IMO, one the best “get away from school” choices you can make during the summer is set your school email to auto reply something like this… “Thanks for reaching out!  I’m away for the summer and will only be checking my email once a week.  I hope you have a great summer.”  After you do this, make a pact with yourself that you will NOT check your email more than once a week.  Schedule a time (I usually choose later at night after our kids have gone to bed) It is definitely overwhelming to return to school to have a million emails, so don’t be silly and try to NEVER check your email.  However, if you can restrict yourself to one time a week, just so you can have a little balance in your life, that is a really helpful tip.

If you are like me, you also receive a lot of emails that you definitely do NOT want to receive.  However, somewhere along the line you signed up for them, intentionally or not.  Summer is good time, when you do check your emails, to work through the inbox and UNSUBSCRIBE to the lots of emails that you may get.  There are people in life that are organized enough to not get all of these junk emails, I’m not one of them.  My inbox at school ranges from the latest and greatest golf equipment to UBD unit work to everything in between.

It’s silly to think that you will completely disconnect from school during the summer, although that should be a goal for at least a few weeks.  Giving yourself the chance to remove from “everything school” will make you a much better teacher during the school year and appreciate the work we do even more.  Have a great weekend!