Be the change – Page 23

A Quiet Moment

November 1, 2016 Pernille Schmidt 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 Schmidt 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.

Be the change, being a student, being a teacher, being me, Student dreams

The Least We Can Do

October 23, 2016 Pernille Schmidt 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…

Be the change, being a teacher, books, global, Literacy

Reimagining Literacy Through Global Collaboration

October 15, 2016 Pernille Schmidt 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.

aha moment, Be the change, being a teacher, homework, no homework, Student dreams, student driven, student voice

Are You Doing Your Own Homework?

October 11, 2016October 11, 2016 Pernille Schmidt Ripp

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This summer as I saw my niece, who is now a sophomore, we inevitably spoke about her reading life. She used to be a voracious reader, we could not get enough books in her hands. Then she came to the whole class novel, which inspired this post, and since then her reading life has been limping at best. This summer I asked, as usual, “What are you reading?” She told me The Kite Runner and then scoffed. Surprised I asked why the reaction. She then told me that she had read the book and loved it but now had to reread it to annotate it. “The whole book?” I asked. “The whole book.”When I asked her why she was not quite sure, perhaps they would use parts for discussion.

I wondered then, as I often do, when I come across homework assignments that appear nonsensical, whether her English teacher had done their own homework? Whether they had taken the time to annotate the entire book themselves. Whether they understand the labor that was involved with that task and how it would take away from the enjoyment of the book. It seems to me that once again something that is meant to teach kids how to better thinkers, instead is implicit in the killing of their love of reading.

Several years ago I started to do my own homework. From the stories we wrote, to the essays, to the speeches, and to the presentations. I started to experience what I was putting on the shoulders of my students and I quickly realized that what I thought would just take a few minutes never did. What I thought would be easy hardly ever was. What I thought would be meaningful sometimes wasn’t. So I stopped giving homework, except for reading. I stopped going by the formula of grade times 10 minutes. I stopped handing out packets and instead vowed to stop talking so much and instead spend the time in class on discussion and work time. I expected pushback or concern, but have hardly gotten any in the last six years. Most parents express relief instead.

So every year I make a deal with my students; if you work hard in our classroom, you should not have to do work outside of English. If you give me your best then besides reading a good book you don’t have to give me anything more after you leave our classroom. And for most it works. Most of my students come ready to work, ready to learn, and they hand their things in. Not everyone, just like when we have homework we have those kids that do not get it done, I also have kids that do not use their time wisely. So I work individually with them, after all, the acts of a few should never determine the conditions of the many.

So if you are still giving homework, I ask you for this simple task; do it yourself. Go through the motions as if you were a student and then reflect. Was it easy? How much time did it take? What did you have to go through to reach completion? In fact, if you teach in middle school or high school, do it all, truly experience what we put our students through on a day-to-day basis. I would be surprised if the process didn’t shape you in some way.

I still do my own assignments, although I have been slacking lately. Whenever I do, I am reminded of just how much time homework swallows. Of sometimes how little actual practice it gives, or even learning. How homework is unfair because we have already been given hours of their time in school. How those who really need the practice do not need it at home, but instead with us as support in our classrooms. Do your homework, tell your students, and see how they react. Then ask them how they feel about homework. Let their thoughts shape you as a teacher, I promise you won’t regret it.

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

If Not Us, Then Who?

October 10, 2016 Pernille Schmidt Ripp

When I was 17 years old, my history teacher pulled me aside and told me tone it down. “It” being my opinion in case it intimidated others. “It” being speaking my mind because sometimes I would come across so forceful that others did not want to engage. So I stopped speaking in his class. I stopped jumping in, afraid that I was going to rock the boat or upset the other students. I knew I had opinions, but I didn’t want to be known as someone who did not make room for others.

A long time ago I decided that staying quiet would not get me anywhere. That hoping that someone would understand what I needed without me actually speaking up was a delusion. That I could no longer wait until someone spoke the words that burned within me so I could quote them and pretend I hadn’t thought the exact same thing. I started writing, speaking, and teaching as the whole me, rather than the 17 year old girl who had been told to tone it down. It has been quite a journey since then.

As educators we speak up all of the time. We speak up for ourselves when changes need to be made in our schools. We speak up for our students when they need us to advocate. We speak up for our own needs and hopefully for the needs of our students. We speak up when we see injustices that need to be righted, when our teacher stares are not enough.

So I think it is time for us to speak up and let our voices be heard because when I look at my classroom library, when I really study the books I am able to put in the hands of my students, I cannot help but wonder; where are the books from non-white authors? Where are the picture books that center around kids that are going about their every day life that look like some of my students? Where are the holiday books, the birthday books, the first day of school books, the books that share small slices of life that have characters that are not white?

While I buy the ones that I know of thanks to blogs like Reading While White, We Need Diverse Books, and the Nerdy Book Club, I am constantly reminded of how few there are out there for us to purchase. When I receive a package of books I am constantly reminded of how often the kids in the books look just like my own kids in all of their whiteness. How my kids must take it for granted that, of course, the books they read have people in them that look like them. That I do not have to scour the internet to find books that remind them of themselves because those are the majority of books out there. That in book upon book being white as a character is the standard not the exception.

We need diverse books. We need own voices books. We need more than what is out there and so we need to raise our voices. There will be no change if we do not say loudly; “This is not enough. This is not ok.”

So as educators we can speak up. We can reach out and demand better. We can spend our precious budgets on books that do not just offer up more white narratives, but actually mirror the diversity that we are surrounded by. We can tell publishers that we need books that show all of the kids we teach. We need books about Native American written by Native American, or other #OwnVoices authors. We need books that go beyond the standard stories being shared so that when all of my students open up a book they can find a character that looks like them. Or when my own white children read a book, they will see a character that does not look like them and understand that that too is the norm.

For too many years we have waited for publishers to notice the major gap that has been created, and while changes are under way, the process won’t speed up until we speak up. So use your voice, use your connections, use your money to show the world that when we echo that “We need diverse books!” it is not just because it is a catchy phrase, but is the truth.