Author: Pernille Ripp

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. Second book“Empowered Schools, Empowered Students – Creating Connected and Invested Learners” is out now from Corwin Press. Follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.

When I moved my blog from Blogger to WordPress last summer I mistakenly assumed that all posts would seamlessly transfer. I have since found the error in my thinking and have decided to re-post some of my more discussed posts that didn’t survive the move. This is one of those posts.

When I was 22, my 12 year old little brother brought a knife to school. Now before people freak out, it was a steak knife, kept in his backpack, until he needed to use it to cut open an onion. You see, his 6th grade classroom had different plant experiments and my brother’s group had decided that they would slice open an onion in a live demonstration to show the rest of the class all of the layers and even have them smell it. So he prepared as any Danish student would and packed one of our normal serrated dinner knives in his backpack. Come science time, much to his teacher’s horror, he pulled out the knife. His teacher, a calm and cautious woman, sent him straight to the principal’s office for possessing a knife. And then the district’s zero tolerance policy took over.

Had this event occurred in Denmark, where we had moved from 4 years earlier, nothing would have happened. In fact, knives in schools are a common occurrence as students bring them in to cut cakes or other foods. No big deal. However, in this post-Columbine American era, no chances were to be taken. So when my little brother, a straight A student, threatened to cut up that onion he was expelled from school for a year. The school board argued that intent did not matter, all that mattered was that he had brought a dangerous weapon to school and that it could have fallen into the wrong hands, a person who could then use it as a weapon. However, they gave my brother an out. If he did not want to be expelled for a year all he would have to do was admit he committed a crime, submits to a psychological evaluation, and undergo an extensive anger management therapy program he would be allowed back into school sooner. The school district urged my parents to take the punishment, have him admit his guilt, and then he could return to school the following school year. Mind you, this was March so the next year was more than 5 months away.

Most parents would not have fought a powerful district, but mine did. They saw injustice being made and more importantly, they realized that zero tolerance with no perspective of situation made zero sense. So they hired a lawyer and the school district was shocked! They had never had a family hire a lawyer before for an expulsion hearing! When my parents opened up the hearing to the public, also unheard of, the media caught wind of it. I cannot tell you how strange it is to drive to work and have the local morning radio team lambast your little brother ,who they felt was just another privileged white kid trying to get out of his rightful punishment. Luckily others saw more nuance in the situation and some radio hosts even made it their mission to make more people aware of it. So I swore at the radio, tried to protect my little brother, who admittedly had made a stupid mistake but a mistake nonetheless, and waited for the hearing.

I don’t think there has ever been so many people to an expulsion hearing before. I also think a lot of people were shocked at the vigor with which the school district’s lawyer went after my little brother. Had my parents not been in a situation to hire their own lawyer, it would have been a bloodbath, with a 6th grader as its victim. The hearing lasted 3 1/2 hours with witnesses being called to testify to my brother’s character and intent. My brother swore he did not realize he was doing anything wrong.

Finally after 3 1/2 hours, the independent examiner told the district that the 15 days my bother had been out of school was enough punishment and that this eagerness to prosecute was overkill. In fact, “Here’s a child who has done well in school, who is compliant, smart, and if we haven’t gotten the message to him with a 15-day suspension, then we need our heads examined,” is what the independent examiner said. After we breathed, hugged, and then realized the nightmare was finally over we started to see the how the victory was not just for my little brother, but for all of the students of his district because it prompted a review of the district’s zero tolerance policy. In the end, a clause was added to the district policy much later that each case had to be evaluated and could not just be judged based on the same language. A small but righteous victory indeed.

So what made me think of this even that occurred 9 years ago? A line in this article “How I Joined Teach for America – And Got Sued for $20 Million” in which the writer states, ” Furthermore, I saw from the first month that she generally gave delinquents no more than a stern talking-to, followed by a pat on the back, rather than suspensions, detentions, or any other meaningful punishment.”

Meaningful punishment? Why does those words seem to not go together? To me they appear almost opposite of each other. Meaningful? When you punish a child, it is to punish, not to have them reflect or rethink, but to judge them based on their actions and then hurt them in some way, not necessarily physically. When we suspend students, we punish them by removing them from the privilege of learning, even though this sometimes is the worst thing that can happen to them. When we punish students for not doing their homework by keeping them in from recess, then we are taking away their rightful time to renew and re-energize before we expect them to learn again. What would a meaningful punishment look like? There can be a consequence, but a punishment?

