A Simple Lesson

Their words echo across the pages; see me, notice me.  Post upon post the kids’ voices rise off the pages; like us, love us.  Altogether they tell me again and again; what we love about school is not just our friends but the teachers that actually like to teach.  The teachers that have a little fun.  The teachers that seem to care that we showed up that day.

So why do we forget this when we plan?  Why do we forget to take time to notice kids?  For small conversation?  I look at my lesson plans and nowhere does it say; walk around and speak to students, smile at them, laugh with them, find out more about them.  Instead the standards are aligned with all of my goals.  This is what we must cover, this is what we must do.

Those who wrote the Common Core, those who write the standards, seem to have forgotten one small thing; without relationships none of it matters.  Without relationships all our fancy lesson plans will be are words floating through air, no anchor to bind them to the minds of our students.

So this week, I am planning for time.  I am planning for them.  Notice me, like me, laugh with me, show me.  Those are the goals of my lessons.

I am a passionate teacher in Oregon, Wisconsin, USA,  who has taught 4th, 5th, and 7th grade.  Proud techy geek, and mass consumer of incredible books. Creator of the Global Read Aloud Project, Co-founder of EdCamp MadWI, and believer in all children. I have no awards or accolades except for the lightbulbs that go off in my students’ heads every day.  First book “Passionate Learners – Giving Our Classrooms Back to Our Students” can be purchased now from Powerful Learning Press.   Second book“Empowered Schools, Empowered Students – Creating Connected and Invested Learners” is out now from Corwin Press.  Follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.