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.

1. Maintain a positive attitude and start every day as a new day
2. Keep to a regular exercise routine
3. Always try to learn new things
4. Read outdoors is refreshing and allows thoughts to flow
5. Keep my coffee supply stocked
6. Take time just for yourself every weekend
7. Practice self-care for nearly the entire summer
8. Do water aerobics in my pool
9. Take the weekend to just spend time with family
10. Try not to take work home
11. Give myself me time
12. Join a running clinic
13. Get 7 hours of sleep
14. Go on a short run each day
15. Spend time with people I love
16. Have at least one last date night a week
17. Get a manicure and pedicure to relax
18. Go to the beach with family and friends
19. Spend time praying and reading God’s Word for wisdom
20. Sleep, run and spend time with family
21. Read a lot of inspirational texts
22. Read my mushy romantic stories
23. Get a massage and do my hair and nails
24. Go to bed before midnight
25. Enough sleep, healthy food, and some peaceful mindfulness
26. Take a social media break and limit technology
27. Pick out an audiobook to listen to on my commute
28. Do fun summer activities right up until August with kids
29. Make sure I go to all the necessary doctor appointments
30. Have a cup of coffee in silence
31. Balance work and play
32. Work out and eat a good breakfast
33. Swim in my pool and explore different places in my city
34. Schedule spa days or weekend trips
35. Enjoy sunrise and sunset
36. Read a good book, make art, get enough rest
37. Travel
38. Go to yoga
39. Cook great food
40. Sit on my front porch
41. Spend quality time at home
42. Ride a spin bike
43. Spend time in the pool
44. Read my guilty pleasure: horror books
45. Read non-teacher books
46. Can all the garden vegetables
47. Work in the garden
48. Take walks
49. Read on the patio
50. Visit grandchildren
51. Participating in HIIT Hot Pilates 2-3 days a week
52. 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.

1. Do a little bit of prep at a time gradually throughout the summer
2. Plan fresh activities for my classroom
3. List want-to’s for this year
4. Reflect on the previous year and generate new ideas for the next year
5. Read blogs to gain new perspectives
6. Take professional development every summer
7. Figure out how to go digital and use Google classroom
8. Follow other educators on Instagram
9. Watch free Facebook lives with reading and writing specialists
10. Browse Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers through the summer to be inspired to learn something new
11. Following social media for new tips and tricks and by
12. Reread professional development books
13. Keep up with current research in the field
14. Learn from and collaborate with other teachers and online educators
15. Start a new planner
16. Host student teachers to see their new ideas
17. Look for new ways to keep kids excited
18. Plan out my year
19. Organize my classroom and materials
20. Change things that need to be better
21. Pay attention to the latest trends related to students
22. Watch vlogs, listen to podcasts, attend webinars
23. Laugh with my kids and my co-workers and try to keep a sense of humor whenever possible
24. Focus on ADHD-related books to better understand some students
25. Never stop working to grow
26. Plan to provide more opportunities for hands-on learning in math
27. Go back to school and start your master’s degree
28. Discover new and fun ways to teach
29. Buy the best resources and supplies that can be found
30. Promise to leave school on time
31. Plan to implement a Daily Classroom Meeting agenda that focuses on skills for success in school and life
32. Subscribe to lots of teacher Facebook groups
33. Pick a few school projects, crafty or practical, that I don’t get time for during the school year
34. Attend a week of training in the Responsive Classroom
35. Participating in Twitter chats with other teachers
36. Scrub my classroom top to bottom, clean out my supply area, and purge useless items
37. Help create a school-wide pacing guide for ELA
38. Create fresh binder covers
39. Re-read Understanding by Design right before the year starts
40. Attend a 2-day literacy conference
41. Make the classroom jazzy for incoming student
42. Buy a new children’s book to read in September
43. Re-read The First Days of School and The Power of Our Words
44. 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.