November has been one crazy month and there’s still a week to go.

I’m a teacher educator in California and I teach a curriculum design course as well as supervising student teachers this semester.  This means that a lot of my students have been under pressure this month to submit designing instruction, assessment and culminating teaching experience tasks for their preliminary credentials.  Many of them work or are taking a full class load so this extra stress for them is a lot on their plates.  Add to that the fact that I have a tendency to absorb the stress around me and you get a pretty stressful month.

Not that it’s been a cakewalk for me this month either.  I’ve been traveling for conferences.  I had the privilege of attending the National Council of Teachers of English Annual Convention in Las Vegas last weekend (indeed that’s what inspired this box) and this week, I’m heading to the National Association for Multicultural Education Conference in Philadelphia to present on a subject close to my heart. Plus, I signed up via twitter to be a facilitator with this really exciting online collaborative project called “Beyond Facebook 12” which groups high school students together to design blogs on topics of their choice.  I love professional collaboration and am so grateful for all these opportunities, but traveling can be really exhausting and meeting new people means being “on” all the time. And it means cramming a week’s worth of observations and teaching into 2 days.

And then, there’s my life outside of teaching. November is always a busy month as it is the month of my twin daughters’ birthday and Thanksgiving, which for our family is an incredibly important holiday since 8 years ago, on Thanksgiving was the first time our daughters (who are adopted) came over to our house for dinner.  With the twins’ birthday and Thanksgiving, there’s extra family time (and travel for them, as they both live on the other end of the state) which means less time for work in a month when most of my final assessments are due.

So, it’s been a crazy month and that’s why I want to advocate for the importance of breaks.  Given my workaholic nature, I am not prone to breaks.  In fact, I only learned the meaning of this word a couple of years ago after an extended hospitalization.  And even after being told repeatedly that I needed to take them (by pretty much EVERYONE), I still struggle with self-care when there is a pile of grading to do; a lecture or presentation to prepare; or a grant application due in a few weeks.

But, this weekend, I’ve been giving myself a break (at least as much of a break as I can give myself, which still means writing two letters of recommendations, checking and responding to work e-mail and writing this blog).  And, if this professional time is an extended journey, these breaks are the very necessary rest stops–a time to refuel and recharge, before the next stretch of the road.

See you on the other side.