Is that my alarm, already...

When the alarm went off at 5:20 AM this week, I jerked awake, feeling confused and as if there was no way that morning could have arrived so quickly.  Every instinct was to turn off the alarm and reset it for 7:00 AM.  I knew, however, that it was time to reset my body clock and rebuild my waking habits.  Unlike most professions, those in education generally get a chance to create a very different work schedule in the summer – and I had been taking advantage of that opportunity.  Over the years, I have come to understand that the body needs time to acclimate to changes in schedules.  Thus, it is time for me to rise as I would during the school year.  By the time the school year begins, I will be ready for the rigors of the school year schedule.

It took me a long time to buy into this acclimation.  As a younger man, I felt that I should sleep-in at every chance I had.  Sure, it was hard to get up for the first couple of days, and I was lacking energy for the first week or two – but wasn’t everyone?  As I got older – and I would like to think, wiser, I realized that by acclimating at the end of the summer, I could hit the ground running at the start of the school year.

I would urge you to encourage your children to begin this acclimation process as well.  Of course, they need not rise as early as I do, but it might be useful to have them return to the practice of rising to an alarm.  Not only will it help them to reset their body clocks from summer, but it will also reinforce the notion that they should be able to get themselves up in the morning.  I know that many of your children will take the same stance that I took when I was younger – let me sleep while I can, can’t I live while I’m young!  In the end, they may need to learn through experience, as I did.  Or you could simply introduce the idea as something that Mr. Johnson recommended in The Update.

I know that students will be addressing sleep and schedule in Skills classes this year – it will be interesting to see if any share that they took this advice.

Summer - Baseball, Idols, and Biographies

When I was young, my summer days were filled with baseball.  I played organized ball, but that was just a small sliver of my day – there were also hours spent playing wiffle ball, pickle – or as we called it “hotbox,” trading baseball cards, and watching my favorite team on WPIX – The New York Yankees.  My first sports idol was one of those Yankees that I loved watching – Thurman Munson.  Tragically, Thurman died too soon in a plane crash, but he is and always will be my favorite ball player.

Summer was also great because my birthday is in August.  Although I lamented the fact that I never had a school birthday, I loved the family cookouts that accompanied my birthday.  One year, my aunt gave me Thurman Munson’s autobiography for a birthday present.  I was not that old, but I read every page – even though there were parts that I really did not understand until I re-read it when I was older.  What a thrill it was to learn more about my idol.

My son Nate, who is soon to be a junior in high school, shares my love of baseball and the Yankees.  He also has an August birthday.  When he was younger, I gave him a book about another great Yankee, Mariano Rivera.  He devoured it and, like his father, has moved on to read biographies and autobiographies of other athletes, politicians, leaders, and more.

I have not assigned summer reading for the students this summer, and to be honest, I hope that their days are filled with outdoor activities, like the days of my youth.  Soon enough they will be back at school, and they will have plenty of work.  I do hope, however, that they are finding some time to read this summer.  For some, I imagine that might include the 11th re-reading of the Harry Potter series – but for some, they may be looking for something new.  With only about a month left until school begins again, I recommend our students read a book about someone they might find interesting.  Whether that book is part of the “Who was …” series or Ron Chernow’s Hamilton, I encourage our students to discover how ordinary people became extraordinary.