get work out of my mind. Over the years, I have developed a system of reflecting on my successes and failures in the classroom, setting goals for the following year. This has always ensured that I do not teach the same year twice, always switching up and trying new things, in the hopes that both students and I find some new magic each year.

Three rules here: 2. Start the year end review at the beginning of May. I survey the students on successes and failures, then start to outline what I will do different the following year. 3. Get on a plane!!! This is my favorite rule. Go visit my dad in Boston, my mom in LA, my son in Seattle. The sooner the better. Getting on a plane and staying somewhere fora at least a week helps to break the cord between work and summer. The power of a disassociative situation requires the brain to turn on the radar to all of the new sensory details that are constantly being observed every day of a trip at the other end of a flight.

4. Save money for summer. If you could save your tax return, or stash away ten percent of your income for your summer vacation, then you will live life without worrying where your next dollar is coming from. I know that some people still get paid vacations, but with the demise of the social safety net in this country, most corporations have followed suit, eliminating the paid vacation, or at least scaling it back considerably.

This blog, as well as social sites like Facebook were born out of the need to let other people know that you have a life. There is nothing like sharing your life with your friends and family, because in turn, they will also share their exciting vacations with you via these networks. But more importantly, after two weeks, two months or even two years, documenting your vacations helps to take you back to that place that you were at mentally just by flipping throu some old pictures from time to time. I almost can feel my feet lift as I walk up a hill in Istanbul right now, on my way to the Hagia Sophia as I look at the pictures from my most recent vacation.

If you can, take a vacation or share your entire summer with your loved ones. As I clarified at the beginning of this entry, I take most of my summer by myself. My wife usually can get two weeks of paid vacation, and we have typically attended a music camp in the low Sierras for the past nine years. The trip to Turkey was the first vacation we took just by ourselves, no family, not even able to speak Turkish, and except for sharing an apartment with two camp friends, and a few visits with friends that have relocated in Istanbul, we were the only two people that we could have a meaningful conversation with beyond the first few sentences for an entire three weeks. We had an amazing time together.

The next most important feature of a productive summer is to leave time to do absolutely nothing for about two solid weeks. Out of my eight solid weeks of vacation time, I have found through the luxury of experimentation, that it takes a complete and sustained two solid weeks for a person's body and mind to relax, calm down, and just tune down to normal. I am sure that when I retire, whenever that may be a financial reality, I will have to avoid taking more than two weeks of downtime in any sustained fashion, because it can be a bit mind-numbing. Losing track of days, not having a list of to-dos goes a long way, to making me feel like I am going senile, but there is nothing like wondering what my priorities are on any given day when going to coffee is the only thing I can think of.

After about two weeks, and this has happened every summer that I can remember, I start to get a little bored of doing nothing. Thus, the summer project was born. Rules: 5. Plan a time frame for two weeks of nothingness, of endless abandon, when it doesn't matter if you shave, do anything, and hopefully lose track of time. 6. In May, make a list, with my wife, of summer chores that need to get done. File this somewhere on your computer with a timer set at the end of the projected two week down time period. Look at the list at the end of the two weeks and decide when you plan to accomplish these goals in the subsequent weeks. Plan on getting some of these items done, and it is amazing how the productivity gene kicks in and helps move me back into the Back To School mode that returns at the beginning of August. Lastly, I usually like to stay at home the last week before I have to report to staff meetings and teacher trainings. This allows me to savor the last little bit of SIMM that remains. Of course, I will savor summer as much as possible the weekend before school starts, and knowingly, will not be productive on the first couple weekends once school is in session.