How does that Nat King Cole song go?
“Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer
Those days of soda and pretzels and beer
Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer
You’ll wish that summer could always be here“
No, it’s not summer yet but I’ve been musing about those lazy days of summer and what to do differently, if anything, with my regular social media presence.
I remember my first teaching job clearly. Being young, and impressionable, it was exciting to learn from the masters. Those teachers who were in the system for years and carried so much wisdom with them.
When I stepped into my first day with about 20 third graders I was already briefed in some early teacher meetings. Most meetings were one to one meetings with the teachers of the grade previous to the grade you were teaching in.
The second grade teachers met with the third grade teachers to help in the transition. It seemed like a valuable idea to me at the time. To have something like a snap profile of each little person you would be with for a school year.
One teacher declared to me in a one to one meeting, “Now watch out for Jason. He has cleanliness issues.”
“Really?” is the only thing I can remember saying about that heads up. What was I going to do with that information?
Another teacher commented, “You want to me sure to recognize Sandra, she’s the principal’s daughter. I’m sure you would know by the last name,”
As my eyebrows raised, “But just to be sure you know that,” she added.
Then still another let me know that Claire was brilliant but bratty and she sometimes needed to be kept in line.
I took that to mean there would likely be a discipline problem.
Mostly statements with little direction for a young elementary teacher.
And embarrassingly now I tell you, they set my expectations which all came true. Jason was always in disarray, Sandra was always at the top of the class, and Claire was a discipline problem.
The shared observations were all good intentioned, I am confident. But the thing is all this feed forward set my expectations for each one of the children and shaped my attitude and behavior toward them.
Our attitude adds volumes to how we approach life.
That brings me to the question, as summer approaches do you have any plans to take a little time off from social media or, have you been told you must always be visible on social media?
If you aren’t blog posting every day then you’re losing your audience?
Or that if you take time off from your social media accounts presence you’ll be hurting your effectiveness?
I’m not so sure I believe all the warnings.
Go ahead and use summer now as excuse if you feel you need some vacation from some social media. As much as an introvert as I am, it’s time to look at reenergizing.
I’ve already started to take a day off on the weekends and wow, has my emotional energy gone up! More to put into my husband and family.
[…] What are Your Plans for Vacation from Social Media? […]