Category: Be the change

Be the change, Student-centered

How About a Little Change?

Pernille Ripp
image from icanread

I seem to write about big changes a lot.  You know the kind that changes the way you teach, how school is done, and how students function in your classroom.  And while I love my big changes (I would never go back) I also know that it can be kind of hard to do some of these big changes all at once or even at all.  Sometimes policies stand in our way, other times it is our own courage that is lacking, or our preconceived notion of what students will be able to handle.  And yet, you want to change, but just not in a big way (yet…) so how about some little changes to get you started?

Instead of getting rid of all homework how about eliminating it in one subject?  While I am proponent of not assigning any, even I sometimes have to.  So a way to change the way you do homework is to just not give it in one subject.  Check in with students during class and eliminate the thing you were going to use to check in on what they knew.  Try it, see if you like it, and then see if you try more subjects.

Instead of doing all project-based, how about converting one topic?  Project-based learning can be really daunting if you are looking to transform your entire curriculum to hands-on learning, so how about you start with just one segment of your curriculum?  How about the next social studies project?  Or adding in some science?  Get your feet wet, and those of your students, and then see if you can do it again.

Instead of getting rid of grades how about asking your students to set them with you?  This is a great way to work within policies that mandate you give grades. Doing it together with students starts a learning dialogue and creates ownership.  When they get to set, discuss, and defend their own grade they reach a deeper understanding of their own knowledge and needs.

Instead of a whole day of innovation how about one hour?  I am a huge proponent of Innovation Day but also understand how it can seem overwhelming or doomed to fail by some (yet trust me it is worth it).  If you are not sure how a whole day of letting students create will look like, try Genius Hour first.  This one hour innovation is a great way to get students into a creation groove and also allows you to iron out any misunderstandings.

Instead of connecting your students with the world how about connecting them with one class?  We often feel like our students should be engaged in a global conversation, and yet, that can be a lot to set up, oversee and maintain.  So rather than focusing on the whole world, how about focusing on just one deep connection with another class?  I have often found that a focused connection is more meaningful than many superficial ones.

Instead of an hour of project time how about just 10 minutes?  My students and I like to do projects.  The students lesson plan with me while making sure we cover everything we need to (and then some) and then they get to work on their projects.  But if this seems like it would be frightening or you are not sure that your students could handle a whole hour of self-directed work then give them 10 minutes at the end of class.  This way you can support in a concentrated dosage and students still get to work on something more hands-on.  As you get more comfortable you can expand the time.

There are so many things we can change to create more student-centered learning environments.  All it takes is one small step in the right direction and you have started on your path to change.

Be the change, discipline, punishment, students

So I Gave Up Punishment and My Students Still Behaved

Pernille Ripp
image from icanread

When I moved my blog from Blogger to WordPress last summer I mistakenly assumed that all posts would seamlessly transfer.  I have since found the error in my thinking and have decided to re-post some of my more discussed posts.  This post first appeared in June of 2011  but still rings true to me.

Three years ago I gave up my inane punishment plans.  Out went the sticks, the cups, the posters, the pointed fingers and definitely the lost recesses.  No more check-marks, or charts to explain what that check-mark meant, no more raised voice telling a child they better behave or else.  Some thought I was crazy, I thought I was crazy, and yet, here I am now a complete convert.  So what happened?

Well, a lot of conversations.  If just one child was off that day, disruptive, disrespectful and so on, it was usually handled through a quiet conversation off to the side or in their ear.  Sometimes we went in the hallway.  I tried to limit the times I called out their names and I spoke to them as human beings.  No more teacher from the top, I am going to get you if you don’t listen, but rather, “Do you see what your behavior is doing for your learning?”  Believe it or not, framed in a way where they understood what the loss was = the learning, there was better behavior or at least an attempt to behave.  And that was a central part of my plan; make the learning something they didn’t want to miss.  Most kids do not want to miss recess because they have a lot of fun and hang out with their friends, which is why it is such a favored punishment.  Hit them where it hurst kind of thing.  So I decided to make my classroom fun, exciting, and collaborative.  That meant that students actually wanted to participate and not miss out.

