So I’ve been reading some of the latest posts AND the replies.
It has been my goal and intention to take a summer break from academics and just hang with y’all sparingly on The Lounge with whimsical posts, but one of the replies caught my eye. It reads:
I keep waiting for these posts to turn a corner and contribute in a more positive way to the collegial dialogue that the Harold Lounge is designed to foster.
So, to Erica and all of you who are coming to The Lounge for collegiate dialogue, I offer the following thoughtful question(s):
If you are teaching this summer, do you feel you are still getting a ‘summer break’ from the academic rigors of the Fall and Spring semester? Why do you elect to work during the summer?
If you are not teaching this summer, what are you doing during your ‘summer break’ to prepare for the academic rigors of the Fall and Spring semester? Why do you elect to not work during the summer?
I’ll leave it at that for now. Spellin an grammatically errers permitted (unless your name is Merriam or Webster or Oxford). Anonymity encouraged.
Yes, this is my summer take on the Tuesday Teaching posts. Looking to foster what the reader/s want/s.
I’ll address the other/secondary issues when my summer break permits. Stay cool peeps!
The Harold Lounge 
Anonymity encouraged, eh? Ok. I’m teaching summer school for what I expect is the reason any of us do: a combination of loving our job and looking forward to more interactions with students, and earning a bit more pay to help out…whether it’s for taking care of family members, paying off student loan or other types of debt, making it possible to travel or have other valuable experiences, or taking some of the burden off a partner whose job prospects or pay scale might be less favorable.
I am always surprised that I don’t feel more of a difference between summer school and a normal semester in terms of the energy and time I put into prepping and grading.
I don’t teach in the summer so I can take on other projects that are interesting to me personally and that will hopefully inform my teaching. I have been fortunate to find projects that pay well and allow me to opt out of teaching. I always feel at the end of the spring semester that I am really ready for a break, so I can take a step back, reflect on the previous semesters’ work, and reflect on my teaching as a practice. This time for reflection makes a huge difference in my teaching (I think students get the best of me during the Fall semester). I come back amped up, ready to go, filled with new and exciting ideas and plans. It is all good.
Now, circumstances may change over the next few years, as I will have 2 children in college, and finances might force me to take on a class on two. Only time will tell if this shift in working responsibilities will change my practice overall. I really hope I can preserve my summers as a genuine break from teaching – but if I can’t I think that the HWC campus is a nice place to spend the summer. It is a bit quieter and a lot less hectic. It might be fun to see what teaching is like without all of the simultaneous committee work.
Thanks for the collegial question Realist.