So I ask you, is there such a thing as meaningful punishment? Is it our job as educators to punish our students? My brother fell victim to a zero tolerance policy that wanted to punish him to the utmost of its capabilities, without common sense, without the “punishment” fitting the “crime.” He was not angry, nor was he a criminal, and yet the district deemed him as such. Since when do we get to lose our common sense when we make rules and them apply them blindly? When do we realize that it is children’s futures we have in our hands and not just percentages or statistics, but real live kids that are deeply affected by our decisions to punish.

As for Christian, he is 24 now , and in Denmark studying for his bachelors degree. I miss him dearly, but will never forget that phone call I got from his school back in 2002, when I was sick on my mom’s couch, telling me that he had been caught with a knife, and that scared look when he realized what was going to happen to him. Another victim of zero common sense.

reflection, rewards

All You Have to Do is Show Up – A Tale of Perfect Attendance

March 6, 2014 Pernille Ripp

Today the debate turned to perfect attendance rewards, something that seems innocent enough on the surface, but can elicit debate in even the most timid teachers. I was lucky to engage in a great dialogue with a trusted colleague but also turned to educators around the world to get their input. The judgment was swift and to the point, most were vehemently opposing them, lambasting them for what they thought they really were; bandaid awards to those students who may not otherwise receive an award.

So why is rewarding students for perfect attendance not a great concept? The ideas were many:

It is one more way for schools to separate the winners from the losers in a public forum.
It rewards students just for shwoing up, not effort, work ethic or learning. What life skill does that teach since there are no jobs that reward you merely for showing up.
Perfect attendance award does nothing but encourage students to come to school even when they are sick enough to stay home or contagious.
It makes losers out of the kids where life situations prevent them from coming to school; funerals, court, counselor appointments etc.
We are rewarding kids based on their parents behavior; whether they can get them to school or not. Why disappoint the kids further that already are battling with parents that may not be able to supply reliable transportation.
If this is the only thing we can rewards students for then we are not spending enough time recognizing or uncovering their talents.
And finally, my own opinion; if we have to reward students to come to school then what value are we placing on schools? School is meant to be a place of stimulation, of excitement, of amazing discoveries. Not a place where you show up just so you get a reward. Not a place that has to have a reward tied to it as theperetual carrot. While I agree that we should celebrate those students that do show up day in and day out, I just don’t think that an award eceremony is the right venue for it.

Add your voice to the debate! Is a perfect attendance award ceremony simply a cute certificate that does no harm, is it no big deal, or is it another way to compartmentalize students?

Be the change, being a teacher, Student-centered

You Mean We Just Get to Learn?

March 5, 2014 Pernille Ripp

The students look a bit confused as I finish speaking. I wait a second and then ask them if they have any questions.

“No project?”

“Nope.”

“Nothing to present?”

“Not if you don’t want to.”

“Can we present if we want?”

“Sure, if we have time.”

Then smiles, murmurs, and whispered comments.

“Ok, Mrs. Ripp, this sounds fun.”

I have just told the students about our new resource time schedule and how I have built in project time – a 30 minute time block once a week for each child where they get to just learn something. Not time to create a presentation, not time to think of how they will share what they have learned, not time to work on homework, but just pure, self-regulated learning for the fun of it. Learning driven by their curiosity. Learning driven by their desires. Not genius hour even, just soaking in knowledge.

We decided as a group we would have an overarching theme every week, a common theme to get excited about, so geography will greet us next week. The students can create if they want or they can just soak in knowledge. They can work by themselves or learn with a friend. They can decide what part of geography they want to learn out of need or out of interest. I don’t set the direction, I don’t set the tone, I don’t tell them how. I give them the time, they pick the tools, they push themselves.

I can’t wait to see what they learn. I can’t wait to see what they do.

being a teacher, being me, Reading, reflection

My Students Hate Our Read Aloud

March 3, 2014March 4, 2014 Pernille Ripp

I could tell they were falling asleep. Drowning in their disinterest, faking it just for me. So I tried to make the voices like they like, I tried to quicken the pace. I emphasized the action that happened. Nothing… The read aloud had started 2 minutes ago yet it felt like an hour.

