Be the change – Page 22

For the past two weeks my students have visibly struggled in class. They have questioned. They have reflected. They have stopped and spoken to each other as they have made their way through a topic that I wasn’t sure we were ready to do. A topic I felt uncomfortable even discussing, but I knew we should. For the past two weeks my students have to come class ready to learn, eager to get started, and worked until the very last moment, asking if we were continuing the next day. They have been fully invested, fully aware, but also just a little bit timid.

One month ago I saw an article get released by NPR, it spoke of how the suicide rate among middle schoolers is at the highest peak ever. It stopped me in my tracks, after all, this is my age group, these are my kids. And while I am lucky to have never taught a child who has committed suicide, I know I have taught kids who have tried, kids who have contemplated, kids who still carry the weight of suicidal thoughts and are not sure what to think of themselves. The article sat in my inbox staring me in my face, daring me to do something. And yet…would my students be able to handle a topic like this?

On Monday the 5th, I cleared my voice and told my students that for the next few weeks we were going to pursue knowledge, that we were going to discuss, explore, and question. That we were going to go as personal as we wanted to. That the topic was dark but necessary. Were they ready? Yes, they told me. And so we began; focusing a unit on the question, “How do we prevent suicide in middle schoolers?” And I am so glad we did.

For the past two weeks we have been surrounded by hard conversations. Surrounded by outrage, by questions, and even by sadness. They have asked things out loud that they might not have had the courage to ask out loud before. They have shared their truths and also shared (some) of their fears. They have cried with me when we heard a glimpse of a parent’s 911 call pleading for help for their own child. They have been outraged at the intense bullying some children have suffered from. They have discussed responsibility and guilt. They have struggled with the central question and reflected upon their own actions and how they affect other people, even when they don’t mean to.

I have sat in awe as they have taken this topic and explored it in a way I could not have planned for. As one child told me, “Mrs. Ripp, I know this sounds strange but I find this to be fascinating and yet also so sad.”

I wasn’t sure my students were ready.

I wasn’t sure their parents would understand.

I wasn’t sure what the outcome would be. If it would matter. If it would be worth our time.

I wasn’t even sure that I could handle this topic in a meaningful way.

But we did, and it was, and the kids now know what the warning signs are. Now know to ask each other if they are worried. Now know that suicide tends to not be impulsive, that there are hints dropped. Now know that even “normal” looking kids can have suicidal thoughts. Now know what the real effects of bullying can be. Now know to have conversations with someone they trust if they feel like this is a solution for them.

Too often we shy away from the hard topics because we are not sure it is the right time. That we are the right person to teach it. That our kids can handle it. That our community will support us. Yet time after time, these kids amaze me. Time after time, they prove that they are more ready than we could imagine. That they don’t want to invest their time in “boring” topics but want to deal with the real side of the world. They want to know what really happens, how people are really affected, and they want to know what they can do to make it better. Our job is to support them. To help them understand. To help them navigate this world that they live in so they can have better lives. Our job is to educate and not be afraid, to plant seeds that may in some way help them as they grow.

For the past two weeks I have had more hard conversations behind closed doors with more kids than I ever could have imagined. I have cried with my students. I have thanked more kids for their bravery. Told them that no matter how they feel they matter to me, to us. For the past two weeks I have marveled as the facade of some my kids have crumbled and they have risen from their pasts like a phoenix from the fire. All because an article haunted me. All because I thought it might just matter to them, to me, to us. And it did. And so we did. And we grew from it; closer, stronger, better. Isn’t that what teaching is about?

I am currently working on a new literacy book. The book, which I am still writing, is tentatively Passionate Readers and will be published in the summer of 2017 by Routledge. I also have a new book coming out December, 2017 called Reimagining Literacy Through Global Collaboration, a how-to guide for those who would like infuse global collaboration into their curriculum. So until then if you like what you read here, consider reading my 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, being me

A Story of A Child that Can

December 16, 2016December 16, 2016 Pernille Ripp

For the past three years, on December 19th, I have written about the miracle that is our youngest daughter, Augustine. About her much too soon arrival. About the fear. The uncertainty. The guilt…

I have written about my hope for others to see how a child’s start in life may still haunt them many years later when they show up in our classrooms. I have written about how the very least we can do is love them when they come. How we can prepare all we want and yet never be fully ready.

Augustine’s much too soon arrival has shaped our lives in many ways, and yet…last night when I came home from school I did not see a baby that arrived too early. I did not see a 4 pound miracle. I did not see a child wrapped up in long nights and frightening futures. In machines and medical personel. I saw an almost three year old showing me her pig, Pua. I saw an almost three year old that wanted to watch that monster show. I saw an almost three year old that kept her siblings awake by making cat noises.

