Time off?

So, this is my first summer experiencing a true summer vacation – ie., not teaching summer school – although I am taking a class required for my MA. I am enjoying it, but whoever thinks that teachers are, like, totally “off” for the summer are wrong. My brain thinks all the time about what my class will be like next year, what it will be like now that I know I’ll be teaching fourth grade, and what kind of teacher do I want to be. It’s like I’m constantly on watch.

My professor in my current class (on bilingualism which, frankly, is depressing – more on that later) suggested we sign up for NYCORE (NYC’s radical educator’s group), which I did. I have no interest in being an on-the-streets activist again, and had avoided NYCORE b/c of folks who I’d rather avoid and I imagine are members, but I do want to keep abreast of what progressive teachers are up to… you just never know… There’s sort of this expectation in certain circles that the best teachers are the progressive ones and the progressive ones are the most forward-thinking an innovative (and always seem to be in high school….).. Anyway, it makes me long for teaching in a school where students are all being trained in bilingual/biliterate/multicultural classrooms. Do such public schools even exist?