Ring, ring, ring! The school bell rings and students are finally done with school, excited for a relaxing summer. But when that bell rings, it’s summer for teachers as well as they get ready for a summer without grading and students. While teachers enjoy a relaxing summer away from their classroom, there’s still a lot to do for the next school year. But before any planning begins, though, teachers enjoy traveling and staying in the comfort of their own homes.
Traveling or staying local is a part of summer that teachers enjoy most about their summer break.
“I’m not a big traveler, but during the summer I want to get more organized, especially around the house, and fix our garden,” PHS English teacher Jamieson Mockel said.
Sophomore English teacher Mercedes Foster said that she typically does projects around the house during the summer and tries new things.
“I’m very into gardening and I’ve planted a lot of trees and eat a lot of food that comes from my garden, ” Foster said.
Although traveling and spending quality time at home are major parts of teachers’ summer plans, the end of the year becomes a very hectic time for both staff and students, so disorganization can become more apparent.
“Our house has kind of gotten a little overrun with stuff since the end of the year, because I’ve been so busy, so I just want to get all that organized and put together,” Mockel said.
Teachers also begin planning for the next school year.
Mockel said that he tries to not spend a lot of his time planning during the summer.
“I usually don’t start prepping until about two weeks before school starts, and that’s when I think about what I want to do on the first day and begin putting units together,” Mockel said.
This summer, some English teachers, while planning for their next school year, will also be involved in an AP Seminar training, preparing to teach the new class next year.
“I am one of the teachers who has put my name in as somebody who could teach it,” Mockel said.
Mockel said that every teacher who signed up for the course has to complete training over the summer to be qualified to teach the class.
Because many teachers instruct the same class every year, they become very familiar with the content they are teaching.
“I usually start to look back through my old slides of what I’ve done and kind of familiarize myself with the main ideas and everything that it’s about,” Mockel said.
Millennium and Piedmont High School English teacher Wade Wilgus said that his planning for the next school year usually occurs right when the school year ends.
“Right after graduation happens, I begin planning and looking over what worked and what didn’t,” Wilgus said.
Wilgus also said that he likes to amplify what worked or modify what didn’t. Because Wilgus is an English teacher for both MHS and PHS, his preparation for both takes a different amount of time.
“MHS is very different because I have to be on a two year cycle instead of one year because ninth and tenth grade are combined as well as eleventh and twelfth grade,” Wilgus said.
Wilgus said that this means he is essentially a first–year Millennium teacher again because he has to find two years’ worth of material to teach.
“For PHS, the curriculum is pretty well set, and it’s just enhancing or refining what activity we do for each unit,” Wilgus said.
Foster said that the first three weeks of summer are spent relaxing, and then once those weeks are over, she begins planning for the next year.
“I start planning so that during most of the summer, there’s a little bit of time spent reading new things and doing some research on topics that I’ve been curious about over the years,” Foster said.
Foster said she also takes into consideration the lessons she would like to change and how that would impact her students.
“Sometimes I make new assignments. I really like making handouts and organizing things, so I usually have the first month of school dialed in over the summer,” Foster said.
Creating a new curriculum model is something that Mockel said he has been working on with Wilgus.
“At the beginning of the year, Mr. Wolbert and I tweaked the Lord of the Flies project and created a class trial, using the book as witness testimony and then called witnesses,” Wilgus said.
Along with changing some book projects, Mockel said he is working on his separate improvements as well.
“I’m a big gamer, so I have been trying to gamify my class and incorporate some of the things I love into it,” Mockel said.
Mockel said that one of his favorite games is Dungeons and Dragons, as well as other role-playing games.
“My idea is that on the first day of class, I give my students a character sheet, and it will tell them the things they will learn that year, and they will be able to customize it a little bit,” Mockel said.
Mockel said that he’s seen a lot of research that the method he is planning on using is good for some students because it keeps students more engaged and gives them the chance to be more creative.
“Mr. Wilgus and I are excited to create something and see what we can do to make it our own,” Mockel said.
Still at School
Summer almost always means time away from school for students and teachers alike, but that won’t be the case for PHS Spanish teacher Joanne Guillén this summer, who will instead be visiting another school — but the trip isn’t for her.
Guillén will be taking her daughter, a graduating PHS senior, to orientation in Boston for the college she will be attending in the fall, Northeastern University.
Before that, however, Guillén said that they plan to spend a few days at nearby Cape Ann to enjoy the East Coast.
“I rented a place that’s a two-minute walk to the beach,” said Guillén.
“I’m looking forward to relaxation, lobster rolls, and swimming in the Atlantic Ocean.”
