Category: Be the change

Be the change, being a teacher

A Way Out

Pernille Ripp

 

The poster hung above our sink, one of the most prominent spots in our classroom.  Every time my 4th graders washed their hands, they would see exactly what was expected of them, what the consequences were if they messed up.  Screw up and you get your name on the board.  Screw up again and you place a checkmark next to your name.  Screw up again?  Phone call home in the middle of class.  Clear, consistent and fair consequences, or so I thought.

I wish I could tell you that I saw the errors of my ways quickly.  That some sense was talked into me before I implemented it.  I can’t.  That poster and that system hung on that wall for more than a year, bearing witness to all of the kids who marched right up to the front of their room, dictated by my call of “Write your name on the board!”

I wish I would have known better.  I wish the students would have protested.  I wish the parents would have questioned.  I wish and yet, how often do our decision, whether poor or not, truly get questioned by those they affect?  How often do the very people we are supposed to serve actually dare to question our authority?

It is easy to cringe at a public display of discipline like that.  Of how I used public shame as a tool for compliance.  Of how I wielded my discipline system as a way to control and not to teach.  It is easy to look at others’ mistakes and forget the mistakes we have made ourselves, without questioning the practices we may have put in place now that perhaps aren’t quite as public, aren’t quite as harsh., but still serve as a visible reminder to kids of what will happen when they do screw up, because, let’s face it, all kids will at some point.

How often do we make a final decision because we think it is in the best interest of the child without actually thinking of the child?

How often do we set up rules so that all kids can be treated the same, somehow forgetting that all kids are, indeed, different?

How often do we stand so firm in our beliefs that we forget that part of growing up is screwing up and that is how we grow?

How often do we create rigid rules because we believe that it is in the best interest of the children when in reality they were really in the best interest of the adults?

A colleague reminded me today that there’s always gotta be a way out.   A way for all kids to actually succeed, to have some room, to still be a part.  To feel like even if they didn’t quite get there, there was still success in the steps they did make.  To feel like while they may not have fully succeeded, there was still progress nonetheless.

There’s gotta be a path forward even when we are exasperated.  Even when we feel we have tried everything.  Even when we think that there is nothing else that can possibly get done.

And while, sure, all kids need deadlines and consequences, at what times do we set them so hard into stone that they become unattainable for the most vulnerable students, for those who consistently find limited success within our schools?  Do we in our eagerness to be fair and balanced forget what that really looks like in the shape of each child?

Don’t forget about the way out.  About taking a step back and re-evaluating.  About keeping kids in mind.  About being a helper.  Being a believer.  Being someone who was willing to reevaluate just to make sure that we tried everything.  Because I would rather go home feeling I tried than knowing I stood firm at all costs, because at what cost do we really move forward?

A way out for all, a way in for all, so that we all can find success, somehow.

If you like what you read here, consider reading my newest book, Passionate Readers – The Art of Reaching and Engaging Every Child, out August 2017.  This book focuses on the five keys we can implement into any reading community to strengthen student reading experiences, even within the 45 minute English block.  If you are looking for solutions and ideas for how to re-engage all of your students consider reading my very first book  Passionate Learners – How to Engage and Empower Your Students.      Also, if you are wondering where I will be in the coming year or would like to have me speak, please see this page.

 

Be the change, being a teacher, reflecting

You Asked For…

Pernille Ripp

Perhaps it is because we woke up to yet more snow on Monday.

Perhaps it is because summer still seems so far away.

Perhaps it is because of too many late nights.

Too little sleep.

State testing.

Friendship drama.

Or simply because 8th grade looms and some kids are not quite sure what that means.

Whatever the reason, this week has been a long one and it is only Tuesday.

From students who are in a state of distress due to things outside of their circumstances.

To friendships cracking, breakups and misunderstandings.

To simply getting to work becoming harder and harder.

To taking more time to settle in.

To more redirections.  More jokes needed to get a smile.  More energy to get a response.

