Just a Dream

Every year since the beginning of my teaching career I have had a version of the same start-of-the-year-dream. The two elements that remain constant: I arrive to class after the students and I'm overwhelmed. In some of the dreams I've been barefoot. In some I've been moved to a new classroom filled with "observation windows." But the theme is the same.

Now I should make it clear that in my waking life I am always prepared for the first day of school. I will have been in my classroom for countless hours before the first of my new students ventures down the hallway. Still, the dreams have come.

Until this year.

I had yet another back-to-school dream recently. In this dream I arrived to school and no students were waiting expectantly for their tardy teacher to arrive. In this dream I was early and I was prepared.

I believe in the power of dreams to reveal the subconscious. This dream--it would seem--reinforced what I already know to be true: I'm ready and excited for a new year to unfold. I finally just completely surrendered to my summer this year. Meaning that I didn't teach summer school, or study teaching books (much), or stress out about the coming year. Instead, I slept late and read books of my choice and took my boys to Butterfly World. I disengaged from work completely. David Allen says to "...relax. You have to put in the clutch to shift gears. You have to let go to reengage at another, more high leveraged ratio."

I'm fairly certain that this summer was a season of putting in the clutch, of letting go, of simply enjoying my life. As a result, I am going back to school with a renewed sense of vigor and excitement. And this time I might even be wearing shoes.