Nearly every educator eagerly awaits the wonderful winter break, which grants both teachers and students a few days to unwind and prepare for the upcoming New Year. December always serves as a reminder to prioritize family, joy, and well-being over work. However, it may sometimes be equally important to catch up on pending work and to meet the goals you have been chasing for a long time.
So, why not make your winter break stress-free and productive at the same time? Here are a few straightforward tips for principals, teachers, and students on ways to balance rest and productiveness.
Tips for Principals
Kick Back & Relax
The easiest and most vital thing to convince yourself of when setting off on a long holiday after months of arduous labor is to catch up on sleep. Most professionals often complain about how they ignore personal commitments to cope with the pressure of school or college work. Even if these duties don't often seem difficult, they may nonetheless impact their lives in a negative way as well as their attention levels. A break like this might just be what they need to relax, rejuvenate, and restart with a fresh new perspective.
Enjoy Leisure Time Activities
The best way to rekindle motivation and feel rejuvenated is to strike a balance between relaxing and being active (in a pleasant way) during long breaks, despite how alluring it may be to lie down and stay that way until a few minutes before the anxiety of being the school principal kicks again.
The best time to resume healthy habits you may have had to give up during your busiest months is when you're on a break from your routine. So, engage in a plethora of enjoyable activities that get your heart pounding, such as hiking, working out at the gym, or practicing yoga. Indeed, rejuvenating with some physical and mental action will make you more productive for the upcoming year.
Tips for Teachers
Pick a Book
As a teacher, reading is a very productive activity. For the winter break, choose a light book and indulge in some leisure reading. For inspiration, you can also turn to web articles for a while. Furthermore, you can peruse social media and read your favorite education blogs.
Set a Goal
Making one professional objective for the second half of the academic year may encourage you to stay productive. You can start setting goals by going over student responses from first-semester student surveys. You may discover what students think about time spent on a specific subject, if students appreciate listening to stories read aloud to them, or if they are distracted by how their desks are set up. You can integrate rectifications to the same.
Possible goals as mentioned above may include the following:
- Before the next academic year ends, test out at least one new technological tool with students. You can begin by using Teachmint & the school LMS that we provide to make your classes more interactive.
- While choosing a couple for yourself, ask kids to list some of their favorite books they have read this academic year.
- Before the school year is over, send at least one encouraging message to the parents of each kid, and ask them to use the Parent App to check the status of their child’s progress.
Suggested Read - Why Recess is Important for Teachers
Tips for Students
Keep an Eye on your Academic Progress
It's a good idea to evaluate your academic progress now that the school year is halfway through. Look for areas where you can improve by framing a strategy to finish the school year strong. You can use the various Performance Management tools to help improve upon them.
To improve your credibility, you can speak with your teachers to develop a study plan or request additional assignments. If you prepare early, it would be easier to excel in that particular area of study.
Suggested Read - How to Plan an Academic Year Effectively
Focus on your Hobbies/Interests
You may make use of your holiday time to figure out what truly interests you—whether it is a hobby or a study major you want to pursue—in case you are unsure of it. You may start by taking some aptitude tests to help you understand what gets your mind piquing. Perhaps, do some self-reflection and evaluate what you wanted the most when you were younger; if it still enthralls you, you may want to get on to it in the new year. Try to attain some clarity on what you wish to pursue in the future.
Take the time to do some research on the fields once you have a better idea of your interests. Talk to a professional in that field. Engage with students who share similar interests. Social media can help you network and consequently expand this network. Talk to others about their interests and choice of subjects. This will allow you to determine whether that major is the best fit for you.
Eat Healthy
Work and school pressure take minds off the most essential thing in life—our health. Ensure you stay fit and healthy—eat your cake and eat your greens. After all, what are holidays without sinful indulgence? Yet, eating healthy is a good way to maintain physical as well as mental health. Now that you have some spare time, you may consider going out for a walk or a run. There is no better recipe for a good, fulfilling life than eating healthy and working out.
Conclusion
The much-awaited winter break is here. It offers the perfect opportunity to unwind and recharge, whether you're in high school or college. However, it is also the perfect time to catch up on work or any other thing you may have been putting on the back burner.
It is crucial to take a step back and rejuvenate as a reward for all the hard work you did throughout the year. Engage in anything that brings you peace and gratification. While there are no hard rules that dictate the rights and wrongs of a productive vacation—you are being productive even if you choose to sleep through your vacation—several professionals and students may find it more satisfying to balance work and leisure.
You may make the perfect formula for the ideal holiday break by combining some of these productive things to do on vacation with some warm, merry entertainment.
