Summer

Tomorrow is the first official day of summer. At least it is for me. Friday was the last day of school and I have to say I was relieved to see it come and go. It was sad to say goodbye to the students that I have grown close to in the last year. I had major concerns last year about being at the middle school, and some of those concerns were valid. Middle school kids are harder than first graders, I'm relatively small which led to confusion when substitutes and new students weren't sure I was an adult, and most of all I had a LOT of clients which led to a lot of scheduling conflicts. But overall I am really satisfied with how my year went. I feel that while I may not have been an active presence on the internet (this blog in particular) I made a positive impact on many different kids this year. I left Friday to hugs, requests for book lists and yearbook signings, and even a few tears. I can honestly say that I hope I have to opportunity to stay in my school next year and move up a grade level with the teens I worked with this year. But that is ultimately a blog entry for another day, one that is MUCH closer to the end of this wonderful summer.

I have PLANS this summer. Some are glamorous (a trip with BFF2) and some are mundane (movie nights with The Fantastic Four and cook outs with my family) but all are exciting. Since I have such exciting plans I really (REALLY) want to blog about some of the stuff I do. There are things going on this summer that I really want to document and share. There will be some video-blogging (maybe) happening and of course I will be updating Twitter like there is no tomorrow, but I also want to be able to blog through my summer as well. So that is one of my major summer goals. At least a weekly entry here for updates. I am sure there will be more than one blog some weeks, but I am really dedicated to blogging once a week.

I also have reading plans this summer. And TV-watching plans. I recently bought some paperbacks to dive into this summer as I lounge by the pool or ride the bus during summer program field trips. I realize that I already HAVE paperbacks that need to be read, but I'm not really planning on using the Nook very often this summer. I love it too much to risk water damage or breakage by one of the cousins. Therefore, physical books are the key to summer reading. I haven't set any kind of reading goal for summer, and I'm really far behind on my yearly goal as it is, but I am considering making a TBR list for my summer reading and trying to stick to that list. I know several titles that I want to read before school starts again and having a list always helps me stay on task instead of being distracted by all of the new shiny books that I am sure I will procure over the summer.

So that's the major summertime game plan. Work, road trip, lazy days by the pool, family time, books. Best.Summer.EVER!*

*I hope!