95 Ways Elementary Teachers Relax During Summer
How do teachers keep up with all the latest trends in education? How do they keep themselves motivated and fresh every year?
Here are 95 ways teachers stay fresh for school. These ideas are from elementary teachers just like you, who want to be the best teacher they can be. These are things that teachers do over the summer to stay fresh for school
A word of advice: this is a list of ideas teachers generate. It is a long list. Don’t feel like you have to do it all. You can’t do it all. I wrote an entire blog post about being unable to do everything as a teacher.
Pick a few areas or ideas that resonate with you and try them out. See if they work for you. If not, don’t do them anymore. If they do, continue doing them and add another idea to your routine.
Here are a couple of blog posts that might also help you not stress about teaching or keep from being too overwhelmed by teaching:
- But I Can’t Do It All
- 30 Ways Teachers Can Destress in September
- How to Survive as an Introverted Teacher
- Quick, Low-Stress Meals for Teachers
Here are 95 ideas to help you stay fresh as an elementary teacher over the summer. These ideas are divided into two groups: school-related and non-school-related activities.
Ideally, we teachers would do some of both groups. I hope you find some ideas that you can adopt this summer!
Relax by Not Doing School-Related Activities
Below are some non-school-related activities that teachers do over the summer to stay fresh. These fun and relaxing activities are separate from school and work and focus on spending time with family, reading, exercising, and doing things for yourself.
- Maintain a positive attitude and start every day as a new day
- Keep to a regular exercise routine
- Always try to learn new things
- Read outdoors is refreshing and allows thoughts to flow
- Keep my coffee supply stocked
- Take time just for yourself every weekend
- Practice self-care for nearly the entire summer
- Do water aerobics in my pool
- Take the weekend to just spend time with family
- Try not to take work home
- Give myself me time
- Join a running clinic
- Get 7 hours of sleep
- Go on a short run each day
- Spend time with people I love
- Have at least one last date night a week
- Get a manicure and pedicure to relax
- Go to the beach with family and friends
- Spend time praying and reading God’s Word for wisdom
- Sleep, run and spend time with family
- Read a lot of inspirational texts
- Read my mushy romantic stories
- Get a massage and do my hair and nails
- Go to bed before midnight
- Enough sleep, healthy food, and some peaceful mindfulness
- Take a social media break and limit technology
- Pick out an audiobook to listen to on my commute
- Do fun summer activities right up until August with kids
- Make sure I go to all the necessary doctor appointments
- Have a cup of coffee in silence
- Balance work and play
- Work out and eat a good breakfast
- Swim in my pool and explore different places in my city
- Schedule spa days or weekend trips
- Enjoy sunrise and sunset
- Read a good book, make art, get enough rest
- Travel
- Go to yoga
- Cook great food
- Sit on my front porch
- Spend quality time at home
- Ride a spin bike
- Spend time in the pool
- Read my guilty pleasure: horror books
- Read non-teacher books
- Can all the garden vegetables
- Work in the garden
- Take walks
- Read on the patio
- Visit grandchildren
- Participating in HIIT Hot Pilates 2-3 days a week
- Watch a movie
School-Related Activities that Help Teachers Stay Fresh
This group of ideas for teachers is focused on school-related activities that bring new ideas and can invigorate your teaching throughout the year.
- Do a little bit of prep at a time gradually throughout the summer
- Plan fresh activities for my classroom
- List want-to’s for this year
- Reflect on the previous year and generate new ideas for the next year
- Read blogs to gain new perspectives
- Take professional development every summer
- Figure out how to go digital and use Google classroom
- Follow other educators on Instagram
- Watch free Facebook lives with reading and writing specialists
- Browse Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers through the summer to be inspired to learn something new
- Following social media for new tips and tricks and by
- Reread professional development books
- Keep up with current research in the field
- Learn from and collaborate with other teachers and online educators
- Start a new planner
- Host student teachers to see their new ideas
- Look for new ways to keep kids excited
- Plan out my year
- Organize my classroom and materials
- Change things that need to be better
- Pay attention to the latest trends related to students
- Watch vlogs, listen to podcasts, attend webinars
- Laugh with my kids and my co-workers and try to keep a sense of humor whenever possible
- Focus on ADHD-related books to better understand some students
- Never stop working to grow
- Plan to provide more opportunities for hands-on learning in math
- Go back to school and start your master’s degree
- Discover new and fun ways to teach
- Buy the best resources and supplies that can be found
- Promise to leave school on time
- Plan to implement a Daily Classroom Meeting agenda that focuses on skills for success in school and life
- Subscribe to lots of teacher Facebook groups
- Pick a few school projects, crafty or practical, that I don’t get time for during the school year
- Attend a week of training in the Responsive Classroom
- Participating in Twitter chats with other teachers
- Scrub my classroom top to bottom, clean out my supply area, and purge useless items
- Help create a school-wide pacing guide for ELA
- Create fresh binder covers
- Re-read Understanding by Design right before the year starts
- Attend a 2-day literacy conference
- Make the classroom jazzy for incoming student
- Buy a new children’s book to read in September
- Re-read The First Days of School and The Power of Our Words
- Spend a lot of quiet time in my room alone, visualizing the upcoming year
What do you do to keep yourself fresh over the summer? Do you rest, relax and rejuvenate? Do you look forward to next year and search for new ideas for your classroom? Or a little of both? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.
