How are you spending your summer? If you summer is anything like mine, it is going way too fast!

Some people may think that teachers have three months in the summer to rest. However, I don’t know many teachers who only relax all summer. Many teachers just love their jobs so much, that taking on that extra project in the summer is energizing. I also took on extra projects this summer, but I also found time to relax and play. Here were some of my projects this summer.

I visited delightful groups of 11th and 12th graders at Laurynas Iviniskis Gymnasium in Kuršenai, Lithuania. During the lessons, the pupils puzzled through making decisions using logic and reason. This helped me to design a new lesson for the first year students at LCC.

I read 25 final thesis projects and sat on the defence panel at Kaunas Technical University (KTU) for students in the New Media Languages program. I learned about rhetoric, political speeches, linguistic landscapes and much more. This helped me to see how another Lithuania university manages final projects.

I taught English to a delightful group of adults at the employment agency in Klaipeda. As beginners, we practiced introducing ourselves, shopped for clothing, ordered lunch from a menu, and described our families. This reminded me of the necessity of carefully planning for A1 (elementary) learners.

I was on a team of veteran teachers across Lithuania to assess the Lithuanian VBE, national English exam. My job was to give read and score 375 essays written by 12th graders. This showed me the strong skills of 12th graders, while it also reminded me of their common mistakes in English writing.

I guided an MA TESOL thesis student through the final steps in her MA thesis. We were researching how fluency activities impact students’ writing complexity, accuracy, and fluency over a semester. This experience challenged my research skills while at the same applauding my student’s hard work.

But I also played. As only one example, my neighbours invited me to Dinosaurs Parkas near Klaipeda. For the whole evening, we played on plastic dinosaurs, drove bumper cars, sung on huge swings, strolled through the forest, swam in the pool, and enjoy the sauna.

Each summer project was meaningful, and while I may not have found the perfect balance between work and rest, I did enjoy my summer. Playing with dinosaurs (or however you have fun) balances out the time spent on work-related projects.

Author: Robin Gingerich, Ph.D., English Department Chair at LCC International University.