I closed the book. Asked what was the matter.

“It’s so boring, Mrs. Ripp,” whined a student (yes really, whined).

“There’s no action…”chimed another.

“Remember how with “The False Prince” we asked you to keep reading? That hasn’t happened once here!” exclaimed a third. Heads nodding all around.

So I did what most teachers normally do when their meticulously chosen read aloud is torn apart, I got defensive.

“What do you mean there is no action? Didn’t you just read this part? And also, you have to give it a chance, not everything can happen all at once…” I could hear my own sales pitch but I couldn’t stop it. “Trust me, I picked this book and it is phenomenal, it gets so good.” I was starting to sound desperate. I shut the book, sent them off to read, and sat n the rocking chair licking my wounds. How could they question what I had chosen? Didn’t they trust in my opinion?

Now, looking back on it I see what I should have done. I should have listened. Asked more questions, taken their notion to heart and opened it up for a classroom discussion. I shouldn’t have gotten defensive, I shouldn’t have shut it down. I shouldn’t have taken it personally. It is not me, nor the book that is the problem. It is the choice of the book right now that isn’t working, that’s all.

So tonight I realize that perhaps we need to just abandon the book. That it is not a case of me being wrong on my selection; the book is one of my all time favorite books, but that it may just not be the right fit for us right now. That it may not be the best read aloud. That doesn’t make it a bad book, far from it. It just means that kids should discover it on their own, at their own pace, much like I did when I first read it.

Tomorrow when I am with my students again, I will ask them their thoughts. Should we abandon or should we continue forward? I will not be offended, I will not become defensive. I will instead take it as yet another learning moment just like I should have done from the start. Although we try so hard to find the perfect read alouds for our class, they don’t always work. And that’s ok. It is when the students have the courage to speak up against our choice that we must listen the hardest. After all, as teachers isn’t that we strive for them to gain? The courage and independence to form an opinion about something?

My students didn’t set out to upset me, nor to disappoint me. They spoke up so that we could be saved 200 pages more worth of bored read aloud time. I am not mad, nor upset anymore, but instead renewed by the challenge of finding the perfect read aloud. The one that will have the students begging for just one more page. The one that they will clamor to read themselves once I am done. That’s the one I need to find. And the best part, I know it is out there.

Post Script:

Today we talked about the book, I shared with them the new book that they could switch to and then we did a secret vote. In the end, I was surprised. The majority decided to stay with our current read aloud, however, I struck a deal with the other disappointed kids. We will revote in 50 pages and see if we want to continue with it then or not.

I then discovered something important as I read aloud. While I hate to stop a read aloud, I asked them if they knew what a passage meant. They had no idea. Between my sub and I, we had not discovered that the students were not catching a lot of the meanings in the text or even some of the context! I had miscalculated their background knowledge as well as their vocabulary. No wonder they dislike the book so much, they were missing half of the action. As I finished our read aloud telling them a little bit about WWI, I could see I was re-hooking them into the book. While it may not be everybody’s favorite book still, I think it still has a chance…

being a teacher, being me, reflection

I Don’t Know What It Means to Be My Student

March 1, 2014March 2, 2014 Pernille Ripp

I grew up in a small town in Denmark, population 7,509. There was a handful of minority students at my school, all adopted with little knowledge of their old culture. I didn’t grow up in diversity, I didn’t grow up in poverty, I didn’t grow up in instability or transitional homes. I didn’t grow up in anger or uncertainty. I grew up surrounded by the love of my family and kids that looked just like me.

I teach in a school with a diverse population, yet you would not know it looking at our teacher population. Mostly white, mostly female. Much like many elementary schools across the United States. I am asked to relate to my students, to be sensitive to their needs, their background. To be aware of how their situation, their family life, their culture affects their entire being. And yet…

I don’t know what it means to be a minority. I don’t know what it means to come from poverty. Or a broken home. I don’t know what it feels like to be in a classroom where no one looks like you or to be judged because of the way one speaks. I don’t know what it feels like to be homeless or angry at the world. I can pretend I do, but I don’t.

But there are things I can understand.

I can understand what it means to be the new kid. To not speak a language. To not have 2 parents. I can understand what it means to feel the like the world is against you and there is no one that cares. I can understand what it feels like to think that not a single person cares about you in the whole world and that you will always be alone.