She will always be the baby that came too soon, but she no longer is just that child. She is no longer just a preemie, she is my willful, loud daughter, making her own place in the world. She is the child that crawled at 5 months, who walked at 9 months. She is the child that is perfectly average. A child that defies the odds. Who didn’t wait for someone to tell her that she should do what her siblings were doing but simply ran after them and did. And with every naughty thing she tries not to get caught doing, she is rewriting how we see her.

How often do our students show up with haunted pasts? With files that follow? With reputations and beginnings that yes, have shaped who they once were, but now no longer defines them? How often do our students come to us with assumptions laced around them so tight we can hardly see past them even though that child is no longer the child that presents itself. How often do we acknowledge the past, even if the past is just yesterday, but then purposefully readjust our focus to see the child that stands before us now?

Augustine was the child that came too soon, but she is now the child of can’s. The child of will’s. The child of average. No one who meets her now will ever guess her tumultuous beginning, and I am glad. How many of our students are trying to escape a past that no longer is them, that no longer is all they are?

I became the mother of a premature baby 3 years ago, but I am now the mother of an almost three year old. A little girl that didn’t care what the doctors said. A little girl that from the moment she could, she did. She asks to be seen for who she is now, not what she was before. The least I can do is adjust my vision.

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Be the change, being a teacher, Reading

A Quiet Moment

November 1, 2016 Pernille Ripp

Life is full right now. Full of so many wonderful things. Full of so many privileges, but also challenges, things that will make me grow as a person, as a teacher, as a human being trying to be a better human being. One of my privileges is to get to teach a class with some pretty incredible kids in it. They are bouncy, creative, loud at times. Sometimes they need reeling in that can take more than few minutes and yet every day as they walk out, although I am a little bit tired, I cannot wait for them to come back.

Today, the day after Halloween, I did not know what to expect. After all, one child had declared to me the day before that really all school should just be cancelled the week of Halloween. As a mother witnessing my own children’s lethargy this morning, I had to wonder what the day would bring. Would these boys even be ready for anything? Would it be a day of wasted time? As the day grew on and the kids seemed to wake up from their tiredness, I started to ponder just how loud the end of the day would be? Where would the crescendo hit?

The bell rang, the kids arrived and we settled in as we so often do around our table, ready to do something together. I pulled out my Demonstration Notebook (thank you Kate and Maggie Roberts for this idea). I had the lesson ready on how to stretch out theme, for the kids to try so we did what we do so many times in a week. We read a picture book.

Yet this time, when I chose it I knew I needed a powerful punch. I knew that if I were to counteract the craziness of the day after Halloween then it would have to be an extraordinary book, so I read aloud the picture book Ida, Always. This book with its happy polar bears on the cover is one of the best I have read this year. It also happens to have an easily identifiable theme. As I read the book, my emotions got the better of me. You see, my middle daughter’s name is Ida as well. She is four. She is not a polar bear, nor is she sick, and yet, every time I read this picture book, I cry. And not just misty-eyed maybe there are tears in there but still turning pages, no, tears down my cheeks, having to stop the read aloud. I thought I could make it today, after all, how often do you cry in front of your student. I thought wrong. At first, the boys clearly did not know what to think of their otherwise happy teacher sitting there with tears. And yet as they starred in silence, I started to see their own eyes and the tears that were forming there.

These kids. These wonderfully rambunctious kids. These kids that sometimes make me feel like I am not doing enough and will never be enough. They cried too. Not all, but some. They sat there in solidarity with me. They asked why this book was so emotional for me. And as I explained they all nodded, they got it. One kid took the book from me and continued to read aloud.

As the book ended, we discussed why sad books are okay at times. No one laughed. No one pointed a finger. No one called each other a name. Instead we just shared the moment, shared this vulnerable moment and then went on with our lesson.

At times, we only see the loudest parts of the children we teach. We only see the parts that they work so hard to show. We forget that what we see is not the full story and it never will be.

In our moment today I was reminded not just of the power of picture books, but of the power of vulnerability in our classrooms. How for students to dare to share who they are as human beings, we must also show ourselves. Even if that means stopping our read aloud because we cannot form the words.

I don’t know if we will ever cry together again over the fate of a polar bear, but it doesn’t really matter, because today we did, and today we grew. Not further apart but closer together. Sometimes those moments come right at the very right time. Sometimes they come when we least expect them.

