Sweet, Sweet Summer

I'M BACK!!

Haven't been on the blog for quite some time since summer began.

I just wanted to let you all know that I am LOVING my summer so far!

I've been spending many days relaxing and cooling down from a successful but exhausting first year as a teacher in the Bronx. It's a feeling that I never got too much during the year since so much was going on at once, but now, I have a solid 2-and-a-half months of relatively less stress and workload. So far, I used up almost an entire "bottle" of sunscreen after spending so much time out in the city and the (very!) hot sun.

I'm also doing things that I never got to do during the year as well. Things like being the last one of my roommates to wake up (during the school year I was the first), watching all four hours of the Today show (I miss Ann Curry a lot, but Savannah Guthrie is a good co-host too), checking my Facebook more regularly, staying in touch with friends and family, etc. Yep, this really is sweet, sweet summer!

Back in elementary/middle/high school, summer was a welcome break from the hassles of the school year. I would hang out with my friends, stay up very late, go to huge parties, work as a camp counselor, be with my family and go on faraway vacations. In college, I spent summers abroad volunteering in Central America and in Africa, catching up on credit hours at NYU, traveling with my family and spending lots of time with old friends from high school that I rarely saw. As a teacher, I LOVE that my schedule is similar to what it was back in school - it's a similar structure and one that I can both get used to and love. Summer is still in its traditional place, and unlike the vast majority of my friends who are still working the same hours now, I am not. Of course, they definitely don't even come close to how much I work during the school year, but now it's a chance for me to get even! :)

I spent both yesterday and today hanging out with a really good friend of mine, Ryan. In high school, when Ryan was a freshman, I was a junior - but what really surprised me when I first met him was that he was only 8 months younger than me. Ryan was the kid that all the girls really liked: athletic, funny, smart and charming. Ryan also built great friendships, including our friendship. When I graduated, Ryan was still in high school, and we didn't talk as much as we used to when I was just starting out college. I ran into a Facebook status that he posted two years ago and realized that we stopped talking in the midst of our busy lives. Today, I am really glad Ryan and I are still good friends. We're kind of like twins in a way - hey, we both went to the same high school and we were both voted "most popular"! It was really nice to catch up with him and hang out like we did back when I was still in school. Ryan's considering Teach for America when he graduates at the end of the year next year, and I think my crazy stories about my classroom put him over the top! Oh my, if I could be teacher buddies with Ryan someday... #bestfriends #craziness

Those hashtags not only symbolize my friendship with Ryan, but also mean that I recently joined the TWITTER GANG!! It's something new all right, and I still have a lot to learn but I feel like I'm getting the hang of it pretty quickly. The privacy settings are definitely a lot more clear than on Facebook, so that's really good. Also, I like getting more real-time updates from the celebrities and people that I'm following. And I think my followers like getting more updates from me, since, ya know, updating constantly on Facebook is a social no-no.

Speaking of social networking, I'm still keeping up with our class page on Facebook that I started this winter! My students are sending me messages about their summers and I'm replying and telling them some things about mine. It's so nice that I get to keep up with them over the break and I've received countless notes telling me that "I'm the best teacher ever" and that the kids were "so so so lucky to have me as their teacher" :) I'm not allowed to be friends with them because of a new NYCDOE policy, but this is pretty close! Hopefully we can still keep up during the school year too...

I'm also planning my schedule for summer professional development and networking - so I'll keep y'all updated on that. Also, I'm looking into a graduate school program to apply to possibly next summer. Having a Master's degree definitely helps with a considerable salary raise, and although experts and teachers are divided on this, may help make me an even better teacher. So far, I have Teachers College (Columbia University), NYU Steinhardt, CUNY and Hunter on my list.

Thank you for reading! I hope to keep you updated even more in the future about my summer adventures!