In case you get bored...

Hello, fellow lazy summer-ers!

Today's guest post comes from Alexis Bonari, who writes for onlinedegrees.org. She writes about things for teachers to do over the summer after they got bored -- like THAT would ever happen. :)

For the Overachieving Teacher: What to Do After Having Requisite Summer Fun

School is out for the summer. The impending doom of some annoying, ill-conceived vacation or a week of going to the pool, smelling like sunscreen, getting burned anyway, and leaving peeled skin all over the deck chairs hangs in the air. Mister Overachieving Teacher shakes his head and knows that he will have to suffer through at least a week of “real vacation” time with his wife, but after that, he’s got big plans. Fun plans. Life-changing plans of immense grandeur.

Summer Vacation Doesn’t Have to Be Too Much Fun

What’s a teacher to do when he’s exhausted all of the “real vacation” possibilities? Fun in the sun isn’t usually the mantra of an entire three-month period, especially not for the overachieving teacher who gets the itch to “do something” while he’s on vacation. As it turns out, there are plenty of enriching (and even fun) activities for all of those “doer” teachers who are starting to make the beachgoers nervous.

Being an Accomplished Vacationer

ThriftyFun readers (and Mister Overachieving Teacher) recommend the following substantial activities:

1. Stop griping and start golfing. It gets the teacher outdoors, passes the time, and even offers a way to get some kind of exercise into that vacation.

2. Teachers can be students, too. Attention-grabbing community college classes like cooking, art, or computer science can be a smart way to pass the summer. Also, for the teacher who’s still finishing up a higher education degree, summer classes might be beneficial.

3. For outdoorsy types, the local Parks & Rec tends to have summer job opportunities or volunteer work that needs to be done.

4. It’s a fact: teachers love book stores. Why not keep track of any lectures happening at these favored venues?

5. Volunteer at a nursing home, homeless shelter, animal shelter, or other deserving community service institution.

6. Become a gardener and start a local plant swap group.

If golf looks like a daunting activity, the adventurous teacher may want to try disc golf. As long as there’s a course in the area and a sporting goods store that offers discs, it’s a good way to develop some arm strength for erasing those chalkboards in the fall.

Bio: Alexis Bonari is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident blogger at onlinedegrees.org, researching areas of online colleges. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.