Ah, summer time. Time for lounging by the pool, road trips, lazy beach days, sleeping in until 10:00AM*, and… professional development? Yup. Only people outside of education believe that teachers don’t work over summer “vacation”. This summer I decided to not only tackle my usual lesson plan development/classroom organization overhaul tasks, but to also take a couple of online classes via The Art of Education. Truth be told, I’m not too concerned about the work load, after all I (barely) survived grad school boot/summer camp a few years ago, this will be a piece of cake, right? Even so, I thought it might be good to have a few excuses on hand for those moments when I let things slide. Teachers make the worst students.

4 Reasons I’ll Give For Missing My AOE Class Assignments**

1. My toddler stole my required reading materials. True story. My class hasn’t even started yet and I’ve already had to scour my house for my book. Apparently my almost*** three year old thinks all books belong to her, or maybe she just really likes the cover, or maybe she’s trying to mess with me (my money’s on the latter).
2. I didn’t have access to the internet. There’s also some truth to this one as I am leaving tomorrow for a trek to the mountains of NY. If you know anything about the Adirondacks (I’m looking at you, Phyl), then you know there are still pockets of civilization with no cell service and {gasp} dial-up internet. And I’m headed there. For three weeks.
3. I forgot what day it was and didn’t realize my assignment was due. Now, we all know there’s truth in this. I barely have any concept of dates and days during the school year. Over the summer, my concept of time consists of morning, night, rainy days, sunny days, and Holy-Hannah-it’s-so-hot-I’m-crawling-inside-of-the-freezer-until-September days.
4. Doing my assignments was getting in the way of my Netflix marathons. I don’t have time during the school year to watch much TV as it airs. Summer is when I catch up on all the shows I missed. The Mindy Project may or may not take priority. I’m sorry, but that shit’s funny.

How about you, what are you professional development plans for this summer?

*If this is you, I envy you. I was blessed with a child who is a morning person. I’m lucky if I get to sleep in past 6:30AM.

**I realize that AOE classes are a work at your own pace deal, but for the sake of this post, let’s pretend there’s actual due dates, m’kay? Okay.

***That “almost” is essential in the child’s mind and MUST NEVER BE FORGOTTEN.

UPDATE: Guys. Jessica just informed me that there are, in fact, weekly, due dates, so, you know, this post is totally legit now.