I cannot connect to my students using experiences we have not shared and I will not pretend that I can. Yet that doesn’t mean I cannot be a great teacher to them. That doesn’t mean we cannot forge a deep relationship. I can connect with my kids through listening. Through caring. I can connect through the love of a book ,a song, a class or a laugh. I can connect with my students by acknowledging that we are different and that I will never know what their lives are truly like but I will try. I can connect not through their background but what we create together. I can connect with them based on the now, while still acknowledging the before. Together we can try to understand, together we can make a new connection.

I don’t know what it means to be them but that’s ok. I know what it means to be here, now, in our classroom. And that’s a start at least….

I am a passionate (female) 5th grade teacher in Wisconsin, USA, 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 Classroom Back to Our Students” will be released this April from Powerful Learning Press. Follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.

Be the change, being a teacher, PD

Small Moment PD or How To BE a PD Ninja

February 25, 2014February 25, 2014 Pernille Ripp

I am busy working on my second book to be published by Corwin in the fall hopefully, tentatively titled “Empowered Teachers – Empowered Students” it is all about how to change the climate of a school and a classroom. One of the things that I have been writing about is the need for “small moment PD,” particularly as we get busier and busier in our educational lives. What follows here is an excerpt from the draft, I would love to add your ideas to it or just get your thoughts.

So where can small moments of professional development happen?

5 minutes after the first bell. This may be a sacred time for attendance but why not dedicate it instead to article reading time or video viewing time. Send a short blog post or article for teachers to read the first five minutes during the day. Students are typically settling in, working on morning work, listening to announcements, and getting ready for class to start. While you read they could still be doing all of that or they could also be reading an article to benefit them.

Create school-wide independent reading time. Once a day or once a week, everyone should drop everything and read. Often teachers think that independent reading time (if at all implemented) should be used to meet with students, grade papers, get ready etc, but instead give permission to just read something. You can choose whether it should be something pre-determined or whether teachers can choose their own reading material but give them the time.

Buy professional books for book clubs. Some teachers thrive in informal book club discussions but don’t want to spend their own money buying the books needed. So why not allocate money for staff to pick their book club books and then highlight that a book club exists. Often all it takes for teachers to start reading is to give them a nice, new inspiring book.

Forward on condensed magazines filled with information. One of the biggest obstacles to quick professional development is finding the time to find things to share. Magazines such as “The Best and Next in Education” do the work for you. All you have to do is subscribe and then pass it on to staff.

Preload iPods with podcasts. I know teachers who drive for more than 45 minutes to get to work, why not have pre-loaded iPods ready for them to check out with great new podcasts to inspire them? There are so many wonderful podcasts available for free that is destined to inspire. What’s more many podcasts nowadays are 15 to 10 minutes long, that means even teachers driving short distances can benefit from these.

The all school read in. Why not have a weekly or bi-weekly read-in in the gym where teachers can drop their students off and meet in teams to learn something together? Often teachers are eager to learn but don’t have the time to meet, so even a 30 minute read-in can provide the time needed with minimal supervision required.

The bathroom article. The one place that all teachers go at some point is the bathroom, so why not post relevant articles in them? While this may seem silly or disgusting to some, having reading material right in front of you usually means you will read it.

Bribe teachers with lunch or coffee. Where this is food, there can be learning. Once a month, my incredible PTO provides a teacher appreciation lunch, why not combine this with a great video or discussion group. While it could not be made mandatory, if the content being delivered is worthwhile, you should see at least some teachers choose to participate.
Combine PD with students. Some of my best best PD has been in discussion with mystudents after watching a video or reading an article. Now these are 5th graders so the content being delivered has to fit the appropriate age group, but I have always left these student discussions with ideas to implement in our classroom the very next day.

As I said, this is not the ultimate list, but rather a beginning to spark ideas for you. Every school is different, as is its culture. Brainstorm with teachers and students where to find the time for extra professional development. Create the opportunities and then highlight the teachers that take it. Lead them into new leadership positions where they can share their new-found knowledge, after all, it is not just meant to provide teachers with more knowledge, but for them to become experts in their own right.

I am a passionate (female) 5th grade teacher in Wisconsin, USA, 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 Classroom Back to Our Students” will be released this March from Powerful Learning Press. Follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.