Summer Specialties: Teachers open up on their summer jobs

Summer is a time for relaxation. Whether going to the beach or just sleeping in late, summers are supposed to help students and teachers alike recharge their batteries after a chaotic school year. 

While many teachers do take their summers off to recover from the demanding school year, some have even more work to do during their summer break. 

Biology teacher Jenny Garcia, for example, used to spend her summers teaching summer school. Because her husband was was between jobs at the time, the extra income helped.

While Garcia no longer teaches summer school, her experiences allowed her to explore other subjects. At the time, Garcia taught chemistry at “regular” school; during summer school, she had the opportunity to teach biology. As a result, she got to work with different students than those in her regular classes.

“I enjoyed it because I got to meet students I hadn’t worked with before,” Garcia said. 

Besides working with a different group of students, summer school allowed Garcia to teach students differently than in her regular classes.

“It was a chance to get to the material in a different way,” she said. “[For example, to] do different labs [and] focus on different concepts.” 

Yet summer school is not the only job teachers take on over the summer. For example, world history teacher Kirk Abe is looking to teach drums for the first time to anyone who wants to learn. 

Abe has been playing drums for over 20 years and is now looking to transition to teaching. According to Abe, he would be willing to teach any age group this summer. 

As a teacher, Abe loves to help others and share his knowledge with other people. 

“I like sharing and helping others and since [playing] drums [is] one of my passions I thought it would be fun,” Abe said. “I used to coach wrestling and I miss it. This would be similar in many ways.”

Because he has been playing drums for so long, Abe feels he is at a point where he can help others. Though some teachers choose to take a job over the summer to make extra money, Abe is doing it out of pure enjoyment.

“It's fun and challenging,” Abe said. “It's a lifelong process of learning, understanding, and certainly it's a lifetime of enjoyment.”