During the school year, students come to learn and teachers come to teach. But where do teachers go when students are out hitting the beaches and vacationing?

To students’ surprises, teachers are real people too. And some of them have even crazier and more exciting plans than students.

Daniel Palheiredo, an English teacher at Staples, is spending some of his summer weeks in Maine at Acadia Park and Freeport.

“I try to find a way up to Maine pretty much every summer. My girlfriend’s family has a cabin in Northern Maine on this beautiful crystal-clear lake out in the mountains, and that’s where we have previously gone for a few days during the summer. But his year we want to try something different. Acadia is a little bit more rural than we are used to, and it will definitely be more intense camping.” Palheiredo said.

Like Palheiredo, Italian teacher Enia Noonan plans a fun summer in the states. Noonan will be spending some time in Vermont and tandem biking with her husband.

But it’s not all play and no work for the teachers. “I will be working on my four musical instruments: piano, accordion, saxophone and clarinet” Noonan said.

Palheiredo will also be spending a portion of his summer working: “My novel isn’t going to write itself, so that’s one thing I will definitely be spending a lot of time working on” he said.

Other teachers plan on going abroad for their summer. History teacher Dana Gilland will be going to Morocco this summer on a Fulbright program, focusing on global cooperation. For her trip, Gilland will be studying Arab culture. “We will be creating this digital ethnographic resource for anybody that is interested in Morocco or Arab Muslim culture,” Gilland said. Her group will also be taking photos, creating videos, and conducting recorded interviews to be put online for people to access so they can get an in-depth understanding of the country and the culture.

So while teachers may run a tight ship during the year, summer is their time to change things up and have fun.

“I’ve taken week long intensive institutes on the Middle East, but this is the first time going for a month someplace this intense; It’s exciting!” Gilland said.