Last week, I saw a Facebook post lamenting summer is half over. Oft times this is the time of year, educators’ attention and focus becomes divided between summer and the upcoming school year.

Here are three things to do today so you can enjoy summer as long as possible and still be prepared for the adventures of the coming academic year.

1. Pull out the folder you created labeled ‘Don’t Do This Again!’. If you don’t have such a folder, create one to use year after year. Here’s how:

• Think through your former school years and make a list of the things that don’t work well for you and your classroom. These are not personal failures; these are lessons you have learned. Honor them by not repeating them.

• Add things you have seen in other classrooms that haven’t gone well. These are not personal failures of other teachers; these are lessons you have learned the easy way.

2. Move the project list for your classroom from your head to paper, as well as information from the things that you have learned in professional development this summer that you are wanting to implement.

3. Create a launch pad for your classroom, a place to put everything you know you’re going to need (and can’t get) once you have left home. Be sure to put your “Don’t Do This Again!” folder and your project list there. You can always add to it as ideas and thoughts come to mind.

During the final weeks of summer, use your launch pad as a holder for everything. When ideas or concerns come to mind, add those to your launch pad and then go back to enjoying your time of rejuvenation.

You will come back to your launch pad as the time for preparation get nearer.

What’s in your ‘Don’t Do This Again!’ folder, on your project list, and on your launch pad?