It is hard.  It is draining.  It makes me question why I seem to all of a sudden have lost whatever momentum we had and how can I get it back.  And do they even know how hard I try?  Because, man, I try, every single day to make it an experience worth their time.

Tonight as I pondered how I can help make it better for all of them, it finally dawned on me; they have little to no idea of what I have changed in order to help them.  Why should they?  I have never shared it.  I can hope that they pick up on it, but I wonder if they do, after all, they still have to go to school, they still have to work, and they still have to learn.

So as I pulled up their most recent feedback on our class, I recognized all of the changes made based on their words and then made a few slides.  A few visuals for them to see.  They simply started with, “You asked for….” and then I filled int heir feedback and then I followed it up with “You got/had…”

You asked for fewer projects, you had only two major projects last quarter.

You asked for less teacher talk, you got lessons that last less than ten minutes.

You asked for more choice in who you work with, you got some degree of choice every single time.

You asked for more choice in projects, you got more than twenty just in the last one.

Two slides filled with many requests all granted; more work time, less homework, less teacher talk, more choice, more freedom, less paper writing and such all filled the slides.

Tomorrow we start the day with a celebration of growth, of freedom, and perhaps even a reminder of just how much they have.  Not to elicit guilt but instead build awareness os that we can continue to capitalize on the community we have.  On the trust, we have built.  On the level of freedom, we may take for granted.

Perhaps we all just need a reminder of just how far we have come.

If you like what you read here, consider reading my newest book, Passionate Readers – The Art of Reaching and Engaging Every Child, out August 2017.  This book focuses on the five keys we can implement into any reading community to strengthen student reading experiences, even within the 45 minute English block.  If you are looking for solutions and ideas for how to re-engage all of your students consider reading my very first book  Passionate Learners – How to Engage and Empower Your Students.      Also, if you are wondering where I will be in the coming year or would like to have me speak, please see this page.

 

Be the change, being a teacher, technology

One Week Into a Phone Free Classroom

Pernille Ripp

We went phone free in our classroom five days ago.  Five days of no phones allowed.  Five days of fewer distractions.  Five days of being conscious of when we pull out a device, and when we purposely put it away.  Over spring break, I had sent the following email to students and parents letting them know of the decision, worried about the top-down approach I was taking with this decision.  And yet, I felt like we had to try something new and now was the time for the change.

I hope your spring break has been nice!  Just a heads up that we will be going phone free for most of the 4th quarter in both literacy studies and informational studies in our classroom, as well as independent reading.  Students will be asked to leave their phones in their lockers on in a basket on our shelf as they enter the room.

There are a few reasons I have made this decision:

  • While there will be times we will use our phones and with the accessibility of Chromebooks, there are very few times where students need to BYOD anymore.
  • Students are given little privacy or room for risk/failure in our classrooms as other students are quick to pull out their phones and snap pictures or videos to share on social media.  Often they are faster than we are or do it on the sly, this leads to less risk-taking, and a heightened sense of anxiety when it comes to actually doing the learning.
  • One article here discusses how even having it nearby versus out of the room lessens your thinking.
  • Another article here discusses how the constant stimuli from phones are rewiring our brains to constantly seek stimuli rather than dive into the “zone of learning” 
  • And another article discusses the shortened attention spans 

If messages need to be sent to your students during our class together, they can be sent through the office.

While I didn’t know what the response would be, I was pleasantly surprised to see just how many parents/guardians loved the idea, how many wish we would go phone free as a class, how many were in favor.  And yet, how would the students themselves react?

Well, it turns out many of them read the email and already were onboard when they came.  A few had questions, but most agreed that it was nice.  So the week went on, the phones disappeared and we dug into our new learning  I noticed there was less scrambling to get to work.  Less distractions from the few kids that would pull them out to check throughout the class.  My phone was in my bag as well, sure, there were less pictures shared of our learning but not having it around was really not a big deal.  Today I asked them what they thought of the policy.  Boy, was I surprised…

I think it’s fair because we don’t need them.

I like it because I don’t get distracted.

It is nice to not have to think about them.

It’s no big deal.