Sometimes my whole class was off; jumpy, jiggly, or falling asleep.  In the past I would have yelled, droned on, and probably lectured about the importance of school.  No surprise there that usually didn’t work at all.  So then I would just get mad, tighten the reins and exert my control.  Yeah, didn’t work so well.  Now I instead change my teaching and learning.  While we may have had certain activities planned for that day they are modified to require movement and discussion or totally changed if I can.  The learning goals usually stays the same, the method of delivering them doesn’t.  Often this takes care of a lot of behavior that would have led to a check-mark before.  And I think that is central to this whole thing; bad behavior often comes from disengagement and boredom.  So when we change our classrooms to give students more outlet for their energy, bad behavior reduces.  My worst days were the days that I hadn’t considered my students needs enough, the days were there was too much sitting down and not enough choice.

In the beginning it was hard.  I so instinctually wanted to say “Move your stick!” that I actually had to grind my teeth.  With time it got easier.  The students knew when they were misbehaving because we discussed it.  If the whole class or a majority of students were off we had a class meeting.  Sounds like a lot of time spent on talking?  Yes, but I would have been spending the same time yelling at the kids and doling out punishment.  The kids got used to it and many of them relished the fact that they were given a voice in their behavior and how to fix it, rather than a dictation from me.  Kids started keeping each other in line as well, asking others to be quiet when need be or to work more focused.  They knew what the expectations were for the different learning settings because we had set them together.  This was our classroom, not mine.

So did it work?  Absolutely, I would never go back.  I don’t take away recess but have it reserved to work with the kids that need it, I make fewer phone calls home, and I rarely send a kid to the office.  I am sure there are tougher classes out there than mine, but this is your every day average American elementary class.  We have the talkers, the interrupters, the disrespectful, the fighters, and the sleepers.  And it works for them as well.  The kids feel part of something big, and they let me know on  just how much it means to them.  They relish the voice they have, even when it comes to their own consequences.  They relish that rewards are no longer personal but rather classroom-wide whenever I feel like it.  Kids are not singled out for horrible behavior and so I don’t have “that kid” that everyone knows will get in trouble.  Instead we are all there as learners being rewarded through our community rather than punished.  I remember the relief I felt when I placed my old punishment cups in the staff lounge and finally let go of my old ways.  To this day I  hope no one picked them up.

 

 

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Be the change, being a teacher, discipline, punishment, reflection, students

Put Your Name on the Board – A Tale of Why I Gave Up Classroom Discipline Systems

Pernille Ripp
image from icanread

When I moved my blog from Blogger to WordPress last summer I mistakenly assumed that all posts would seamlessly transfer.  I have since found the error in my thinking and have decided to re-post some of my more discussed posts.  This post first appeared in June of 2011 but still rings true to me. 

Put your name on the board! Those words spoken in a very stern voice accompanied by a teacher look was enough to whip the toughest student into shape. Except when it didn’t which for me was enough times to make me wonder. Could my discipline systems really be thrown out and replaced with nothing? Would chaos then reign supreme?

If you had come by my room last year you would have seen them. Those sticks in the cups or the names on the boards with checks, sometimes double checks and plenty of stern looks to go around. I was doing exactly what I had been taught in school, exerting my control as the main authority figure and if students misbehaved, well, then there was some form of punishment. Oh don’t worry; there were plenty of rewards as well. If students didn’t move their stick or get their name on the board for a week then their name got entered into drawing for pizza with me. At the end of the month if they didn’t have their name in my book for not doing their homework, they could also enter their name, and then I would finally draw names and five lucky students would have pizza with me. Confused? I was! I could hardly keep check Of all those names, checks, and punishments.

However, last year I realized something after reading Alfie Kohn; I knew I had to change. By perpetually focusing negative energy on the same students, who, lets face it, are most often the ones having their name singled out somehow already, I was indeed just adding more to their self doubt. While I believe in discipline for all students, I also believe in compassion and that philosophy simply was not fitting in with my chosen system. So I did as many teachers may do; I threw it all out. However, instead of hunting for a new system, I decided to detox myself, start this year with no system for reward and punishment and instead strive to create a classroom community where students just know what the expectation is.

I was petrified that first month. I run a tough classroom in my expectations for my students and I know that if you do not set the tone those first weeks, it can be detrimental to the rest of the year. And yet I held strong in my conviction that even the more unruly students would eventually figure this out through repeated conversations and respect. And boy, did we talk. We talked about expectations, rules, how to speak to one another, and what to do when something goes wrong. A lot of the time, I just listened to these amazing students come up with solutions to problems, listened to them explain how they envisioned our classroom, how they wanted fourth grade to be. And I was in awe; these kids knew how to behave without me telling them over and over. And they certainly would figure it out without me alternating punishment and rewards.

