Four Ways to Grow Yourself During the Off-Season
Summer is to educators as the off-season is to professional athletes. It’s a well-deserved season to relax and enjoy time away after working so hard all year. Just like those athletes, you need to take time to rest first in order to come back to the next season refreshed and ready to win! But professional athletes also use the off-season to get stronger, grow skills, and study the game. As educators, let’s look at what it would be like to take a play from that playbook.
Here are four great ways you can continue to grow into the classroom MVP:
1. Study the game. Is there anything as satisfying as the end-of-the-year ritual of clearing your desk of all the paperwork you meant to get to during the year? In addition to unearthing sticky notes with reminders since forgotten, you probably found a few educational articles or maybe even a book you had every intention of reading. Well, now is your moment! READ!
Professional athletes don’t just “play” the game, they study the game to grow their knowledge, theory, and practice. Yes, read all the fiction, self-help, and thrillers stacked on your nightstand…but also be intentional about reading to grow your professional skill set. Read those articles you printed (or bookmarked). Delve into a current educational book. Subscribe to an educational blog. Dig into educational magazines. Use your mind’s expanded bandwidth to discover a trove of insights and best practices you’d wish you had in your bag of tools years prior and will be grateful to have for years to come. (Looking for a recommendation? Check out Flip Flippen’s most recent book, Your Third Story).
2. Explore. There are a plethora of online teacher tools and apps available. But during the rush of the school year, who has time to learn them? By researching and becoming familiar with these tools outside of the school year, you can explore at a leisurely pace without interfering with getting dinner on the table or getting in your afternoon workout. Athletes are always looking for the newest technologies available to make them run faster, hit harder, and throw more accurately. With that same mindset, just think of the benefits both you and your students will experience with your knowledge and comfort level with using these tools in the classroom.
3. Scout out Learning Opportunities. While this may not have made your “I can’t wait for summer” list, now really is a prime time for professional learning. Attending a conference, workshop, webinar, or online class during summer means you don’t have to miss time with students. You will also have time to intentionally plan out how to incorporate these amazing ideas from the starting line as opposed to breaking your stride in the middle of the race. Is there an optional training opportunity available to you this summer? Be open to the possibility and potential impact this could have on your teaching and say yes!
4. Reflect and set goals. After every game, coaches and players review game tape looking for highlights to celebrate and recreate as well as errors to avoid. Of course, time for reflecting on personal performance and practices is ideal but rarely reality during the school year when having time to run to the bathroom is a luxury. After gaining some distance from the end of the year, spend time reflecting on questions such as What did you do to make a positive impact on student learning? What practices would you like to continue or grow? What is it like to be a student in your class?
So this summer, veg out, hang out, layout, and rock out. And just like all-star professional athletes at the top of their game, be sure to balance rest with the training necessary to make sure you’re game ready for the start of the season.
About us: We love educators! Through experiential training, expert coaching, a character curriculum for students, and personalized support, Capturing Kids' Hearts® equips professionals in K-12 education to implement transformational processes focused on social-emotional wellbeing, relationship-driven campus culture, and student connectedness.