I am grateful for it because I no longer have to worry about being filmed and it shared on Instagram.

Sure, a few voiced their complaints telling me they didn’t like to be without them, these were also some of the kids that were distracted by their phones the most playing fortnite or snapchatting in class, while a few voiced that they didn’t really need the policy because they already left them in their lockers.

What struck me though was how many students were positive about the change.  How many were grateful for the policy because they then didn’t need to police themselves.  It makes sense in a way too as we see just how addicted we, adults, are to our smartphones.  When they aren’t allowed to be around we naturally use them less and yet have a hard time putting them away ourselves.

One comment that did stand out though was that a child didn’t like being without their phone in case something bad happened at school.  Let’s just have that sink in for a moment…  In an age of school shootings, schools are no longer viewed as safe by the very kids we teach and cell phones are seen as a way to find out when they need to run or hide.

So this first week of no phones, it turns out that perhaps going without was not that big of a deal, once again making me wonder what we really needed them for in the first place.  It has been nice to have this one less thing in our classroom.  To see the students focus on each other, rather than on what is happening on their phone.  To see them be more present if even for a little bit.

I’ll keep sharing as the quarter goes on, but I have a feeling that going phone free is here to stay.

If you like what you read here, consider reading my newest book, Passionate Readers – The Art of Reaching and Engaging Every Child, out August 2017.  This book focuses on the five keys we can implement into any reading community to strengthen student reading experiences, even within the 45 minute English block.  If you are looking for solutions and ideas for how to re-engage all of your students consider reading my very first book  Passionate Learners – How to Engage and Empower Your Students.      Also, if you are wondering where I will be in the coming year or would like to have me speak, please see this page.

Be the change, being a teacher

On the Need for Phone Free Classrooms

Pernille Ripp

I teach 7th grade and if there is one thing I have learned about 7th graders, it is that sometimes they do goofy things.  Sometimes they see a hole in a chair and stick their head in it only to find that they are now stuck.  Sometimes they say something that unintentionally makes their peers laugh.  Sometimes they take a risk but fail miserably.

And for the longest time, it was no big deal.  For the longest time, we laughed at our mistakes, used them to create a community where we could fail together, laugh when things didn’t work, and then go home knowing we tried.

But I have noticed in the past couple of years that this feeling of security in our classroom,  that this sense of community where we can take risks and not care as much if it doesn’t work seems to be harder and harder to accomplish.  I thought 7th graders were hard to get to trust me, but it turns out they have a much harder time trusting each other.

Why?

I am starting to think cell phones have a lot to do with it.  The pictures.  The videos.  The instant access to everyone you know.

Now before the onslaught begins; yes, cell phones can be powerful tools, yes, cell phones can bring the world in, yes, we have to help children learn how to use their cell phones well.

But…let’s be honest here for a moment,  how many of us adults have said or thought how we would not want to be a child growing up these days due to the lack of privacy?  How many of us would hate having all of our missteps and mess ups blasted across every social media channel we know? How many of us are over-connected to our phones and then wonder why we are exhausted every day? How many of us are so thankful that there isn’t evidence of all of the stupid things we did when we were younger and didn’t know any better?    And that’s it for me.  I try to create a classroom environment that is safe and accepting for all of our students, but the moment cell phones enter the classroom, that feeling shifts.

Because we have a BYOD policy in my school, kids bring their cellphones to our classroom and while many don’t use them, I know that many of our students feel the weight of the phones in the room whenever we do anything remotely risky, such as public speaking or more physical work.  And while I tell kids to please not film each other or take pictures, they still do on the sly and they share, and they make fun of, and they then forget about it.  But the person ridiculed doesn’t.  And so instead of taking risks, instead of trying new things, I get to teach some kids who are seemingly constantly wondering what others will think, and not just the others present in the room but the others out there in the world only a click away.

And it is exhausting for them and for me.  To constantly feel watched.  To constantly be on alert.  To constantly have to know that every little thing they do could potentially be the next big meme or Snap or Insta post.

