What does a teacher do all summer?

With three full months to yourself, what will you do?
What will you do to renew yourself and your purpose as a teacher?
What will you do to broaden and deepen your content knowledge and repertoire?

Conscious of my role as a model to you all, I will lead off with some of my summer plans, purposefully selected to fulfill the goals I set for you above:

1. I will visit my family. As you all may know by now, I am very close with my extended family, and they all live in Northern NY, which is 7 hours from me in RI. While I visit here and there during the year, it's never for too long. Summer gives me weeks and weeks to spend with my family in the woods, at our camp in the Adirondack mountains. The photo of me on my blog profile--the one where I'm letting Jude, my nephew, play my mandolin--is from summer at camp. As a kid, I spent every day of every summer at that place. And, even though I'm almost 40, every summer It still draws me back. I can't wait to go trout fishing with my pop, who will be 90 this year, or to sit on the raft with my mom, dipping our feet in the lake.

2. I will read a ton, especially because I am running an independent study this summer with an English teacher from Cumberland HS. He and I will be reading and watching a variety of adolescent texts. In addition, we will be reading three critical books on adolescent literature. Some of the titles we'll be reading together are: Sold, Monster, You Don't Know Me, Whale Rider, Once Were Warriors, Paprika (film), Waltz With Bashir (film), Prom Night in Mississippi (film), Fallen Angels, Feed, and Donald Duk. The focus of the course is adolescent lit from global perspectives. Cool stuff.

3. I will play lots of music. This year, I have been a Musical Mentor to Alex Rosario, an 11-year old girl in Providence who plays the viola. Through Community Music Works, an organization dedicated to bringing stringed instruments to low-income kids, I have successfully revived my music mojo, as I've been learning lots of new fiddle tunes courtesy of Rachel and Carole, our awesome Fiddle Lab teachers. Playing with Alex has motivated me to practice, to be "on my game" with my Suzuki violin music as well as with my fiddle tunes. I look forward to playing mando around the bonfires this summer and to practicing Minuet with Marlo, my 7-year old niece who plays the violin.

4. I will teach Writing 100! Just like I love ninth graders, I love first-year students in college. They are fresh and curious and new to the whole enterprise. They are eager and willing and, for the most part, want to do well by me, their teacher. Also, I am teaching for the first time without a textbook. I am going to turn the class--and the class writing--into the textbook. This is an experiment for me, and I am ready to get started!

4. I will continue to write a poem a day. Since January 1, 2010, I have been writing one poem each day.This helps me to focus my mind, to take stock of my day (I usually write at the end of the day), and to make a mark on the world each day (or to mark my world). I am proud of having begun this, and I look forward to continuing it over the summer.

5. I will plant lots of cool stuff in my yard. One of the other great joys in life for me (besides family, reading, music, teaching, and writing) is gardening and digging in the dirt. Since moving in to our new house, I've planted over 30 different plants. I love designing the landscape. I love bringing a new living thing into the space of our yard. And, I love being surrounded by the living things I plant in the ground. I love watching them thrive (especially in the middle of a city!).

So, now that I've shared some of my summer goals with you, will you share yours? Once you think it through, I would love to hear from each of you about what you plan to do for yourself this summer.