Holiday Hiatus

Five. More. Days.

Five. More. Sleeps.

As I was writing this, I got a text from my dad with the phrase, "five more days" and a teacher emoji. How fitting, right?

Five more days of chaos before the holidays.

Five more days of surviving and not always thriving (you can thank my teacher bestie for that one-liner).

In previous years, we would have been done this past Friday, but things shifted and now we go right up until Christmas. Talk about chaos in the classroom! Fortunately, that gives us a longer time off after New Years, so it has it's pros and cons. As a result, I'm tired, overwhelmed and my to-do list seems to be getting longer rather than shorter? With that said, there are five more days before winter break officially begins! What a monumental moment! Let us reflect on everything that happened to get us to this point, shall we?

The first half of the school year was exciting, exhausting, stressful, emotional, and everything in between. There were times I came to school in great spirits, eager to take on my day! I felt confident about the lesson plans and excited to teach something new to my kiddos. We created incredible work to showcase our learning, made great strides in academic content and grew socially and emotionally. That's the beauty of education! However, there were also days where I just wanted to go home and stay in bed. Behaviors were off the wall, I was swamped with assessments or I didn't feel well physically. I dealt with kids peeing their pants, sickness in every corner of the room, and showed up late to recess more than once, just to name a few.

As I've shared plenty of times before, teaching isn't a pretty profession, nor an easy one. Like many other jobs and careers paths, it's takes a lot out of you. It's important to take the time to recover from the experience and prepare yourself to do the same thing all over again. It sounds so simple, right? Depending on who you ask, sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. For me, here is what I plan to do to help recover and prepare:

1. I plan to eat a ton of food over the holidays, both savory and sweet. Bring on the sugar coma and the mashed potatoes for DAYS!

2. I'm excited to spend time with family and friends. Going home to Bloomington is always bittersweet, as I see relatives I don't normally see and long-time high school friends.

3. Go out to lunch during the work week, you know this is a MUST!

4. Spend as much of my day as possible in pajamas and comfy clothes. You know the loungewear sets that have a matching top and bottoms? Yep, that'll be me all break.

Finally, the big one:

Just like other vacations and breaks throughout the year, I like to fully disconnect and embrace my non-teacher time. I enjoy investing my time and energy in non-teaching aspects of my life, just as much as I do with the teaching part. With that said, I plan to take the rest of the year off from blogging and writing (it's only two Sundays, people, so don't fret). I have plenty of content to share out (I teach Kindergarten, there's no way I wouldn't), and I plan to keep it coming in 2024! For now, I want (and most likely need) some time away. Most teachers can agree, we're always ready for a school break to arrive, and we're ready (maybe not always, but most of the time) to go back to school when our breaks come to an end.

To all those who have read this far today, have followed along the past five months, recently subscribed or just now stumbled upon this link, I thank you. Thank you for your support and commitment to my growing passion and for indulging in my creative space. Thank you for opening that Sunday email each week and gaining more insight into my profession and the realities that come with it. Whether you're a coworker of mine, a family member or friend, you contribute to this endeavour through your experience, guidance and encouragement. You all play a role in the success of this blog and the community it builds every week. Creating more awareness for what we do as teachers is something I feel strongly about, and getting people to hear about it is a crucial piece of the puzzle. Providing support and guidance for other educators, as well as other individuals for different areas of life is also a passion of mine, and I hope to continue doing so through this space.

I wish you all a happy holiday season and a wonderful new year in 2024! I look forward to kicking off the new year with more content about the realities of teaching, sharing insight

Sharing Perspective. Encouraging Perseverance.

~Kendall