I am currently working on a new literacy book. The book, which I am still writing, is tentatively Passionate Readers and will be published in the summer of 2017 by Routledge. I also have a new book coming out January, 2017 called Reimagining Literacy Through Global Collaboration, a how-to guide for those who would like infuse global collaboration into their curriculum. So until then if you like what you read here, consider reading my 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 student, being a teacher, student choice, Student dreams, student driven, student voice

Planting a Seed – Our Project on the Refugee Crisis

October 25, 2016October 25, 2016 Pernille Ripp

I grew up in a home that had a newspaper on our table every morning. Laid out for us kids to see, we grabbed the comics first, then the Danish news. I was a teen when I started reading the international news. Being aware of the world was something that was expected of us, after all, Denmark is a small nation. We read the paper, we listened to the radio, we watched the news. Not always fully attuned but always aware of at least some of the bigger things happening in the world beyond our own.

Being a globally aware and invested teacher is something I have tried to live and breathe for many years now. After all, the Global Read Aloud was created with the idea of making the world not only smaller, but also more interconnected to create more empathy and kindness. My students have therefore in varying degrees always brought the world in, been a part of projects that involved others and tried to know more about the outside world than when they came in. Working on a team with an incredible geography teacher has only made my job easier.

So this year as my English standards starred me in the face a small idea started to form, a seed began to grow; what if instead of “just” doing summaries, what if instead of “just” having an opinion, I was able to structure an inquiry project into something that I have been following myself; the Refugee Crisis? What if we created a two-week experience where the students got to learn at their own pace with the end goal of having an opinion? With that, I started to plan…

We would have two weeks roughly of work time, with time dedicated every single day after we do our 10 minutes of independent reading. Students could choose how they wanted to work and engage with the materials. I used a sheet that simply asked kids how they would like to engage with the learning and then crafted lessons based on this. I have used this approach in the past and it has worked pretty well, this time I should have been more diligent with using it though after the kids filled it out. However, that being said, kids were also good at reaching out and asking questions, as well as use each other for help. I did promise the students that I would only do one whole class lesson; how to write an opinion piece using the MEL-Con format, and I kept my word. My students have asked me to do less whole class teaching and I am adhering to that as I can help them better in small groups anyway.

We first needed a question, one that would give us a focal point but would not be shaped or tainted by my opinion, after all, I did want the students to come to their own conclusion. So our guiding question became ; What should America’s role be in the refugee crisis? This was what the students would work toward and discuss.

We created a running word wall as student questions came up.

I knew I needed texts to start with; thank you Newsela for your text-sets, you saved me so much time. So I pulled nine different texts that highlighted different aspects of the crisis, printed them at three different reading levels and told the students to choose three of them to read at least. I also made all of the texts available as a folder in case they lost their copies.

Another teaching tool for students to reference

I also wanted students to watch videos; I created a padlet with different short videos that would be appropriate for 7th graders and also less than 20 minutes. Students were asked to watch at least one, but could do more if they wanted to.

I then crossed my fingers and asked on Twitter; would anyone Skype with my students about being a refugee? I am so grateful for the response. Three of my classes were so incredibly lucky to Skype with the incredible Rusul Alrubail,she graciously and courageously shared her story of how she became an Iraqi refugee at a young age. To say my students were moved by her story would be an understatement. Yet, the kindness of strangers continued. Another teacher, Emily Green, from Michigan asked her students, some of them refugees, if they would create a small video for my students. Last night, I received three different videos from her courageous kids sharing their stories. Today as I played them for my students, you could have heard a pin drop.

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So for the past two weeks, my students have annotated the texts (using their own systems rather than ones created by me) for anything that stood out, they have written a summary on one article, and they have crafted an opinion on the guiding question, as well as craft an opinion piece based on all of their newfound knowledge.

In some classes we started in small group before we went to whole class discussion.

Today, as we came together as a group to discuss what we have learned and what our opinion is, I sat back behind the kids and watched them practice their discussion skills. As kids navigated the ins and outs of adult unmoderated conversation, I couldn’t help but feel just the tiniest bit proud. Yes, they were discussing, yes they were listening to each other, but that was not the only thing I observed. I observed kids who all of a sudden understood just how vast of a nation we live in. Kids who now know where Iraq and Syria are. Who know tales of children passing through Europe unattended as they try to reach freedom. Of people who never wanted to leave their homes but were forced too. Of what we can possibly do as a nation but how many hurdles there may be to making any decisions. I also saw kids who started to understand that for some reason they equate refugee with terrorists. Who thought 10,000 refugees is a large number but have since discovered it might not be. Who know that we need to help but are not sure just how to do that.

