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.
assessment, feedback, No grades, Student-centered

How Do You Assess Without Grades? 5 Tips to Ease the Transition

Pernille Ripp
Two great questions came my way yesterday in regard to assessing without grades and then communicating that information.  We are so used to the ease of a letter grade that gets recorded in a book, averaged out and then translated into a letter, that moving away from that can be daunting and just a bit overwhelming.  So two years into my process I thought I would share some tips I learned the hard way.

  1. Discover your goal.

    2.  Whether they are based on district standards, common core, school outcomes, or even those listed in the curriculum, figure out what the goal is for each thing you teach.  These can be large or small (don’t do too many small ones though, trust me) and then figure out what the outcome should be.  Everything you do should have a learning goal because without that there is no point to the lesson.

  2. Determine the product.  What does it look like when students have accomplished the goal?  What is finished?  What is just another stepping stone?  How will students show that they have mastered the goal?  I love to have this discussion with my students, they have amazing ideas for this.
  3. Determine assessment.  Will it be written feedback?  Will it be a rubric?  Will it be a conversation – great tip; record these with a Livescribe pen and you have it for later!  Once again, ask the students, what type of assessment will help them?  How do they learn best?
  4. Keep a record.  This has been my biggest hurdle.  I have had charts, Google Docs, grade book notes, relied on my faulty brain, and yikes.  This year I am bringing my iPad in and using Evernote to keep track of it all.  Students will each have a portfolio in Evernote with conversations, pictures of work, links to blog posts, as well as videotaped events.  This way, everything will be at my fingertips when needed.  
  5. Communicate!  Assessment is not helpful if kept to yourself so have the conversations with students, take the time, write things down, communicate with parents.  All of these things need to be taken care of for this to work.  The allure of letter grades is just that; the ease of communication, nevermind that they can mean a million different things.  So when you step away from those make sure you replace that with communication.  Give students ownership of their goals and have them write a status report home, send an email, make a phone call.  Something.  Everybody should know where they are at and where they are headed throughout the year.

My 5 biggest tips for today and something I continue to work on.  Whatever your system is, take the time to reflect upon it, refine it, and make it work for you.  Ultimately stepping away from letter grades should lead to a deeper form of assessment, not a larger headache, but for that you have to have systems in place.

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grades, no homework, rewards

I Need to Let Go, But Not of Everything

Pernille Ripp
With the babies arriving any day now according to the doctor I have been mentally preparing to let go of my classroom, at least for the first two months of school.  This task is proving much harder than I ever envisioned.  Don’t get me wrong, trying to mentally prepare for twins is strenuous, but letting go of how I set up my room and community, yikes.

Those first two months are vital, ask any teacher and they will tell you just how much they matter, and yet I have to forget about that.  I have to trust my sub, who by the way is brilliant, but still…how will they know how fantastic 5th grade will be?  How will they know what my expectations are?  How will they know the kind of classroom I envision?  I swallow my fears and focus on the positive; the babies, the new life awaiting all of us and I realize I have had to let go.  I have had to let go of how the curriculum is taught, how their day to day lives will be, how the sub will treat them and build community with them.  I have to let go.

Yet, there are three things I cannot let go of, 3 things that I refuse to lose control over, as I reiterate to my sub just how important these are.

  1. Limited homework.
  2. No rewards/no punishment.
  3. No grades.

Is there more, well of course, but these 3 things are deal breakers, pillars of my philosophy, the things that cannot be sacrificed whoever is teaching.  And I need the students and parents to know that from day one, not day 40 as I venture into the room.  I need the parents to feel comfortable with the why behind these decisions and I need the students to know what is expected of them.  I need them to know that they set the rules, that we work together, not that learning will be forced with a carrot and stick method.  I need them them to know that work will be at school and they should see very little outside work if they spend their time wisely.  I need to get them ready to set goals, think about their learning and take control of it.  So those 3 things, those I am not letting go of.

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Be the change

We Cannot All Be the Best

Pernille Ripp
Be the example!  Set the bar high so others will rise to it!  We want to be a beacon school!  How often do we hear all of these statements in education.  Be the best teacher you can be…Be the one others want to emulate…Be the best school…the best team…the best everything.  And yet, we cannot all be the best. The whole notion of the term “best” automatically excludes most of us.

