I’m an avid art museum traveler. Wherever we go, we make sure to visit as many art museums as possible (this is the second priority in our travel planning – the first being great food). When we had a child, I wasn’t concerned that she’d love art museums, too.

June. The month where school kids get antsy, educators are doing their best to get it all in, parents are getting stuff ready for camp, and many are planning adventures near and far. It’s a change of season, the shedding of layers, an infusion of vitamin D, and a time when one door closes and another opens. Teachers in the United States are either counting the days or already out enjoying some well-deserved time away from school.

Water. At some point in social studies classes, we stop learning about water and start learning about economics, history, and even a bit of geography. Water winds up reserved for science experiments and sips from the drinking fountain down the hallway. I never really understood why. Humans and the earth are made mostly of water. We need to drink it to survive, and the land needs it to thrive.

I never knew that one of the best compliments from a former student was “I never really thought I was learning anything in your class – we just had fun.” At first I was offended and thought, ‘really, with all of that work in my lesson planning and efforts, really?’ And then I realized it was a compliment. Eventually, even those same students realized that if they didn’t know something at the start of the year and by the end of the year they excelled – then there must have been something going on.