Why Not Take a Vacation in Your Classroom?

Your teacher friends have joyfully shared photos and memories of their summer breaks on Facebook and Instagram. They may have gone to exotic places or simply set up a tent in their backyard for a weekend of family fun. You will notice, when you look at the pictures from their vacations or yours, that their vacation posts are filled with smiles, happiness, and comradery.

As teachers return to their classrooms and the politics of their schools, the Facebook postings take a dramatic shift. Teachers post about preparing their classrooms and the vacation postings end. The smiles and happiness are often replaced by stress and anxiety.

What if you could take a vacation in your classroom all year? What if you took the things that make vacations so special and implemented them into your classroom? What can you do to capture the happiness of vacation and live it daily in your classroom?

Novelty:

One of the key components of any vacation is the novelty of it all. It represents a break from routine. Days flow together because the adherence to a mundane schedule is set aside for the sake of something new.

What ways can you bring novelty into your own classroom? How can you make your classroom unique? The tent you set up in your backyard could function as a reading corner in your classroom with flashlights helping students track their reading. The walking tour you loved at Arlington could become the basis of a stations tour you lead your students on in your classroom.

Some of the best teachers we know have something novel in their classrooms. What from your vacation can you bring into your classroom to make it unique?

Making Memories:

Summer mini-vacations and trips-of-a-lifetime share a commonality. Memories are made and cherished.

Think back to your favorite teachers. You have memories with them. You can also most likely think of teachers and classrooms where you remember little to nothing about your time with them. Be the teacher who makes memories.

Think about activities and projects that you are already doing. Start by picking one and decide how you can alter that project to make it even more memorable. What opportunities can you set up in your classroom to create memories that your students, and you, will cherish for a lifetime? Then, take pictures and post them around the room to remember the great times you had.

Enjoying Each Other:

Although not a standard in the Common Core, this element of a vacation needs to be in every classroom. Again, look at those vacation photos. People are having FUN! They are enjoying the company of one another.

What did you do on your vacation to enjoy other people? How can you use that example to bring joy into your classroom? Did you talk with people about fantastic books? Partner sharing and book talks could be implemented into your classroom. Did you play games that had everyone rolling on the floor laughing? How can you incorporate learning as game in your classroom so you students can experience that same joy?

Teachers sometimes feel like fun may detract from learning. In actuality, fun enhances engagement and helps bring us closer together. In what ways can you bring fun and enjoyment of one another into your classroom starting on the first day and continuing throughout the year?

As you wrap up summer vacation, and as Facebook posts start to include teachers mentally preparing themselves to give up vacation to go back to school, make a decision to plan your vacation. Begin planning your year-long vacation in your classroom. It will cost you less than a trip to the Himalayas and you get to decide the level of novelty, the memories you will make, and the ways you and your students can enjoy each other.

We have already started to make our classroom vacation plans. How about you?

Happy planning,