My Story

Professional Biography:

Pernille Ripp is an expert in literacy and technology integration and dedicates her research and practice to developing engaged and empowered students and communities.

She is a teacher, speaker, author, blogger, and passionate advocate for education. She is the recipient of the 2015 WEMTA Making IT Happen Award; and the 2015 ISTE Award for Innovation in Global Collaboration.

In 2010, Pernille founded The Global Read Aloud, a global literacy initiative that began with a simple goal in mind: one book to connect the world. From its humble beginnings, the GRA has grown to connect millions of students in around the world.

She is the author of Passionate Readers -The Art of Reaching and Engaging Every Child and  Passionate Learners – How to Engage and Empower Your Students, now in its second edition, and Empowered Schools, Empowered Students, both focusing on creating learning spaces and communities where students thrive and all stakeholders are empowered and passionate about learning. She has also authored Reimagining Literacy Through Global Collaboration published in 2016 by Solution Tree.  Her work has also been featured in many print and online journals including Edutopia, The New York Times, School Library Journal, The Guardian, and MiddleWeb.

You can follow Pernille’s work on Blogging Through The Fourth Dimension, her personal blog and a frequent Teach100 top-rated education blog.

Pernille’s current research interest is in creating passionate literacy environments within the restriction of our current educational systems to helping students fall in love with literacy again. She uses her own classroom as a laboratory, as well as learns from the many educators she works with across the world.

Pernille is now also part of The Author Village, a collective of forward-thinking children’s book authors and educators available for school and library visits, conferences, festivals, panels, and professional development opportunities.  To see her page there, please go here.

More Information

Background:

Since I was a child growing up in Bjerringbro, Denmark, I knew I wanted to work with children and somehow help them become the person they envisioned.   In January of 2008 I took my first step in making a difference by becoming a math resource teacher and then transitioned into the classroom as a full-time general educator teaching 4th and 5th grade.  Now I have found my home as 7th grade English teacher in the phenomenal Oregon school district here in Wisconsin.   There is nowhere else I would rather be every day than in the classroom.

I created the Global Read Aloud; a global reading project that has connected more than millions of students on 6 continents since its inception in September 2010.  The Global Read Aloud continues to be a passion of mine and the project has been nominated for many awards as well as highlighted in the US Dept. of Education’s National Education Technology Plan for 2016. But more importantly, teachers around the world have put their heart and soul into the projects and it is this passion for it that drives it forward every year.  Who knows where it will go?

Our Classroom:

Diving into our identity and how our identity moves us to experience the world is at the center of all of the work we do.  This means that we embed choice, reflection, and personal goals all throughout our time together.  Developing our reading and writing identity is at the core at what we do and so is seeing the humanity of each other and respecting each other’s journeys.

Our year together is based around a few big ideas:

• In order for children to learn best, they have the right to feel safe, accepted, and valued in our learning community.

• Children grow more as learners and as human beings when they have choice in their learning, especially within their reading and writing, but also in how they navigate our learning experiences.

• Our identity plays a huge part in our perspective of others and the world, so in order to better understand the world, we need to understand ourselves and why we think the way we do.

• Technology can help connect us to others, share our voices, and also create change in the world.

• Learning should be engaging, appropriately challenging, and accessible for all kids.

• In order to be a better teacher, I need to invest in meaningful professional development, student feedback, home communication, and self-reflection in order to grow.

 My journey would not be as phenomenal if it wasn’t for the incredible students I get to teach every day.

Blogging:

I have been blogging since June 2010 when I decided I needed to reflect more on my own teaching journey.  I never imagined others would be interested in that journey or that this blog would lead to so many incredible opportunities.   My own blogging journey inspired me to have my students blog as well, here are  their incredible student blogs.  My blog is visited by educators from all over the world and I am proud of the international debate it has created on topics such as failure in the learning environment, what the role of a teacher is, how to create passionate learning environments, how to ignite student passion in literacy, as well as how to create a successful student blogging classroom.

My Books:

In 2014, a dream came true when my first book Passionate Learners – How to Engage and Empower Your Students came out.  It has since been updated and published in a 2nd edition format by Routledge based on my experience as an elementary and middle school teacher.  My second book Empowered Schools, Empowered Students – Creating Connected and Invested Learners was published by Corwin as part of their Connected Educator series also in 2014.  I have also authored Reimagining Literacy Through Global Collaboration published in 2016 by Solution Tree, and Passionate Readers -The Art of Reaching and Engaging Every Child, published in summer 2017 from Routledge.

To get a sneak peek into our classroom and the work we do, watch this video.

Of course these opinions, musings, rants and reflections do not express the opinion of my employer. One would be crazy to think that one single teacher could be the mouth piece for an entire district. Nor are my posts meant to offend mostly, nor mislead but rather provide a snapshot of my mind at a certain point in time on a topic. So please feel free to disagree, agree, compliment or discourage further blogging but promise to not think this is in any way an official mode of communication for my employer. These are my opinions and while I stand behind them right now they may change so while you are at it, don’t hold that against me either.

Endorsements and Sponsorship:

I am not endorsed nor in a sponsorship with anyone.  While publishers will send me books in order to consider them for the Global Read Aloud, I am not paid for this, nor will I ever sell my opinion.  Any books I recommend on here on elsewhere are books that I love. I am, however, a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.  That is why I will often link the books I recommend.