Guide to a Teacher's Winter Break

Friday before winter vacation: Leave school, excited about the possibilities ahead. You’ll catch up with friends! Read a few books! Clean your basement! Finally organize your closets! Get caught up on your school work! Go to the gym every day! Bring your bags of clothes to Goodwill, wash the car, take a few day trips.

Get home, ready to start on your vacation plans. Decide to lie down, just for a little while. Sleep a deep dark sleep for 2 hours and wake up in a total fog.

Gather your energy to venture out for take out. After dinner, settle on the couch with your family for a good hour of Netflix.

9PM: Go to bed.

Saturday: wake up bright and early, no matter how hard you try to sleep in. Lounge around in your robe for a few hours, nursing your second and third morning coffees. Read more than just the headlines of the newspaper.

Sunday: Start tackling some of your household projects. Pause to watch an episode of The Office and have second breakfast. Do some more, then take a nap.

Monday: Look in the mirror and notice the bags and shadows under your eyes are disappearing.  This will give you a spurt of energy. Continue working on your household projects. 

Tuesday: Make yourself sleep past 8 AM.  Meet some friends for breakfast and take care of a few errands. Take a nap to rest from all that activity.

Wednesday: Already halfway through the vacation? Make yourself think “glass half full”: there are still 4 days left after today! You’re going to take full advantage of each day!

Thursday: Have a little cry when you realize how quickly time is going.Cram in as many activities as you can that day. Forgo your nap, just for today.

Friday morning: Sit down to look at the work you brought home to correct. Then check your Facebook account. Get distracted by cat videos, baby pandas, and checking out pictures of your friends who actually went places for vacation. This is exhausting. Take a nap.

Friday afternoon: Actually correct the papers you brought home.

Friday night: anxiety starts to creep in….It’s almost over. Sleep restlessly, dreaming about showing up to class without plans, or being very late to school, or being observed by your principal during a class where the students are making a human pyramid and will not listen to you.

Saturday: Notice your anxiety is at a 4 out of 5 and steadily growing. You will want to crawl back into bed and binge-watch shows that will take you far away from reality. Give in to that desire.

​Sunday: the day is long, thankfully. Have a good cry. Then, get over the denial, and come to terms with the end of vacation.

Sunday night: plan Monday.

March is a brutal month, teachers. Force yourself to think glass half-full again: only 6  weeks until April vacation. Less than 100 days of school until summer. Longer days, warmer weather. Hang in there!

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