Sunday, June 05, 2011

Looking Forward

Parker, my nap tutor and companion.
There are two and half weeks of school left. After ten months of spending the better part of every day with someone else's energetic children, of sudden deaths and over-the-top weather, I am dazed and tired and ready for summer with its somnolent days and fan-brushed nights. I will let the birds wake me (far earlier than any alarm clock ever did but much more naturally), let the lazy days trick me into thinking I'm on a permanent vacation, and let others make plans while I nap in the long afternoons. I will come here to read up on all of you now and then. Happy summer!



18 comments:

Barbara said...

Why oh why didn't I become a teacher? Enjoy your summer!

June said...

Well.
I don't mean to repeat Barbara, but Why oh why did I quit college??? I coulda been retired by now with a nice NYSUT-negotiated pension!

Brian Miller said...

haha...think we might be able to learn something from those cats...mine seems to sleep anywhere...

somnolent...ok going to look that one up...teachers and big words...sheesh...smiles.

Judith said...

Does that mean summer vacation from blogging too? Surely not!

OTOH, maybe soon I get to see you in person!

steven said...

pauline i love it when people wonder why they didn;t become a teacher!! no, please, go back to school and become a teacher and know what an amazing beautiful painful exhausting delerious crazy satisfying lifestyle it is. because it simply isn't a job! it owns all of your life. if that's a condition you can entertain then become a teacher. please. we need more people like you. i love helping create the future. i love helping pull kids out of the darkness of their lives and showing them possibilities in themselves!!! i love when they come back with university degrees after i remember they lived in public housing and got food from the foodbank when they were kids.
the summer? well that's when i recharge. retirement. that's when i create an entirely new lifestyle!!! i love the nap tutor! steven

Pauline said...

Steven - the summer "vacation" is almost always the first thing someone mentions when I say I teach. If they only knew! It's a job of amazing highs and discouraging lows, of constantly being "on", of finding 30 ways to teach a single lesson to 30 different minds. I've been working with other people's children now for thirty years and can't imagine what my days will be like in retirement without them. I'm ready to try though. One more year till retirement.

J - I don't blog as often because most days I'm barely in the house long enough to turn the computer on. I don't disappear altogether. And yes, I'll see you in person soon!

Brian M - I give my students at least one new "big" word a day :)

June - a pension is a good thing :)

barbara - it's never too late... ;)

Out on the prairie said...

And then you get lonely for the little ones.Ha!

Brian Hayes said...

Cats. There's a study in Britain proposing no cat evolves; they behave as they did 1000s of years ago. This might be a pretty good trick., I don't see putting the brakes on evolution discussed as often as it might be, well, er, other than a girlfriend or two that may have mentioned something along these lines. Any lazy summer day, I propose pondering whether we truly 'want' to evolve. Cats might have something we could use. :-)

Gary said...

This post got me very excited for the "somnolent days and fan-brushed nights". Our last day is June 28th and the thing I am most looking forward to is getting some rest and living life at a slower pace. My summer plans are very similiar to yours. Enjoy the end of the school year and enjoy the summer.

Ruth said...

!!

My husband is four days from this. You and Steven are my heroes, as is my husband. It is exhausting, frustrating and rewarding, and you deserve every minute of summer vacation (and Thanksgiving break, and Christmas break, and winter break). Enjoy!

. . . while I traipse off to work all summer. ;-)

Frank Baron said...

Sounds like a good plan from here. I just put the AC in the bedroom window and it should be nap-ready in about 20 minutes.

Happy summer!

Reya Mellicker said...

"Fan brushed nights." Oh yeah!!

Stretch out, yawn, zone. Happy summer, Pauline!

Barbara said...

There is something very sane about getting the summer off -- for both students and teachers. Summer time always reminded me of one of the perq's of being an educator. Enjoy your summer!

Hilary said...

That sounds just about perfect to me. And to Parker, too.. evidently. :)

Anonymous said...

Those summer breaks! I remember that sense of release from all obligation to others.

I had a cat called Parker many years ago. Not as beautiful as your incumbent and sadly of short life-span. He was born on the set of 'A Clockwork Orange' and was given to us by one of Stanley Kubrick's daughters, a student of mine at the time. Parker contracted meningitis and somewhere I still have a letter from cat devotee SK pledging help at any time of day and night and providing me with his private 'phone number for emergencies!

herhimnbryn said...

Sounds like you've earned a rest P.

Pauline said...

OOTP - indeed I do! That's why I've been going back every September for years! It's time now though to say goodbye. One more year has been my refrain for a while - it's time...

Brian H - Parker teaches me all sorts of useful cat behaviors - napping is my favorite, though :)

Gary - you, too! A week and a day left and it will fly by. I hope the summer dawdles by comparison!

Ruth - bless your heart! There aren't many non-teachers who understand...

Frank - I'm all for nap-ready!

Reya - as soon as this 2-week house/dog sitting stint is over and I've finished with Jury duty and the grands come and go... yeah, I might be able to zone ;)

Barbara - I SO agree! It's a challenging, exhausting job but so worth it.

Hilary - Parker LOVES summer

Dick - that's the best release of all. The obligations in this job are tremendous!

HHB - and I intend to take it ;)

Joanna Jenkins said...

Hi Pauline, That sounds like a glorious way to spend your summer. Enjoy! jj