School’s out for summer! School’s out forever?

Hello Fruitful Educators. Are you excited for summer and a much-needed break? I absolutely love summer and all that comes with it, freedom from the bells, warm weather, and vacations. Oh, and sleeping in. Let’s not forget about sleeping.

The end of my first year I was only glad I survived it. Forget about being teacher of the year. I SURVIVED! Actually, the name of the “I SURVIVED” series must have been created by a teacher. I SURVIVED all right, and it was time to breathe. I came up for air as if I had been under water the entire year. The whole summer felt more like recovery than relaxing. I spent the break trying to forget the year.

“You did how many years of this!?!” I asked a coworker who was finishing 30+ years of teaching. It seemed unbelievable to me that any human could sustain a 2^nd year of this let alone 30.

He chuckled and said, “Let me tell you, I been doing this for a looooong time young lady. A loooong time.” His laugh simply told me that this was only the start of my journey.

“Can I retire yet?” was the question which came to mind. It felt like I had just completed over 30 years all in one. I was exhausted. To teach or not to teach: that was the question. How many years could I do this?

It would seem that maybe there was a secret to this teaching thing I had not figured out yet. Others were organized, cool, calm and collected. They had their grades turned in before me. They had their classroom cleaned out and organized for the end of the year before me. They were on the beach, or airplane headed somewhere tropical before you could say “have a good summer.” Me, I just wanted to collapse in a heap on the bed and not wake up until, well whenever I wanted.

How could teachers do this thing every year for 30 years? Was it just me who felt this way? I evaluated what I had in me. If there was a secret to all of this, that was not evident to me.

You might be at the beginning of your journey, or you might be nearing the end of your journey deciding if you have another year in you. Regardless, there’s much you may have survived this year. Like me, you might be glad to have only survived the year.

Get to Dry Land

One survival story comes to my mind which is quite fitting in this case. Paul in the book of Acts found himself in a storm at sea. He and every person on board feared for their lives.

 Acts 27:23 “For there stood by me this night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve, 24 saying, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must be brought before Caesar; and indeed, God has granted you all those who sail with you.’ 25 Therefore take heart, men, for I believe God that it will be just as it was told me. 26 However, we must run aground on a certain island.”

God assured Paul here that He and everyone with him would make it to the other side, but it was important that Paul get to the Island that was intended for him. They had to do two things, stay in the boat with Paul and then get to the other side of the sea to the Island.

The boat then is beaten to pieces by the storm. Further on we read:

43 But the centurion, wanting to save Paul, kept them from their purpose, and commanded that those who could swim should jump overboard first and get to land, 44 and the rest, some on boards and some on parts of the ship. And so it was that they all escaped safely to land.

They were shipwrecked, washed up, tired and hungry. All that was left of the ship were pieces of driftwood. They washed to shore on pieces of a torn ship, yet somehow they all made it in one piece.

If you feel like you have been through a storm this year, or maybe a hurricane, there is great value here for us in this passage. The first thing Paul was told was he would survive and the second was that he needed to get to the island of destination. There was no race or contest to make the fastest time or make it there with the most cargo. There was no, first, second, or third place. It was simply stated, they “must run aground a certain island.” Another words, get across the sea to dry land.

That was ALL that was expected. Survive.

I find it interesting, those who could swim were instructed to swim to shore and those who could not swim were instructed to get to dry land on pieces of remaining wood. If you can swim in the storm, swim. If you can’t make it to the shore by swimming, grab the nearest piece of driftwood and hang on.

When I evaluated my first year, every lofty dream and goal I had was destroyed into pieces. But looking through my students journals I realized something significant. There were more successes than failures in my class. I was just so focused on helping the struggling students that I simply couldn’t see these ones who were excelling beautifully.
I shared with my family at the beginning of the year how shocked I was at how many low-level writers there were. But when the dust settled and everything was finalized, I sat reading through the journals with no expectation to grade or give feedback and thinking what good writers they were. There were more writers than non-writers. It became hard to see through the hardships of my first year’s storm. This was a piece of the ship which carried me into my next school year. I may not have succeeded in the way my grand vision for my career expected, but I had accomplished something that year with my students. They had learned and there had been growth.

Teachers, your goal this year may been that you survive it. Or like me, you had your lofty dreams dashed upon the rocks. If a storm has destroyed your ship, grab whatever piece you can hang onto that gets you to dry land. If you are just trying to survive the wreckage of this school year, grab hold of any successes no matter how small and get to the other side. You are now at the end of your school year. Congratulations dear friend! You have survived.

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