Summer break for teachers is supposed to be a time to relax, recharge, and temporarily forget the painful sound of crowded hallways.
I’m not suggesting teachers spend their entire summer break taking courses and attending webinars.
If you’re going to try to learn something new this summer, focus on small skills that will actually save you time once September arrives.
Here are four that are worth considering.
1. Learn Useful AI Prompting
AI isn’t replacing teachers anytime soon, but it can absolutely help with lesson planning, parent communication, rubrics, brainstorming activities, and creating examples.
The key skill isn’t using AI. It’s learning how to ask good questions, to clearly create limits and expectations, and then review the results critically.
Think of AI as having a personal teaching assistant who works for free (but occasionally makes things up).
The better teachers understand how AI thinks, the better they can help manage their students using it too.
(HINT: School AI .com is a great resource also for AI activities you can design for students, all in a controlled, monitored environment.)
2. Create Short Instructional Videos
Like it or not, students and parents now expect information to be available immediately.
Learning how to quickly record your screen, create a short tutorial, or explain a process in a one-minute video can save you from answering the same type of parent email twenty-seven times a day.
Have a question you’re tired of answering over-and-over again? Make a screen recording of the answer, post it online, and enjoy a bit more quality time that has been restored to you. Bookmark it and share it via email later whenever the question inevitably comes up again.
Google recently rolled out a simple video editing tool to help make videos more efficiently, so it’s easier than ever!
3. Design Better Google Forms
Few teachers know how to use Google Forms to create branching forms, collect useful data, automate feedback, or build 100% self-paced learning activities. Designers can embed photos and videos, add links to other information, and even allow users to upload files into it.
Google Forms can do much more than multiple choice questions if you’re willing to spend an afternoon exploring its features.
4. Become a Graphic Design Pro
Learning a few basics in tools like Canva or Adobe Express can make classroom materials, newsletters, presentations, and parent communications look much cleaner and easier to distribute digitally.
Don’t Try to Learn Everything
Pick one skill. Maybe two.
The goal isn’t to become a technology expert before school starts. The goal is to make your life a little easier once the emails, meetings, grading, and unexpected fire drills return.
And, if you spend the rest of your summer break at the beach instead, that’s probably a pretty good professional development plan too.
