A few of my fellow teachers have just recently completed their school year and began their summers just a little over a week ago. I think the biggest feeling I have after the end of the year every year is exhaustion. It takes so much to make that final kick to make it to the end. For a week after post-planning, I don’t want to do a single thing except veg out. Of course my wife, Jane, has her own plans for our summer.
Our seniors graduated the Saturday before Memorial Day and we were finished with post-planning the following week. The price for being finished so early is a very early start. An unbelievably early start. While I was working on a summary report for my ESY student, I quickly realized that I only had two more weeks of ESY left! Holy Crap! I’m going to have to reorganize my time schedule in order to get my 10 data points in before the end.
And then us teachers will be heading back on the 21st with students coming back on the 28th…of July! Some of you might find this depressing, to see schools starting back so soon. Many people complain about the short summer, but I am not one of them. I am SO ready to get back. I am a person of habit and routine, and I get totally screwed up when I am off-schedule. ESY adds just a bit of structure to my days and time, but I am ready to get back to my classroom and my kids and my staff. I really enjoy having a week or two off, but more than two weeks at a time carries its own fatigue factor. I work in the garden, do yard work, shop with Jane and the kids, and do a few other activities, but I am still ready to get back to work. The break has been nice, but I never accomplish half of what I say I will in the first place. I might as well be doing something productive.
dick
The Life That Chose Me 
Going back to school on 28 July sounds great to me! I’m staring several more weeks of idle time in the face–and it ain’t pretty! Like you, I think that a little down time is better than a lot. Instead of wandering around the house and yard like a lost puppy, “I might as well be doing something productive” (to snatch the words right out of your mouth!)