My family is at the beach this week for our yearly vacation at the Jersey Shore. (No, Snookie isn’t staying nearby.) Jakob is getting old enough that we need to bring every combination of soccer / baseball / basketball gear for beach play. Theo is old enough to love the sand and surf. He spent most of tonight talking about what a wonderful day he had. And I packed up a dozen books to clear off of the "must read" pile, and I am looking forward to getting through as many of them as I can carve the time for… in between game of miniature golf, bike rides and frequent naps.

Next week, I head off to Constructing Modern Knowledge with the amazing group of educators he has assembled, and I look forward to four days of just being a learner. It is rare these days when my own personal and professional learning gets to be my primary concern for several days.

Add to that a near zero professional email inbox and a goal of cleaning out my Practical Theory personal emails, and all of the sudden, there appears to be a realistic chance that I could put the previous twelve months away and start the coming school year (which for me means August 1st) rested, charged up, and in the proper mental space. Now that I’ve dared to put these words out there in the world, I fully expect something insane to happen to prevent it, but there it is.

My to-do list is as huge as ever, but most of what I have to do between now and August 1st is the kind of planning that never seems to be given enough time during the school year. We need to launch some new projects this September, and the time I am spending now on these things will reap huge benefits later. But it’s also the time to examine what we have done and look for the spaces to innovate, to document, to reflect upon. And it is having the space and time to do that… and the mental distance and health to do that well, that is so important.

All of this is to say this… to all my friends and colleagues in education, I hope this summer allows you to find the time to recharge your batteries, to reflect deeply, wisely and well about the previous year, to learn about new ideas to bring back to the work we do, and find the time and space for restorative experiences this summer so that we can invest ourselves fully in the work we do for another year.

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