The 3 Month Summer "Break"

Among the frequent misnomers of a teacher's existence, one of my all time favorites, is the oh so elusive 3-month summer break. People erroneously assume because students are off, we too are foot-loose and fancy free. Let me just stop that fallacy here:

Currently, I am 29 hours into this summer "break."

My work related  tasks thus far:

• received a fedex envelope with Key Club International Convention money; texted the sender of said envelope
• received a text from another Key Clubber regarding his money; arranged for the money to be dropped off
• received two emails asking me to submit information for yet another background check which must be completed by Friday so I can escort my Key Clubbers on their convention (later this summer)
• added a youtube video into my AR Digital Sandbox account for use with a dystopian short story--the details aren't fleshed out yet
• bookmarked articles in my diigo library which I will later review for use with a beginning of the year unit--again, the details aren't fleshed out yet (You see, contrary to another popular belief about teachers, I do not reuse the same lesson plans from year to year. But that is a topic for another time...)
• collaborated with a friend/coworker (a Chemistry teacher) bouncing different project based learning ideas off one another
• continued learning my new chromebook, not for leisure social networking and watching quirky youtube videos, but for classroom use as we are going 1:1 next year 
• AND started this blog--(Believe it or not, blogging is a good way for building and interacting with a professional community.)

This is just a small, but accurate, window of how my time is spent during summer "break." 

So, as you can see, the idea that teachers only work 9 months out of the year is just that: an idea...albeit delicious in thought, the reality is far less tantalizing, an overcooked slightly listless piece of broccoli--still good for you, full of eduction rich information, but not a nonstop 3 month excursion into decadence and school free indulgence.