I know that I have pushed the use of phones in our classrooms before on this blog, how I have written about using them purposefully, but I will no longer subscribe to the notion that when kids use their phones it is only because they are bored.   It is too easy to say that if teachers just created relevant and engaging lessons then no child would use their phones improperly in our rooms.  That’s not it,  all of us with devices have had our attention spans rewired to constantly seek stimulus. To instantly seek something other than what we are doing.  To constantly seek something different even if what we are doing is actually interesting.  And not because what we seek out is so much better, look at most people’s Snapchat streaks and you will see irrelevant images of tables and floors and half faces simply to keep a streak alive.  It is not that our students are leaving our teaching behind at all times because they are bored, it is more because many of us, adults and children alike, have lost the ability to focus on anything for a longer period of time.

And their brains don’t get a break.  They are constantly plugged in, constantly searching for stimuli beyond what is there right in front of them.  They wonder why they are exhausted and they don’t see how their device is playing into that.  How this hyper-connectivity is draining them rather than firing them up.

Yet, it’s bigger than that.  I worry about the mental health issues that I see my students struggle with because of how their mistakes are amplified.  How they worry about what they are wearing even when they are in small groups of friends because someone might not “like” their outfit.  How they worry what they look like when they are doing something because someone may be capturing it on film.  How a great moment captured on camera can turn sour because of other people’s comments.  How they worry about how their friends will react if they say what they are really thinking.

And they don’t get a break from it either.  The phones and the social media follow them home, for good and for bad.  There is no longer little chance to leave your mistakes at school.  Instead, they can instantly be replayed over and over for anyone that has it shared with them.

So as a teacher, I feel we need to do better.  I feel we need to step in as the adults in the room and create the types of learning environment we all need; ones that are calm, accepting, and safe.   Ones that lend themselves to experimentation, to face-to-face connections, to working hard but also to getting in the optimal zone of thought.

So after spring break, I am declaring our classroom a cell-free zone.  I have done it before, but that was because of distractibility, not because of this.  I am asking students to please leave their cell phones in their lockers, mine will be put away as well, during our 45 minutes together so that we all can let our guard down and take risks together.  There will days where phones are welcomed as a way to amplify their voices, but most, if not all, of the projects we do, can be created using Chromebooks.

And I will tell my students why.  It will, in fact, be one of the first conversations we will have together as we gear up for our final quarter together.  A conversation I think that is long overdue in many of our classrooms.  Yes, cell phones can be sources of good, but not always.  Our students deserve to feel safe with us, not wondering who is watching beyond our classroom walls.  The least I can do right now is start the conversation.

If you like what you read here, consider reading my newest book, Passionate Readers – The Art of Reaching and Engaging Every Child, out August 2017.  This book focuses on the five keys we can implement into any reading community to strengthen student reading experiences, even within the 45 minute English block.  If you are looking for solutions and ideas for how to re-engage all of your students consider reading my very first book  Passionate Learners – How to Engage and Empower Your Students.      Also, if you are wondering where I will be in the coming year or would like to have me speak, please see this page.

 

 

 

 

Be the change, being a teacher, Literacy, Reading, Reading Identity

On Certain Books for Certain Kids

Pernille Ripp

We spend a lot of time in bookstores and libraries.  So much so that my own children at the moment are playing library downstairs.  We go for the inspiration, for the support of booksellers, to find new must-have purchases.  We go as a family to recommit to reading, to get excited about what it means to be a reader.

But once in a while, something strikes me as out of place even in a bookstore.  Today it was this sign at our Barnes and Noble.

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I fixed it for them on my Instagram account.

IMG_3365

And yet, all jest aside.  These small signs.  These sections of libraries.  These displays that cater to only one identity, only one culture, only one representation.  They may seem trivial at first and yet they add to the continued perpetuation that some books are for some kids.  That some books will only be liked by the people it is directly marketed to.  This is problematic because it once again speaks to certain books being for certain kids.  It speaks to certain stories being the ones worth publishing.  It speaks to how we only want diverse books if those books are diverse in the way we see fit.  (Just like what the NY Times wrote about here.)  It speaks to how we only display books celebrating African American history when February reminds us too.

