Summer Breeze

Seals and Crofts sang about the joys of summer in their 1972 hit, Summer Breeze.  Big AM radio hit.  It was a gentle song about the simple life in the midst of the Vietnam War.  Don Henley sang about the Boys of Summer.  Alice Cooper had the ultimate kick in the teeth to teachers trying to hold their classes together with School’s Out for Summer!  Donna Summer…moment of silence…ironically, had no songs about summer.  Bryan Adams sang about the Summer of ‘69 while wearing jeans that had to be painted on.  Sly and the Family Stone sang Hot Time in the Summertime when they weren’t insistent on taking us higher.  The Beach Boys sang about nothing other than summer…I bet they never did a gig than wasn’t within 25 miles of a warm beach.  Eddie Cochran, in 1958 (very good year) sang the legendary hit, Summertime Blues…no mention of summertime pinks and reds from sunburn. Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta performed Summer Night in Grease.  Side note:  If grease is “the word”, where does Dawn dish soap come in to the equation?  Just thinking.      

These last few days are often the hardest because we still have much to teach and the struggle to gain and maintain attention is difficult….IF, we let that happen.  When the weather is nice and the sun is out, it is easy for kids and let’s face it, for us as well, to not wish we were out there…IF, we let that happen.   Some days of teaching are harder than others.  Maybe you struggled to get a point across.  Maybe a lesson didn’t quite go the way you wanted it to.  Maybe the computer network didn’t work as well as it should.  Hint:  Don’t call CTB for help.  Maybe your plan period was interrupted by a difficult parent meeting.  Days 1-15 are usually pretty good as you get used to your new kids and they see just what they can get away with; I mean, they get used to you.  Days 165-180 are typically a little more challenging for the reasons described above.  It is at this time that you reach into your tool kit and pull out all of the stops. Don’t make the mistake of counting down your calendar with big X’s – that sends a bad message…a really bad message.  Don’t announce that it is nice outside…the kids already know that.  We need to be better than the weather.  In the classroom, we have to shine more brightly than the sun.  Side note:When I was a kid, I was so bright that my Dad called my son…