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.
new year

On Those Two First Days

Pernille Ripp
I am in the countdown, getting butterflies, and starting to have those back to school nightmares about how much the kids will hate me.  Yes, school starts in 3 weeks.  So yesterday I sat down and brainstormed what I would do those first two days or week with my kids.  We start weird this year with orientation on Thursday and then full day Friday but then Labor Day weekend so I don’t plan out the lessons.  But I do make a list of all the things we should do.  Care to see it?

So what does it say?

  • Flag pennent – a way for my kids to show their personality and decorate their cubbies – it’s a 5th grade thing
  • Wordle about me – I have parents hand in 5 secret adjectives to describe their child and then we add 5 of our own and it make a really great Wordle about the kids which we hang up – the students get so surprised over the adjectives their parents use.
  • Intro to Blogging – we start to talk about blogging on the second day of school because it is a huge part of our classroom.  And then we start to discuss safety.
  • Paper blog lesson – this is a great lesson shared by @McTeach and one that I love to do with my kids.
  • Lunch magnets – sign in, sign out
  • Name sticks – I randomly pull sticks when we discuss and use them for group work.
  • Pencil cups – I have tables this year so no more name tags on desks.  Students will instead have a decorated pencil cup with their name on it.  They work on this while I read aloud.
  • Writing sample – I love seeing how they grow.  I think this year’s topic might be “What color is 5th grade?”
  • Read Dear Future Mrs. Ripp Student letters aloud.  Every year my students write a letter to the new kids sharing information about this classroom and how to get the best out of it.  This year some of those students are still with me so I am going to share their letters with the whole class when they work on projects.
  • Time Capsule – we measure height and write down our favorites and dislikes.  The kids always crack up at the end of the year about what they wrote.
  • Make Animoto classroom vision – the kids figure out our vision for the room and put in into Animoto.  It really gets them thinking and helps them take ownership of the room, here is last year’s.
  • Discuss classroom jobs – I have helpers every week and this year I added new jobs like Googler and Mapper.  The Goggler will google questions we have submitted on a list and the mapper will keep track of where we connect with.
  • Morning Routine – we discuss expectations; what type of morning do the kids want?  How do we get started for the day?  We come to an agreement on how it will run best.
  • Random Pictures of Mrs. Ripp – I will be sharing a slideshow of random pictures from my life to see if the kids can guess what they mean to me.  The following the kids will bring in their random pictures.
  • Connect the students – this is a great activity that only requires paper and sharpies.  The kids all write their name on the border of the paper and then one person makes a statement like “I play soccer.”  Anyone else who plays soccer gets to connect their name to theirs and then the next person states something and so on.  In the end you have a huge spiderweb of how connected we are in the classroom which I display even though it is super messy but it kind of looks like art.
  • Rules discussion – I don’t set the rules, the kids do.  So how do we want our room to function, how do we want it to sound, to look like?  What will we do to maintain it.  That conversation starts on the first day.
  • Be a tour guide – I have some of my students from last year so why not have them give tours of the classroom.  I have changed some stuff but not everything so then everyone can feel at home.
  • Name your table.  The students will come up with a table name and then create a banner for it.  This will happen monthly as the students change tables.
So there you go, just a couple of my to do’s for the first couple of days.  If you see something you like; borrow the idea.  
blogging, connections, reform symposium

The Reform Symposium Recordings are Live

Pernille Ripp
I was lucky enough to present twice at the Reform Symposium 3, once with Matt Ray on our collaboration  and once on why you should blog with your students.

Both presentations are now live as a recording and you can watch them whenever it fits into your schedule.

Here is the link to WisconsiNewYork 

Here is the link to Ask the Children: Blogging with Your Students

I would love to hear your comments or help out with anything that I can.

being a teacher, new year

Recipe for My School Year

Pernille Ripp
It is easy to create disaster, a horrendous start to the school year that haunts us the rest of year.  It is easy to make our students feel unappreciated and undervalued, in fact, we can often ensure this within the first day.  I wrote about this in my post “Recipe for an Awful School Year” and many asked what then would be my recipe for an amazing school year, and to this I say…I don’t know.

It would be easy for me to give you a long list of the things that I must do to ensure a good start but the truth is, I think most teachers do these things already.  I think most great teachers do many things that I have no idea about and that I have yet to learn.  And then I realize too that for all of the planning that I can do to set up the year there is one ingredient I cannot control; the students.  Yet, for my own sanity and to get my own ideas flowing there are things I have to do for this to be my room, our room, the kind of room I would want my daughter in, the kind of room I would want to be a student in.  These things are simple and they do not cost any money.  So here is what I will do.

I will greet my students with a smile and a laugh, probably a joke even though all of my jokes tend to be corny and yet they make them laugh.  I will let them know that I am excited and nervous too and that we are on this journey together and if they fail then I fail and that is alright by me.  We will talk about our vision, how do we want this classroom to feel?  Do we like noise or do we work better quiet?  How can I get their attention and how can they get mine?  We always need to figure this out before misunderstandings and hurt feelings occur.

The classroom will be bare because it is not mine to decorate, it is theirs and they can take over as soon as they would like.  There will be no rules poster because we set those together and then we discuss and change them when needed.  There will be tables, finally, this year so that students can work together whenever they need to and always have someone to reach out to.  There are also pillows and comfy chairs, carpet squares and corners for retreat – we all need our quiet space.  There are boxes of books to be explored and pictures to take.  We need to document this journey together.  There will be things to teach each other as I have had some of these kids before and they seem to know me better than I do.  My daughter and husband will have made a welcome video because they become a huge part of our classroom since they are a huge part of me.  There will be sharing but there will also be work that first day because kids tend to want to get started.  After all, they are older now and wondering what this class is all about.  Their voices will do most of the talking because I should not be the center of attention.  And so goes my first day.