Thanks for the give away opportunity! To keep fresh I try have some me time (aka reading time) each night before bed.
Lots of self care keeps me fresh for school—reading, baths, lots of sleep, etc.
Hi! I’m currently signed up to receive your emails and I love them. I stay fresh during the school year by reevaluating what I’m doing and changing up a few things each quarter. If I’m bored with a center, bulletin board, etc, the kids likely are too.
I keep myself fresh by taking continuing ed classes over the summer in topics that I need more “help” in, like technology!! I also try to read a couple of teaching books over the summer, this summer it was on Daily 5!!
Before the end of the school year, I try to get to know next years incoming class, their academic/social needs, and personality as a class. During the summer, I spend much time tailoring activities to fit the personality and needs of my incoming class…and rarely do things get boring for my students or me! I love spending time praying and reading God’s Word for wisdom. It keeps me on my toes.
I like to read teacher blogs and watch Teacher Vlogs on youtube to keep myself fresh! I get so much inspiration from other teacher ideas!
I stay fresh by reflecting on worked well and what I need to improve upon. I then spend part of my summer thoroughly researching and planning ways to implement new things and improve those things that didn’t work as well as I’d hoped in the previous year. This year, I’m going to focus on being more consistent with my management and providing more opportunities for hands on learning in math.
I take advantage of any training I can get.
To stay fresh, I spend as much time with family as possible. I also do lots of reading throughout the summer. To have a fresh start each day, during our “moment is silence “, I pray for my kiddos and myself. I want to give my best to them every day!
Hi! I’m on your list already and I’ve kept myself fresh by going back to school and getting my masters! I just finished this summer and am glad for the experience! Thanks for offering the giveaway!
Thanks for the giveaway! I get so excited for the new school year and all of the possibilities. This is my 15th year teaching. I always try to learn something new over the summer either through professional development or webinars. Currently I’m loving PBL. I also look for new ideas and pin them to Pinterest. I love Pinterest!
I keep myself fresh by taking time for myself, and reading up on new ideas and brush up on my well liked strategies.
Hi, this is a great giveaway! To stay fresh I sleep, run, and spend time with my family. Then I begin to think about school and reflect on the previous year.
I hope everyone has a great new school year!
Me time and collaborating with coworkers!
I am always watching webinars to stay fresh and get new ideas. I love looking for new and fun ways to teach. This year I purchased a document camera that will also make videos. I am excited to do math centers this year. I am definitely a project based teacher. I love having the students work in groups and I run a more student lead classroom. I have set up my leveled reading group area with a desk that used to be mine when I was a kid. I put three chairs there, each one is different. I picked up a zebra print chair at a garage sale and added a cute throw rug to draw the students in. I purchased more throw pillows for our silent reading time and will allow the odd/even student numbers to use them on alternate days. I am still working on tweaking how to have my students line up. Every year I find a “glitch” in my system. Any suggestions?
Thanks for the giveaway! To keep myself fresh I attend various educational webinars and also stay up-to-date on policies that affect all stakeholders! As a new teacher, I would like to start a tradition of spending the first week prior to school simply relaxing by the pool-side.
I stay fresh by reading, following educators on social media, and asking other teachers what works best for them. I also follow a podcast, Google Teacher Tribe, which gives tips from teachers on how they’re using google for education and technology in their classrooms.
To stay fresh…I spend a lot of time with family on vacation. I sleep a lot so I am rested for the next year. I also read a lot of inspirational texts. I like to get my body and mind in synce. Rob Clark’s, Move Your Bus is a great read. I highly recommend it! Thanks for the giveaway.
