As students disperse at the end of the school year, everyone goes about their business. Some students keep in touch over the break while others opt to share with their peers what they did over the summer when they get back to school. But one question is often left unanswered: what did the teachers do over the summer?
English Teacher Nancy Wassner
While some teachers spent their summers vacationing, English teacher Nancy Wassner had her nose in books all summer long. With a total of 15 books read, she had a great time digging into some new reads as well as some of the classics.
Wassner enjoyed a great deal of the books that she read, including “Night Watch” by Jayne Anne Phillips, which was recently awarded the Pulitzer Prize, and a quartet of books by Italian writer Elena Ferrante known as “The Neapolitan Novels.” There were also some books that Wassner wasn’t a big fan of, such as “Call It Sleep” by Henry Roth.
“[‘Call it Sleep’] was a stream-of-consciousness narrator from the perspective of a very neurotic young boy who was obsessed with getting back to his mama, and it just stressed me out,” Wassner said.
Reading wasn’t the only thing Wassner did this summer. Along with entertaining herself with books, Wassner spent a weekend with her 13-year-old niece in celebration of her bat mitzvah. They enjoyed visiting museums and swimming in the pool together, where they had the opportunity to bond, Wassner said.
Finally, Wassner spent time preparing for classes she would be teaching this year by rereading the curriculum books and getting organized for back to school.
“I figured out what [I was going to do on] approximately what day,” Wassner said. “But mostly I just relaxed and didn’t think about school.”
Math teacher and Choir Director Karen Pang
One thing that math teacher and Choir Director Karen Pang did this summer was visit three islands in Hawaii with her husband and three daughters for the first time. While there, they explored the many wonders the islands had to offer.
One moment that stood out to Pang on her vacation to Hawaii was tasting fresh green peppercorn for the first time and sharing that experience with her children.
“It was fascinating,” Pang said. “All of my kids were like, ‘Oh my God, I want to try that again.’ It was incredible.”
Apart from her travels, Pang spent time this summer preparing for the upcoming school year and finding innovative teaching strategies to help bring more life into the classroom. For example, Pang believes that encouraging students to do their work on whiteboards will keep them active and is one step toward her hope of making math a more interactive subject.
Along with preparation for classes, Pang supported her children in their various summer activities, including music and theater camps.
“I just got to go see so much music and so many performances [which] was just amazing,” Pang said.
Mrs. Jacobs
Summer break is usually considered a time off of work for educators. However, for Associate Director of College Counseling Rachel Jacobs, this was not the case.
One major task that Jacobs, a 12-month employee, works on over the summer is writing college recommendation letters. Jacobs said that it can take her a few hours to write each individual recommendation.
Although working seems out of the ordinary JDS staff members, Jacobs made the most out of every moment, including her transportation.
“A highlight was riding my bike to work because that is something I had planned to do last summer and never did,” Jacobs said. “So I did it this summer.”
Jacobs also had the opportunity to do some traveling including a brief trip to Tulane University. Jacobs also spent a week in New York with her thirteen-year-old daughter. They visited some museums, saw the Broadway show “Stix” for the second time and watched the Broadway show “& Juliet.”
“[& Juliet’ was] full of pop music songs, so songs that pretty much everyone in the audience, no matter their age, knew,” Jacobs said. “The lyrics worked right into the dialog. It was really good.”