I cannot tell you how my first week will go because we haven’t decided.  Of course there are plans to follow, lessons to be taught, school routines to conquer but how these will shape out I am not sure of yet.  I have to get to know my students before I can think that far.  I have to adapt my teaching style to them.  I have to meet them before I decide how the school year will unfold, hear their ideas, their hopes, their fears, and then together we will plan.  Together we will make this a journey we all want to be on.  Not just my journey or theirs, but ours.  It is always about the ours.

education reform

Recipe for An Awful School Year

Pernille Ripp
To have an awful school year is actually quite easy – you can cement it already within the first week.  After that it is just maintenance, nothing to worry, it should take care of itself.

You want to start with the first meeting, lay down the law, make sure the kids know you are the boss and that they will follow you blindly because you are indeed the teacher and have the degree to prove it.   Make sure they know where their place is in the classroom.  Give them designated areas where they can spread out – their desk will be just fine and then mark off your own territory, labels and masking tape seem to work well.  Tell them that if they run out of school supplies it is their job to get more, you are after all not a store.  When they ask to go to the bathroom tell them no that they will have to wait until your designated bathroom time.  After all, adults have to learn how to hold it.  They may not have water because it tends to interfere with the bathroom time.  Snacks are for recess, you do not need crumbs on your floor.  Books will be selected by you and will only be a reflection of their reading level.  You do not have the time to  discuss interests with 20 some kids, after all, you are busy teaching.

Homework will be handed in before the first bell, no exceptions, and if not handed in, it will  be given a zero when it does.  There are no chances for re-dos.  After all, life doesn’t give you second chances.  Don’t even bother to ask for extra credit, opportunities for that will be decided by the teacher and will usually involve around an errand or task that the teacher needs done.  Parents should only come in when invited, which means the first day of school, conferences and the last day of school.  They really have no place in your room.  Speaking of conferences, this will be your chance to tell the parents about the awfulness of their child so make sure to tell the children that if they don’t behave you will be telling their parents and hoping they get punished.  In fact, punishment and the discussion of all of your rules will take up a good portion of that first day.  After all we have to get our routines down, our limitations set.  So that means no talking in the halls, whispering at lunch, all eyes on the teacher after I shut off the lights.  You may not sharpen your pencil except for when it is on the schedule and there will absolutely never ever be any gum in the room.  Make no mistake, those kids are merely guests passing through.

You will get started that first day with a test, after all, you need to know where these children have deficits.  Then you can place them into your groups that will not change for the year because who has time to reevaluate.  In fact, that first test will be part of their grade so that it reflects their journey.  You have heard it is good to show growth, even if they had no idea there would be a test.  Surprise!  You like surprises so those pop quizzes you pull out is sure to keep them on their toes.  They have to be alert when they never know what is going to happen and creates an aura around you of mystery.  In fact, the less they know about you, the better.  We are not there to build relationships, we are there to teach, to get them ready for the test.  Think of stories and how longwinded students can be, why would you want to spend time on that?  The children will address you properly, they should not even know your first name if you do it right or any other identifying information; after all, you don’t want them to be able to find you outside of school.

So there you go, the recipe for an awful school year.  I promise you if you do all or most of these things you will see immediate results.  The kids will fear you, hate your classroom and be terrified of school in general – mission accomplished.

education reform, testing

Creating the Anxious Child

Pernille Ripp
I never saw a multiple choice test until I decided to become a teacher in America.  Having gone through the Danish school system, of course, there were tests but they happened at the end of the year and were written and oral exams, not just fill in the bubble and the machine will take care of the rest.  The first time I took a multiple choice test was for placement exams for my education degree, at first I thought it was fun, after all, all you had to do was fill in a bubble?  I didn’t have to explain or even comprehend, I could just guess?  Breeze through and forget about it all afterwards.  Throughout college I studied, after all, I am an overachiever and yet whenever I came across the multiple choice test my spirit instantly died.  I was glad that it didn’t affect my  teacher, only myself and my grade, because I would doubt myself so much on some of the answers, meant to be tricky, that often I wouldn’t even know what to put down even though I knew the material.

We forget to think about how it must feel for kids to be solely responsible for teacher’s pay and jobs.  How must it feel for students that if they do poorly on a test it will directly affect the teacher that they love?  Kids are not stupid, they are aware of what is happening around us, how politicians and “reformers” are asking their test scores be part of something bigger.  For this text-anxious child that knowledge would have been the nail in the coffin.  People say that with this knowledge students will do even better because they will want to protect their teacher, to show off what they know.  No child goes into a test trying to deliberately fail, at least not most, and yet placing that pressure of someone else’s livelihood and dream is just too much for children to bear.

What are we doing to the children of America?  What pressure are we placing them under?  How can we force them through more rigorous assessment to get them ready for the future when that could mean that their teachers no longer get to teach.  We worry that America is too anxious, too many kids are being diagnosed with anxiety and panic attacks, depression, and other pill-needing maladies.  And then we wonder what happened?  Why are all these children feeling so pressured?  Why can they not cope with “kid stuff” – well look at our schools and what we do to them.   Education is no longer for the kids, it is for the politicians.