The school year is ending, and if you’re like many educators, you may feel both proud and exhausted at the same time. While we often focus on supporting students through academics and Social-Emotional Learning, educators frequently place their own needs at the bottom of the list. After months of lesson planning, grading, parent communication, and emotional investment, summer offers something important: a chance not only to recover, but to truly recharge and renew.
But summer can be more than recovery time. It can be renewal time.
Remember What This Year Required
There’s a unique kind of tired that comes at the end of a school year. It’s not always physical exhaustion. Sometimes it’s emotional. Mental. Even creative.
Teachers spend the year making hundreds of decisions every single day. We solve problems, redirect behavior, encourage reluctant learners, celebrate victories, and carry concerns home with us long after dismissal. Most of us willingly do it because we care deeply about our students.
But caring for students should never mean forgetting to care for ourselves.
That can be difficult to remember when we’re racing from one responsibility to another. The school year moves fast, and many educators become so focused on helping everyone else succeed that they forget they matter too.
And you do matter.
You matter to your students because relationships are at the center of learning. You matter to your coworkers because schools thrive when people support one another. You matter to your family and friends because they need the best version of you, not just the exhausted version that limps across the finish line in May.
This summer is an opportunity to recharge instead of simply recover.
Give Yourself Permission to Slow Down
One of the hardest things for educators to do is slow down without guilt.
Even during summer break, teachers often begin thinking about next year almost immediately:
- rearranging classroom spaces
- updating lesson plans
- attending professional development
- creating resources
- responding to emails
- worrying about next year’s students
Planning ahead is part of being a dedicated educator. But rest matters too.
Sometimes the most productive thing we can do is pause.
That pause may look different for each person. For some, it may mean sleeping in for the first time in months. For others, it could mean spending uninterrupted time with family, reading for enjoyment, gardening, traveling, or simply enjoying a quiet morning without rushing out the door.
We often tell students that balance matters. Summer is a good time for us to believe that ourselves.
Reconnect With the Things You Enjoy
During the school year, many personal interests quietly get pushed aside. Hobbies disappear. Favorite podcasts go unheard. Books remain unfinished on nightstands. Conversations with friends become rushed check-ins instead of meaningful connection.
Summer offers us the chance to reconnect with the parts of ourselves that existed before back-to-school season began.
Here are a few simple ways to recharge this summer:
Make Time for Connection
Call a friend you haven’t talked with in months. Meet someone for coffee. Sit and laugh without watching the clock.
Sometimes the best therapy is a long conversation with someone who understands life and listens well.
Enjoy Quiet Moments
Sit on the back porch and watch the sunset. Listen to birds in the morning. Enjoy a slice of pie, or maybe two, without multitasking.
Quiet moments help us reset in ways we often underestimate.
Listen to Something Just for You
Find a podcast you enjoy but haven’t had time to hear since last summer. Listen while walking, driving, or relaxing outside. Not every moment has to be “productive.” Some moments simply need to be enjoyable.
Here are a few podcasts worth adding to your summer playlist:
- Teachers Off Duty by Bored Teachers helps you laugh until you cry as fellow educators share the hilarious realities of classroom life that you finally have the headspace to process. It feels like a happy hour conversation with people who completely understand what the school year is really like.
- Beach Too Sandy, Water Too Wet features siblings dramatically reading ridiculous one-star reviews with complete seriousness. It is low stress, funny, and a great reminder that some people will always find something to complain about.
- Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! keeps you connected to current events through humor and creativity. It exercises your brain without making you feel like you are grading papers.
- The Big Picture from The Ringer is perfect for movie lovers. The discussions about new releases and older films feel like a fun conversation with friends about pop culture, just without the interruptions from bells or morning announcements.
Read Something That Makes You Laugh
Summer is also a great time to pick up a book simply because you want to read it.
One recommendation worth adding to your list is Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson. Lawson shares stories about navigating severe mental illness with humor, honesty, and moments that will have you laughing out loud on practically every page. Her idea of choosing to be “furiously happy” becomes a reminder that joy itself can be an act of resilience and survival. NOTE: The audio book is even better if you get the version where she reads the book herself. You will fall in love with her, her humor, and her determination to have a year filled with joy.
Sometimes laughter really is part of the healing process.
Understand That Rest Is Not Wasted Time
Many educators struggle with the idea that rest is somehow unproductive. But rest is preparation. We cannot continue pouring into others if our own energy, creativity, and emotional reserves remain empty. Students deserve teachers who are healthy, encouraged, and emotionally present. Families deserve that too.
And honestly, so do we.
Taking time to recharge is not selfish. It is necessary. When we return rested, we often return more patient, more creative, and more joyful. Ideas come easier. Stress feels more manageable. Challenges seem less overwhelming. Sometimes the best thing we can do for next school year is fully step away from this one for a while.
Create a Summer Recharge Bucket List
Instead of building a complicated summer goal sheet, consider making a simple “recharge bucket list.” Not a checklist filled with pressure. Just a gentle list of things that help you feel refreshed and grounded.
Your list might include:
- Watch a sunset
- Take a daycation to enjoy a place close by that you haven’t visited in a while
- Read two novels
- Try a new coffee shop or craft brewery
- Sleep past 7:00 AM
- Listen to music while cooking
- Spend time with family
- Go fishing
- Visit a bookstore
- Take an afternoon nap
- Binge-watch a new show while enjoying fresh popped popcorn
Simple things matter. In fact, they often matter most.
Let Summer Refill What the Year Drained
Educators are some of the most giving people you will ever meet. We encourage others constantly. We remind students they are capable, important, and valued.
This summer, remember those words apply to you too. You are valuable beyond your classroom role. Your worth is not measured by lesson plans, emails answered, or hours worked. You are a person who deserves rest, joy, peace, and meaningful moments with the people you care about. The school year asked a lot from you.
It’s okay to give something back to yourself this summer.
Before summer slips by, choose one thing this week that helps you recharge — even if it’s small. Share this post with another educator who could use the reminder that rest matters too.
Your Turn. What Will You Try Next?
What’s one small way you plan to recharge this summer? Maybe it’s reconnecting with friends, enjoying quiet mornings, reading for fun, or simply slowing down for a while. Share your ideas and experiences in the comments. Your suggestion might encourage another educator who needs the reminder that rest matters too.