So instead of striving to be THE best, how about we strive to be better?  To change things?  To inspire others?  To motivate? To set grand examples while still learning from others?  The truth is if we were all beacon schools no one would be able to see us from the glare.  So shine bright yes, but that doesn’t mean you have to shine the brightest because then all you do is blind others.  

being me, help

It Is Those Little Things

Pernille Ripp
image from icanread

I wake up and spot it right away; my phone plugged in charging next to the bed.  Not a big thing, just one of those little things.  I get downstairs, which takes a while this pregnant, and again; a cup of tea sitting there.  My husband may have left for the day but the reminders of his presence stays.  It’s those little things that make me smile.  Those things that take maybe 30 seconds or a few minutes but that carry me through the day; I am loved.

At school, I fill the copier with paper.  I sort the recycled paper and bring scraps back for the kids.  I clean the sink, turn off the lights, change a dried out printer cartridge.  None of it is in my job description but it is those little things that make others have an easier day.  I greet everyone I meet with a smile, I stand and listen while looking someone in the eye.  I email out a website that another grade may be able to use.  Those little things that help, those little things that show others concern.  I don’t make it a priority, I have enough of those, but I make it a part of my day, i take the time, invest it and move on.

Imagine if we all did little things every day.  If instead of hurrying through the day, concerned only about the happenings within our walls, within our brain, we took those seconds and did a little thing?  Imagine the example it would set for the kids, for each other, imagine what school would feel like?  

being me, new teacher, new year

Have You Found Your Soul? My Advice to a New Teacher

Pernille Ripp
image from icanread

The new year may be coming or it may be far away from you, but I sit here and ponder, what would I tell someone starting school?  What “wisdom” would I share with a brand new teacher or a teacher that has been around for a long time, not quite sure that they are ready to go back?  I think i would ask them this; have you found your soul of teaching?  Your essence?

I’m not talking mantras, although Angela Maiers’ “You Matter” hangs proudly above my door.  I am not speaking of teaching style or tips, classroom management ideas, or even your teaching philosophy.  I am talking the inner core, the you that you bring into the classroom.  Have you found it?  Have you listened to it?  And what does it look like?  Yes, we can get caught up in seating charts, grand ideas, and new programs to be implemented, but all those fall away if you don’t have you in the classroom.   If you’re not ready to bare yourself, invest yourself, and give those kids all of you.

What does it mean to be you in a classroom?  To truly put yourself out there, invest fully, wholeheartedly, some would even say foolishly.  What will you give to the students, because teaching is about giving and not just knowledge, but giving the essence of you?  Kids spot phonies from miles away, they see those that are there for the paycheck, those that bring in the baggage, those that cannot wait to leave once the day is done.  And they react, swiftly, without mercy, and we stand there wondering what went wrong?

So I hope you find your essence before the new year arrives, or if it is in the middle of the year for you then I hope you still have it.  I hope you take the time to figure out what you are and who you are and how that will play out with the kids whose lives you touch.  Think of the impact you can have and then use it for good.

Find your soul, find your essence, and then have enough faith in yourself to go in there and share it.

being me, followers

Introducing www.pernilleripp.com

Pernille Ripp
This morning I got up way to early and decided I was sick of my web site address.  Such things happen when you are very pregnant, in full nesting mode, but unable to do anything in your house.  So what happened?  Well, this blog is now housed at http://www.pernilleripp.com

I feel so grown up.

Now what does that mean for anyone who reads it?  I am pretty sure absolutely nothing.  The old address still works, but hopefully this will streamline things a bit.  Am I now a brand?  Well no, because I have nothing to sell.  But I do have a much shorter blog address and that makes me feel accomplished.

So the ideas will still keep coming, just on a sleeker website name.  And now I am off to tackle something in my house.

Oh, and I couldn’t just leave it at that.  The Global Read Aloud also now has a much shorter name:  www.globalreadaloud.com and that is something I am very proud of.