On my school schedule, I blocked out 3 periods of Thursday morning. Instead of filling those boxes with student names or a class to teach, I colored them an ambiguous gray. During those gray times, I leave school. That’s right, I leave school.
My schedule is so full (with lessons, I’m teaching the equivalent of 6 class periods), I need to make intentional time to rest and recover within the week. That won’t happen if I stay at school where my to-do list will haunt me! I know I’m a much better teacher if I arrive to class well-rested, so I’m thankful for the flexibility to create that space within my week.
My typical Thursday morning looks like this:
8:00 – go to school and have PD time or teach a lesson (every other week is a “Late Start” designed to give teachers professional development).
Periods 1-3 I go home, take a 20 or 40 minute nap, go for a run, shower, make some coffee, clean the kitchen, eat lunch if it’s a late start day, and go back to school in time to teach Guitar Class. Today, the weather was beautiful, so I took my camera on my wog (it turned into a walk-jog because I kept stopping to gawk at the scenery). The fall colors have arrived, and it was finally sunny enough to highlight the brilliant yellows interspersed between some dark reds and oranges.
More than just resting my body, these runs give my soul recovery time. There were several moments I whispered to God, “You’re beautiful!” And my heart was full.