I didn’t set out to shape the opinion of my students, that is not my job as their teacher. Instead I wanted to create an opportunity for them to form an opinion on fact rather than hearsay, on research rather than rapid talk. I know that some believe America should do more and others think we do too much already. I know that for some they don’t really care either way. But I also know that by giving them more control over their learning, by giving them tools to start with, by creating a guiding questions and then by bringing others in via Skype and YouTube that we have created an experience that matters. That together we now have this piece of the world that ties us together and that will continue to crop up through the year.

Yesterday, a child asked me what the deal was with Mosul and weren’t they bombing over there? A child that two weeks before was not even sure that Iraq was a country or what refugee meant. That child had heard on the news that fighting was starting up again and now wanted to know more. As teachers of literacy we have incredible opportunities to bring the world in, to help our children find their opinions, and to create experiences that connect us with other human beings. I wrote a book on how to do just this, not for the sake of the book, but for the sake of making this world a better place.

I ended our discussion time today with the following words; “My job is not to make you think a certain way, my job is to make you think. So whatever your opinion may be, all I ask of you is to have one based on fact, rather than what others believe. Keep your ears open and ask a lot of questions. That is the least you can do as the future of this country.”

As teachers, we can bring the world in when it makes sense. To make it matter more than just getting through the year or working off our checklist. The year has just started and yet we have so much more to discover about the world. I cannot wait where our learning takes us next.

PS: If you would like to see my folder of resources, go here, some of it is loose.

I am currently working on a new literacy book. The book, which I am still writing, is tentatively Passionate Readers and will be published in the summer of 2017 by Routledge. I also have a new book coming out January, 2017 called Reimagining Literacy Through Global Collaboration, a how-to guide for those who would like infuse global collaboration into their curriculum. So until then if you like what you read here, consider reading my 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 student, being a teacher, being me, Student dreams

The Least We Can Do

October 23, 2016 Pernille Ripp

What follows is my ITEC Ignite…

On December 19th, 2013, our youngest daughter, Augustine, was born almost 10 weeks early. She came so fast that there was no doctor in the room, just the nurse. She came so fast that I now know what the big red emergency button in a hospital room does. She came so fast that I did not see her. I did not hold her. She did not cry. For the first minute of her life, I did not know if she was alive. It wasn’t until my husband, Brandon, told me she was breathing that I think I took a breath. That life started up again because for that longest minute of my life, with no wailing to calm me down, I had no idea if I was still the mother of three or the mother of four.

They whisked her away from me into their machines, into the equipment that would help her tiny body breathe, stay warm, and her heart keep beating. See when babies are born that early they need help with everything. And we can prepare all we want but it is not until they actually arrive and we see how much they need us that we realize that all of a sudden we have started a new journey, one that will take us down a perilous path where we might not be able to see our destination for a long time.

In the week leading up to her much too soon arrival, I was in the hospital waiting. Willing my body to slow down. We were not ready. She was not ready. One night a doctor from the NICU visited me to help me prepare for what would happen in case she came. His words has stuck with me all of this time.

He said, “When she comes we will be ready. We will have the machines that will help her breathe. We will have the machines that will keep her warm. We will monitor her heart and we will be by your side. We will do everything in our power to keep her alive, to keep her safe, to help her no matter what. While we can help her with her needs, we will not know about her brain. We will not know what long term effects being born so early will have on her learning. We will not know if her brain will be damaged, we will not know until she grows, until she reaches her milestones. We will not know what her future path will look like when it comes to learning but we will be ready. We will be by her side because that is what we do.” That is what we do…

As I held Augustine for the very first time more than 24 hours later, I held all of our dreams for her as well. As we sat in the quiet, listening to the alarms and the beeps on her monitor, I knew that her future was now in my hands as well, and that all we could do now was our best. That all we could do now was to be by her side and hope that her future teachers would see her for the miracle she is and not just a child who might have difficulties learning.

Every year as the new year awaits, our students arrive in all of their glory. They arrive with all of their dreams, their hopes, and their needs. They show up whether we are ready or not. And so we prepare, we plan, we dream over the summer that this will be the year that we reach every single child we teach.

We do not pick who we teach. We do not pick who shows up. We do not pick who these kids are that we are supposed to have life-changing experiences with but instead we stand by our doors like the Statue of Liberty and say; “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free …”

We can prepare all we want as teachers. We can create classrooms where most of our students will thrive. We can plan for fictitious children and hope they will fit into the boxes we create. Or we can teach the kids that come. We can create classroom experiences that center on the kids that actually show up instead of the kids we hope to teach.

