Well, you did it. We’re here. It’s July and school has officially ended (hopefully earlier than today, but who knows!). Your room has been cleaned up, packed up; everything has been graded, assessed, and sent home, and your end of year PD days are complete. Congrats on another year in the books. I tell my clients that it is this time, that is the most important one to reflect in and here’s why. If you believe that learning is a cycle, then reflection is at the point in the circle when you start to come back up. It’s the time when you look back on all that has happened, all that you’ve learned, and you can start to apply it - not just analyze it - but apply it in a deeper way or maybe even see it through a news lens.

What you’re going to find in the summer journal is a section of reflection questions for you to help you truly wrap up your year, and perhaps … get inspired for next year. I find that when I reflect it not only helps me to clear my mind but it helps me to ignite new fires - with more space in my brain I can think creatively and apply new ideas. And speaking of space … you will also find my words about summer, and what I’m trying to take with me and keep in the front of my brain as these summer days begin to unravel faster than I want them to, because honestly, that’s what they always do.

HAPPY SUMMER! Here we go …

Questions to Help You Reflect and Wrap-Up Your Year:

• How would you sum up your year in 1 word?

• What is a major highlight, sunshine, rose, stand out moment from your year teaching or working in a school?

• What needs work? Is it curriculum? A unit? A procedure or classroom ritual or norm? Is it balance? Is it strategy? Dig here.

• What worked for you this year? Did you take extra time in your car before entering the building? Did you go for a run after work on days that you could? Did you schedule extra time with your work bestie to just be? Did you take less work with you? Did you focus on 1:1 time with your students?

• If you could give one piece of advice to a 1st year teacher what would it be?

  • Now, give yourself that advice. :) We are almost always ALWAYS giving advice that we need to take ourselves, take a moment to do this. It’s ok.

• Describe a teaching moment when you were instructing from your strength, from your power. What did you teach? What was the lesson? How did it feel? How did you feel?

• Describe a moment when your values were demonstrated in your work space.

• And lastly, I love this question from Elena Aguilar: What have you learned about what you need in order to thrive as a professional?

My Words on Summer:

Enjoy the space. June felt especially busy to me as I was wrapping up the business side of things while simultaneously trying to wrap up the school year with my incredibly busy clients (I say every year that June meetings should be skipped and we should wrap on the last day or week of school, but alas … timing). On top of Work World there’s Home World which was a beautiful and wild balancing act of hosting family and a surprise birthday party, trying to create the best FIRST Father’s Day for my husband, and planning, being present for, and reflecting on my son’s first trip around the son (and my first year of being a mom). When I think about space in June it could be seen through 2 lenses: 1) I had no space. Our calendar was BOOKED, home was busy, the world and our world felt FULL. Or 2) There was so much space, and gratefully, luckily, I was able to fill it all. So, I’m encouraging you to take 2nd lens and … enjoy S P A C E .

You can take this figuratively or literally, but what I know about summer is that it can be expansive. In a literal sense, summer may get motivated to explore more, or you have vacations booked, or you decide to explore a new restaurant, or frequent your local coffee shop more, whatever it is you find yourself in new spaces - outdoor or indoor. Enjoy that. Remember to pause in those moments and take it in. What does this new space smell like? How do you feel here? Is your nervous system reacting? Who is with you?

In a figurative sense, remember that from August-June your space is often, if not always, shared. During the school year it can be extremely hard to find and name your space - to have a meeting without interruption, to make dinner without a kiddo pulling at your pant leg, to go for a walk without your dog (I know that brings us dog owners a lot of guilt), to be in your classroom without your students - many of your spaces and times are shared. So make it a goal for yourself this summer to enjoy the S P A C E. Maybe take a little time to create a space just for you - that feels good and safe and quiet and creative and inspiring. Try to sit there daily, even if it’s just for 5 minutes. And speaking of space, you may also find yourself having more space in your schedule - wow, breathe into that!

There is something to be said about routine, but there’s also something to be said about getting bored again. About having the freedom to decide what DO I want to do today? Or, I do have time to do ___________. Enjoy this space too.

Space can be a place or a time or a feeling, so this summer enjoy it. And space out.