“Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me want to buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address.”- Nora Ephron
Once that first flush of enthusiasm has gone, the pencils need resharpening, the school supplies are no longer new, it is easy to feel overwhelmed and tired. Starting the school day so early should be outlawed, but that is a whole different blog post. How can we maintain that just back to school feeling?
One summer my oldest daughter introduced me to the “IT Crowd”, a British comedy about the
technical support workers in a large corporation. I must stress this is NOT a
reflection of our IT department, but this clip amused me and seems appropriate
now. The answer given to fixing a malfunctioning device was invariably the same "Have you tried turning it off and on again?"
This doesn’t just apply to electronic devices. Occasionally we all need
to follow this advice. So, as the school year is under way,
let’s all remember to do this, turn off, unplug, rewind, recharge- whatever.
Life is not about the destination, but about the moments that make up the
journey.
As the year gets underway, my promise to myself is to take
some of those moments to switch off. It
doesn’t have to be much- just lunch away from my desk, a break at the weekend.
How can I help my students recognize their need to do this? Maybe by modeling
this behavior, by not assigning a homework when they expect one. Together, we can work it out.
Roll on the 2015-2016 school year, I’m raring to go!
Liz,
ReplyDeleteI sooooo agree with your post. I have been trying to take breaks to recharge despite feeling overwhelmed and behind already. I love our new Room of Requirement that allows us to enjoy lunch or connect with one another. Thank you for taking the time to write this post while being in the midst of the beginning of the year festivities. I know we are going to have a wonderful journey through the 2015 - 2016 school year!