I do my best to not do any school work during June. My brain tries to totally shut down. 😉
Each summer I pick one thing I really want to fix from the previous year, and I let myself buy the best resource/supplies I can find to fix that probl m. So I get something new to use and I’m excited about having something work better than it did before!
I leave on time. Grant it, I do a lot of work at home, but leaving on time has made the world of difference.
To stay fresh during the school year I get plenty of sleep, take it easy during the weekend and keep a positive attitude at school.
I stay fresh by making sure I get enough sleep and by not brining work home with me!
During summer, I take advantage of the extra time to organize my teacher files. I also take time to read my mushy romantic stories! I also get to read my fav teacher blogs!
Self care is the only way I can keep myself sane! For me it’s running. In the fall I frame and run my longer distances. In the spring I just run when I need a break from everything.
I keep fresh by reading professional books and checking out blogs.
To stay fresh, I spend lots of time with my family. I already teach summer school, so I don’t usually go to school until inservice time so as to have maximum family time. I do look at school stuff on Facebook, pintetest, TpT, but not constantly.
I go through all my summer pins, focus on one area that I want to improve and then make a plan for all those great ideas.
Staying fresh is easy at the beginning- still excited for a new year, new Pinterest fun, FB finds w professional groups, and district changes. The challenge is staying fresh all year long. I like to have one really fun hands on project each month so the students are excited- a book tie in, research, creating something, then a writing piece. I love these projects even after 23 years in the classroom! Hope I can win to tie in some new fresh ideas through you 🙂 happy (school) new year!
To stay fresh, I try to read inspirational books. Any book by Ron Clark and his team really help me find my mojo. They remind me why I became a teacher in the first place and I use that to help me find my best self.
After finishing the major setup of my classroom I plan a me day. YES, it’s all about me. No thoughts of school, students, house, or hubby. Just me. Massage, 4 layer facial, hair and nails. If time permits a moment to read a magazine or book that has nothing to do with teaching. Then it’s time to blow out the candles and begin inspiring my little friends.
Thank you for offering this giveaway! This will be my first year teaching. I’m excited for this year to start. This summer I have been creating my classroom management plan and getting familiar with the content learning outcomes. I am planning to implement a Daily Classroom Meeting agenda that focuses on skills for success in school and life. I hope to make this a tradition for my classroom.
I love reading blogs and checking pinterest!!
How exciting!! I keep myself fresh by relaxing with my family and enjoying the time together during the summer. I also use the time to catch up on my reading, personal and professional.
To stay fresh, I need to go to bed before midnight. 🙂
I subscribe to lots of teacher Facebook groups. I always get tons of new and fresh ideas every time I log in to Facebook!
I keep myself fresh during the summer by spending time traveling and visiting my family and friends. I also pick a few school projects crafty or practical that I don’t get time for during the school year.
I keep myself fresh by trying new things each year. I like to change things up and experiment with new ideas.
I am attending a week of training in Responsive Classroom to bring some new ideas for building community. I also bought dome fresh bulletin board items.
I try to take really good care of myself…..enough sleep, healthy food, and some peaceful mindfulness. Thanks for the opportunity!
I take time to recharge, and then start to plan changes to my classroom organization, choose color schemes, etc. Working on my letter to parents right now!
I stay refreshed by making sure I take a small amount of time each week for myself.
I do receive your emails already. To keep fresh, I read as much as I can, keep an open mind, and challenge myself to try new things.
To keep myself fresh I research new strategies to use in my classroom. I am already receiving emails.
I keep myself fresh by (1) collaborating with my school colleagues, (2) reading and using the work of my favorite teaching and curriculum experts, (3) following the blogs of and/or reading newsletters from my favorite TpT authors, and (4) networking through regional groups and using social media.
Thanks for this awesome opportunity and the heads up! I am a first year teacher, and I am both excited and nervous about my first year. I hope to keep myself fresh by always trying to implement new ideas and practices, and changing and moving around the furniture and layout of my classroom every year.
To stay fresh, I focus on learning about something that sparks my interest and passion, so when I return to school I have something exciting to share with my students. This summer, it has been a focus on nature through STEAM, picture books, and the classroom environment. This has also involved creating all kinds of things, which keeps my personal need for creativity alive.
Well this is only my first summer as a real teacher. I spent a lot of my free time doing professional development that gave me a lot of new ideas that I plan to implement with my students. I am a homebody. I recharge alone with a good show on. My batteries are fully charged and ready to go!!!
I take a social media break and limit technology.
I stay fresh by following different blogs, like you’re, for new ideas.