We wonder why some of our students have stigmas when it comes to the books we read, and then don’t think to look at our own learning spaces to see where those stigmas are created.

But we have to do better than this.  We have to do more, and it once again starts with the small details that we do have control over.

We have to first question how we use the word “Diverse” as Chad Everett cautions us to do in his blog post, where he reminds us all that the minute we call something diverse we are once again establishing whiteness as the norm.

We have to question the divisions we create in our classroom and school libraries.  When we hand boys “Boy books” and don’t book talk a book to the whole class because it really is just meant for the “girls.”  When we describe certain books as girly or fluffy and then hand it to a female.

When a child needs our help with book shopping and in our eagerness to help that child “see” themselves in books we only hand them books that feature characters that look like them.  We have gotten better at handing white, hetero, cisgender kids window books, but don’t other identities deserve that too?

When we invite female authors to our schools and then only invite the girls to see them because boys might not understand or be engaged with the message.

When we create displays that honor African Americans and only pull out books that feature them marching or Civil Rights or in chains as enslaved people.

When a child tells us they loved a certain book and we assume we know why and don’t ask them what they loved it so we can help them find a better book, not based on our assumptions but actually on their desires.

When we only purchase books from the large publishers and don’t seek out the independent ones like Lee and Low who have been focused on creating a better world through books for many years.

When we herald big publishers creating special imprints to honor the voices of those who have been traditionally left out from their publishing houses, but we don’t question why they were left out in the first place.  Why not publish them within their traditional branch?

When we are quick to “otherize” books and then hand them to kids as something that they can only identify with because of a shared trait, we are quickly teaching kids that they should only care about those that they share those same traits with.  That unless they can find a surface commonality with someone then their time is not worth investing.

And so we must continue to do better.  We must evaluate our learning spaces, our books, our displays, our book talks, and even who we hand which books to so that we can do better.  We must continue to push for better representation and for an end to the notion that certain books are for certain kids, rather than just waiting to be discovered by everyone.

If you like what you read here, consider reading my newest book, Passionate Readers – The Art of Reaching and Engaging Every Child, out August 2017.  This book focuses on the five keys we can implement into any reading community to strengthen student reading experiences, even within the 45 minute English block.  If you are looking for solutions and ideas for how to re-engage all of your students consider reading my very first book  Passionate Learners – How to Engage and Empower Your Students.      Also, if you are wondering where I will be in the coming year or would like to have me speak, please see this page.

 

 

Be the change, being a teacher

The Choice We Make

Pernille Ripp

We can spend our days thinking of our past glories.

Of how it turned out we were right all along.

 

We can spend our days reliving the past.

We can spend our days thinking we are right, no matter what others say.

We can spend our days never looking back except to the moments where we knew it all.

We can focus in on the things we figured out, how we saved the day and everyone in it.

We can congratulate ourselves on a job well done, how we were the loudest voice, how we had all of the answers if only the world would listen to us.

We can spend our days tearing others down when they disagree.

We can spend our time holding so tight to our beliefs that we forget what we are holding on to, only knowing that we must cling to them or be lost.

Or we can pause…

Hear the voice of others…

Hear people out…

Reset our understanding to not exclude, but include.

To really listen to understand, not to respond.

To ask more questions rather than jump to the defensive.

To discuss rather than dismiss.

To build others up instead of tearing them down.

Perhaps agree to disagree but do so with respect.

At the end of the day, it is a choice we make.  A choice we commit to.  And a choice we can change.  Let’s not forget that.

If you like what you read here, consider reading my newest book, Passionate Readers – The Art of Reaching and Engaging Every Child, out August 2017.  This book focuses on the five keys we can implement into any reading community to strengthen student reading experiences, even within the 45 minute English block.  If you are looking for solutions and ideas for how to re-engage all of your students consider reading my very first book  Passionate Learners – How to Engage and Empower Your Students.      Also, if you are wondering where I will be in the coming year or would like to have me speak, please see this page.