So after the first month I started to breathe again. I let our new system flex itself and watched the students help keep the classroom stabile. Sure, there are times when I think ooh if I just had a way to “punish” it would fix this and this and then I realize that perhaps I just need to find some time to speak to that particular student. Now instead of an exasperated tone and a system to keep them in check, we discuss, we try to fix, and we reevaluate. I don’t run the classroom with a complicated system of checks and balances, rewards and punishments, but rather with an atmosphere of community, of belonging. Is it perfect? No, but neither am I, nor my students. I am just glad I believed in my own skills enough to realize that perhaps, just perhaps, my students would know how to behave without me rewarding them for it. Once again, they blew away all of my expectations.

 

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Be the change, being me, new year, reflection

The Promises I Make for the New Year

Pernille Ripp
image from icanread
image from icanread

2014 has already become a year we will never forget.  Between Augustine’s battles, the arctic winter we are surrounded by, and the incredible love that surrounds us, this year will be the year that follows us.

Whenever life gets crowded I think of my classroom and how closely connected my life is to it.  I stopped doing resolutions years ago, after all, I had to write them down to even remember them and then never followed through on them.  This year, though, begs for resolutions or rather promises I would like to make.  So this year I promise 3 simple things.

  1. To be kind.  The mask I wear most days does not show how much turmoil there is in my heart at the moment.  I am a fighter, as is my whole family, but I admit that it does not take much to crack my surface right now and tears come easily.  We never know what other people are holding inside, we never know why a child acts out or acts indifferent.  We never know why a parent does not respond to our contacts, or another teacher gets upset.  So this year I promise to approach everyone and every situation with kindness.  I will think of the human being first and the task at hand second.
  2. To be present.  Taken from John T. Spencer’s post, this promise continues to be at the forefront of my mind.  I want to be present for the ups and downs that life throws at us.  I want to be present at the small moments that truly shape our lives that my own children and my students have.  I want to notice.  I want to think about what I see.  I want to slow down and take it in.  To be present does not require much, in fact, it is done best by turning everything else off and giving someone the gift of you.  So that is what I will do.
  3. To celebrate the small things.  Too often we wait until momentous occasions to celebrate in style.  Life is too short, life is too complicated to hold your breath and wait for those few moments where everything lines up.  This year I will celebrate as much as I can.  Thea learning a new letter, Ida and Oskar learning new words, Augustine gaining even the smallest amount of weight.  My students conquering a task for the day, fellow colleagues trying small new things, and yes, my husband and all of the small things he does to keep our marriage strong every day.  Those are the things I will celebrate.

While I cannot control some of the things that I wish I could, I can control myself and my reaction to life.  I can make promises and keep them, so that is what I intend on doing, how about you?

Be the change, connections, reflection

It Is Not Enough to Be a Connected Educator Anymore

Pernille Ripp
image from icanread

Today I approved more than 70 comments on my  students’ blogs.  Strangers from Canada, England, The Netherlands, New Zealand, and many states took the time to celebrate the writing my students do, to encourage them to write more, and to praise their voice.  They shared stories of their own fire mishaps, their own resolutions, their own love of books.  All because my students asked them to.  All because I asked them to on Twitter.  Today was not an anomaly.  Today was simply another day in the life of my connected students.

I didn’t get connected myself at first so that I could connect my students.  In fact, it didn’t even cross my mind.  Why in the world would 4th graders need to have anything to do with the world?  Why would I ever want them to open up to strangers or to let strangers have any kind of contact with them?  Being connected was not something I saw as a necessity.  Being connected was something they could figure out when they were much, much older.

But then we got connected.  Once I started blogging, I realized that they should blog too.  Once I started learning from strangers, I realized the power of reaching out to others that knew more than me and how the whole world could be my students’ teacher, not just me.  I knew I was not enough anymore, and I was at peace with that.

Yet, I think we forget the power of connecting our students, even when we are connected ourselves.  We talk about connected educators and all that it brings into our lives, but I think it is time we shift the conversation to that of connected students.  Sure, I am connected, but that does not matter if my students are not.

So rather than just push teachers to get connected, let’s focus on getting their students connected too.  Let’s focus on showing what bringing the world in means and how it can change the way students think about the world.  Let’s focus on making global collaboration easy, even if on a small scale.  It is not enough to be a connected educator anymore, we have to be connected educators that connect our students.  We have to let our students reach out tot he world and see how the world answers.  We have to trust them to do the right thing and teach them how to do it best.  Just like we do for ourselves, we must push a global education, we are no longer enough in ourselves.