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June 5, 2026
Recharge this summer with Share My Lesson’s 2026 Summer of Learning. Join 30+ free, for-credit webinars on wellness, AI, literacy, civics and classroom strategies, July 21-30.
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The end of the school year is here, and if you are an educator, school staff member, parent or any combination of the above, you have earned the right to stare into space for a minute.
Maybe more than a minute.
This year had the usual end-of-year blur: final assignments, field days, assemblies, celebrations, the frantic search for missing permission slips or money for yearbooks, and the slow realization that every child in the building has been running on Popsicles and vibes since Memorial Day.
In my own house, the transitions are feeling extra real. Next week, my son finishes elementary school. He’ll walk out those doors one last time as an elementary kid; and this fall, we’ll have two children in middle school.
Two middle schoolers in one house.
May the odds be ever in our favor.
My husband, a high school English teacher and noted grammar hardliner, is also wrapping up another school year. So, between my own work with educators, my kids’ school transitions, and the general end-of-year household chaos, I’m feeling that familiar June mix: proud, tired, grateful, and very ready to stop setting multiple alarms reminding everyone it is time to leave for school.
Which is exactly why summer matters.
But before we talk about summer learning, let’s acknowledge the hard truth echoing through hallways this year: We survived 6-7. No cap.
If you spent nine months listening to students shout “six seh-ven” for reasons no adult will ever fully grasp, you have earned your break. I don’t fully understand it, even though I wrote about it. Dictionary.com named it the word of the year. Our students made it a personality.
But it wasn’t all nonsense this year. Many students also carried something far heavier. Fear around immigration enforcement showed up in school communities through empty desks, distracted students, anxious families, and children trying to learn while worrying about what might happen at home.
If your school or community is navigating this, Share My Lesson has resources on lessons learned from Minnesota to help you.
That mix, the absurd and the heavy, often in the same class period, is the job.
It is also exactly why summer matters.
Not just to rest, though please rest. But to breathe, reset, learn what you choose, and come back with a few more tools for the year ahead.
That’s what Share My Lesson’s Summer of Learning is for.
Our 2026 Summer of Learning runs July 21-23 and July 28-30, with more than 30 free, for-credit webinars led by trusted education organizations and the people who actually do this work.
Here’s the part I love most: This is the professional development you choose.
Pick the sessions that fit your summer and your goals. Watch them live from a beach chair, poolside, or on demand at whatever hour actually suits you. Every session is free, eligible for PD credit, and built around your schedule instead of someone else’s.
Rest first. We’ll be here.
Summer of Learning is proudly sponsored by Discovery Education and organized around four themes:
You can’t pour from an empty cup, and you definitely can’t teach from one. We are offering 14 sessions on wellness and belonging. Here is are a few, and head over to our Summer of Learning page for a complete list.
Practical, school-ready strategies from the National Alliance on Mental Illness for spotting needs and building support across grade levels.
Jen Rafferty, CEO and founder of Empowered Educator, shares ways to stay grounded when the day is throwing student needs, adult dynamics and a hundred small decisions at you all at once.
Most self-care advice assumes you have a free hour and a clear head. Reader, you do not. See what the team from Mom’s Hierarchy has to help you.
Hunger doesn’t stop at a growling stomach — it follows students into the classroom. The Food Research & Action Center explores how hunger follows kids into the classroom, and what schools can do.
Artificial intelligence isn’t going away, and pretending otherwise doesn’t serve our students. Below are just four in our line-up for this summer. View the rest here.
The Center for Democracy & Technology breaks down where AI is actually showing up now, and what educators should watch for.
Shannon Bischoff of the Toledo Federation of Teachers shares real classroom uses, from lesson planning to saving yourself an hour on a Tuesday.
The Joan Ganz Cooney Center helps educators evaluate the flood of tools claiming to be “AI-powered” and “science of reading-aligned.”
EarthEcho International introduces free digital tools that bring real-world ocean science into grades 6-12.
Our country turns 250 in July. That milestone is really a celebration of the Constitution, civic education and the ideals we are all still working to live up to: the rule of law; a free and critically thinking citizenry; and the radical notion that democracy is something we teach, not something we simply inherit.
With a midterm season ahead, these nonpartisan sessions can help educators do that work in the classroom. Check out these four then head to our Summer of Learning page to view the rest.
PBS NewsHour Classroom shares ways to facilitate nuanced discussion about a complicated national story.
The Civics Center and the Albert Shanker Institute offer tools to help students lead.
The U.S. Vote Foundation focuses on teaching the process without wading into the political thicket.
Eighth-grade teacher Tia Costello shares practical discussion skills for anyone whose stomach drops a little when a hard topic surfaces.
Engagement isn’t a worksheet. It’s meeting students where they actually are. Here are a few of our offerings on this topic.
All It Takes shares strategies for the classroom today’s students actually inhabit, not the one we grew up in. See also: phones attached to walls and the ancient ritual of dial-up.
Andratesha Fritzgerald, CEO of Building Blocks of Brilliance explores how to move beyond compliance and get at the root of behavioral challenges.
Strong literacy instruction is at the center of so much of what we do, across subjects, grade levels and student needs.
A look at disciplinary literacy, student work and teacher leadership that adds up to systemic change.
Yes, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center’s session earns a spot in two themes. That’s how central this work is.
Because nothing says “summer PD” like a portable speaker-cooler combo.
From now through Aug.10, educators and school staff can enter to win 1 of 10 KoolTunes Igloo Coolers, perfect for your summer adventures, classroom prep or well-deserved downtime.
Enter the sweepstakes → https://sharemylesson.com/win-kooltunes-igloo-cooler
The full schedule, descriptions, and registration are all in one place:
Register for the sessions that fit your summer, or sign up for the whole series. Can’t make a session live? It’ll be waiting for you on demand, PD credit included, on your time, from wherever you happen to be.
Build your summer learning playlist.
I’ll be working through a few sessions myself, somewhere between summer camps, family travel, and my 25th college reunion, where my classmates and I will gather to celebrate the fact that we graduated in an era when phones were mostly used for calling people, cameras were separate objects, and “going online” made a sound that could haunt a house.
My children have informed me that this places me in the dinosaur age. Not regular dinosaur age. “Wait, cameras weren’t always part of phones?” dinosaur age.
I graduated when phones were attached to walls, kids. Some of us walked uphill both ways in the snow just to make a call. Show some respect.
To which I say: We survived dial-up. We survived MapQuest. We survived printing directions and hoping for the best. We can survive two middle schoolers and whatever new phrase students invent by September.
See you this summer during the sixth (June) and seventh (July) months of the year. See what I did there? 6-7.
This summer, tune into learning with Share My Lesson’s Summer of Learning collection featuring 30+ free, for-credit webinars, classroom-ready lesson plans and engaging resources for educators, parents and students.