We can open our classroom doors wide to make sure that every child that enters, that every child that shows up, know that with us they will learn, with us they will create, with us they will matter. Because they do. And we can ask those kids how we can be the types of teachers they need. We can ask those kids how they would like to learn and then we can listen to their truths and become the teachers they need.

So we can take them all and we can love them all because that is the least we can do. We work tirelessly every day so that those kids that become our kids know that with us they belong, that with us it does not matter what their start in life was because in here they have a chance at success. That with us it does not matter whether they were born 10 weeks early, don’t have a good home life, or have never liked school. That with us all that matters is that they showed up.

Augustine did not ask to be born early, she did not ask to have such a hard start in her life. She did not ask to have harder path than our other kids. The kids that come to us with their broken dreams and their battered hearts, didn’t ask for that either. Didn’t ask to have a different life than so many others. So our job is to teach. Is to love. Is to be by their side.

ITEC Ignite The Least We Can Do - Google Slides.clipular.png

This summer, as Augustine went to her NICU check up appointment, we heard the sweetest words. “Your daughter is perfectly average…” and while her path is still unwinding and we are not in the clear just yet, we see hope with every word she learns, every task she accomplishes. We see her for the miracle she truly is, a child that would not have lived not too many years ago. So may we all see the miracle that is the child that enters our schools. May we all know just how lucky we are to teach these kids, even when our days are long and our lesson plans are broken. Even when we feel we are not enough, may we still try.

As teachers, we were never promised it would be easy. We were never promised that our jobs would be effortless. Or that our hearts would stay protected. But we were told that it would be worth it. That this may be one of the hardest jobs and yet also the most rewarding. So every day as we welcome the kids, make sure it is every child we welcome, not just the easy ones, the ones that barely need us. Make sure your classroom is a place for any child to succeed. No matter their start in life. Because much like the NICU doctor told me almost three years ago; we are ready, we are here, and we will stay here until you no longer need us. It is the very least we can do…

I am currently working on a new literacy book. The book, which I am still writing, is tentatively Passionate Readers and will be published in the summer of 2017 by Routledge. I also have a new book coming out January, 2017 called Reimagining Literacy Through Global Collaboration, a how-to guide for those who would like infuse global collaboration into their curriculum. So until then if you like what you read here, consider reading my 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, books, global, Literacy

Reimagining Literacy Through Global Collaboration

October 15, 2016 Pernille Ripp

Since 2010, my students and I have been bringing the world in. We have asked others to be our teachers, whether authors, experts, children. We have asked others to share more of their world with us so that we could make more sense of our own. We have created, we have become experts. We have made the world smaller by becoming a moving piece of the world, and we have grown. In our literacy collaborations and creations, we have become authors, poets, performers, and teachers. We have become more than what we started as.

So when I was asked what I would propose to make school different, the answer came quickly; besides empowering students, I feel an urgent need to infuse global collaboration throughout our literacy instruction (or any subject matter for that sake). That in a world that seems so divided at times, where we seem to be hellbent on finding each others differences and using them to distance ourselves, we need to actually know our similarities. We need to bring the world in to make the world smaller, kinder, more empathetic. Have students create so that they can become the person they envision rather than just pretend.

I have written this book three times over. Starting over every single time because it was not good enough. Within the span of sixty pages I get to plead my case for why doing global collaboration is an urgent endeavor. For why it is easier than you think to bring the world in. For why it should be at the top of our lists when we plan our literacy instruction. And the how. How can you do it, what are ideas, what does it look like. By opening up my own classroom practices, as well as other educators, I hope to inspire those that need ideas or a boost to jump in. To create another consideration as we plan our school year and our learning adventures. And now, it is ready for the world. My newest book Reimagining Literacy Through Global Collaboration is out for pre-order with a birthdate of January 20th, 2017. I cannot believe it is almost here.

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I hope you find it useful, that is truly my biggest dream for this book. That you will learn something, that it will inspire you to try and to change in ways that are meaningful to you. It may have been a long process to write this book, sometimes that is how it goes, but the words are genuine. We need to create classrooms where students learn with others, for others, and through others. And our literacy instruction time gives us the perfect conduit for just that. Welcome to the world.

To see the book on Amazon, go here.To see the book on Amazon, go here.To see the book on Amazon, go here.

I am currently working on a new literacy book. While the task is daunting and intimidating, it is incredible to once again get to share the phenomenal words of my students as they push me to be a better teacher. The book, which I am still writing, is tentatively Passionate Readers and will be published in the summer of 2017 by Routledge. So until then if you like what you read here, consider reading my 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.