I was fortunate enough to have my very first article published by EdWeek this week in anticipation of my book release this fall. I have been so excited to move into the editing stages of my book, titled “Passionate Learners – Giving Our Classroom back to Our Students Starting Today.” This book is meant to be a how-to book for new teachers and veterans that want to change a little or a lot of how they have been teaching. It is a practical book filled with ideas and examples to hopefully inspire you to give the classroom back and give students a voice in their education.
So here is an excerpt from my article, please click the link to see the rest
No teacher begins a teaching career with ill intentions. Yet most of us make our biggest mistake on our very first day. I was no different, nine years ago. I chose to do everything the way I had been taught in college—the way the popular new-teacher advice books said I should.
Sure, I laughed with the students and made noises about our “class community.” But as the all-important first week of school progressed, I went about dictating rules, establishing who was in control, and setting tight boundaries for the year.
As a result, I lost the opportunity to create the kind of relationship with my students that leads not only to motivation and engagement but to real ownership of learning and ultimately greater achievement. At the time I didn’t recognize the loss—it took several years, in fact. If you’re a new teacher about to begin your journey, maybe my lessons learned can help you avoid the pitfalls of a pretend partnership with your students.
To see the rest and my ideas for a better way to start, go here
I realized today that I am about to start my 6th year of teaching, not counting the 6 months long-term subbing I started with. 6 years of first days, first weeks, and incredible students to get to know. 6 years of having the hardest time figuring out what to start with, what to share, how to set up my room. 6 years to figure out that every year it feels like you are brand-new and the back to school nightmares come earlier and earlier. So I went through my archives of posts as I was looking for some old ideas myself to tweak and in the process thought I should share some of my favorites from the past 3 years of blogging about back to school.
I am a passionate 5th grade teacher in Middleton, Wisconsin, USA, proud techy geek, and mass consumer of incredible books. Creator of the Global Read Aloud Project, Co-founder of EdCamp MadWI, and believer in all children. I have no awards or accolades except for the lightbulbs that go off in my students’ heads every day. First book “Passionate Learners – Giving Our Classroom Back to Our Students Starting Today” will be released this fall from PLPress. Follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.
Disclaimer first: I love Scholastic and have for many years. The ease of getting books in the hands of my students, the shiny catalogues that stop our day because we have to circle all of the books we want to read, and also the prices. Scholastic has indeed been good for this teacher. And yet, Scholastic I may have to break it off with you….
Dear Scholastic,
In my other post, I first noticed the standardized testing focus that seems to jump form your new pressed pages. As you may know, it broke my heart and many others’. But now I find myself shaking my head even more, not quite sure if I should even send home your lovely catalogue or just keep it to myself. See you went ahead and created leveled catalogues. Probably with great intentions to make book selection easier for kids or to help teachers by grade level appropriate books. But you forgot a couple of things…
My students aren’t levels. They are readers. And they don’t want someone to tell them what a 5th grader should read, they want to trust their own voice as a reader as a pursuer of fantastic stories and knowledge. I teach them to trust themselves. I teach them how to find their perfect book. I know their level but they don’t, they don’t need to to know what they need to do become even stronger readers,
Their grade does not define them. My students read all sorts of books and not because they are “just right” based on an assessment, but because they are just right in interest, in action, in creativity, in mood, in readability. They don’t pick a book because it is perfect for 5th grade. They pick a book because it is perfect for them.
And yet they know their grade. Some of my 5th graders wouldn’t be caught dead reading something someone had labeled a 4th grade book. Even if it was a great book. Even if I thrust it into their hands and told them to trust me. By splashing 4th grade or 3rd grade all over your many colored pages, you have guaranteed that some of my kids will never consider reading those books simply because they are too proud to read something that is labeled for younger kids. And what about when they become 6th graders? Do you think they then want to read 5th grade books? No, that would be for elementary students, not the big middle school students. I am saddened by the books they will miss out on.
And me? I had to pretend I was a 4th, 5th ,and 6th grade teacher to get the catalogues that I want for my students. See some need 4th grade reading levels, while others are ready for middle school action and stories. And I need to be able to supply them that. Yet, I don’t know if I can give them the catalogues anymore, I don’t know quite what will happen if they see the push for standardized testing and the need to level. Will they think that reading is only for tests? Will they think that they can only read certain books because that’s what someone told them?
I don’t think I am ready to take them down that path. I hope you change your mind, Scholastic, perhaps put the levels on the teacher part but not on the flyers. Perhaps, go back to your old ways that were not broken. You don’t have to follow all of the crazy fads happening around us, it is okay to just love reading and let kids love reading too. I haven’t lost the faith in you yet.
Best,
Pernille
Edit: It is not every day you receive a phone call from Scholastic headquarters, but today I did. After a very pleasant conversation with them regarding my latest blog posts, I hung up the phone understanding that they are trying to please many people at the same time. I was also told that many teachers and parents had asked for the recent changes, which had led them go through with it. Their intentions were to help. Yet, I stand by what I have posted and told them that many agree with me; this is not what we had hoped for from this bastion of reading. While I doubt my posts will change their minds, I urge you to start your own conversation with them. They are there to discuss and listen and perhaps if enough of us do engage, something will change. Either way, I continue to respect Scholastic and what they strive to do: provide teachers with great books, even if I am disappointed in their choice.
I was asked by SImpleK12 to do a webinar on how to get rid of homework and realized as I prepared for that although I have written a lot about the reasons why to get rid of homework or at the very least limit it, I have never written about how I did it in my own classroom. With the advent of a new year now is the perfect time to get rid of homework or at the very least limit what you assing! (Note by homework I mean the traditional worksheet, out of school projects and such. ) Here are my ideas:
How to Get Rid of Homework in 11 Steps:
Find the desire. Be honest with yourself; how many times do you know exactly what the results will be from the students when you assign a piece of homework? How many times do you know who will hand it in perfect, who will hand it in half-finished, who will never hand it in? I knew and I think many of us do. This was a huge reason for why I got rid of homework and here are more. To get rid of homework you first need to have the desire to do so to be able to stand behind your decision.
Do your research – You are going to face an uphill battle in some situations so you need to know your research. Fortunately a lot exists to support the idea that homework does not enhance learning as much as we think, particularly at the elementary level. Look up Alfie Kohn and read his stuff, he has done a lot of research for you already.
Involve your administrators. You have to be upfront and transparent here, particularly if you work in a more traditional school setting where you may be the only one getting rid of it. Explain your reasoning and present them with the research. Perhaps they will not support getting rid of all of it (perhaps they cannot because of directives) but they should be able to support you to limit it.
Involve your team. I think it is vital to also involve your team and explain what you are doing and why. My team knows that I don’t believe in homework and they respect that. It is important that even if they do not agree with your decision that they see that it is not a rip on how they do things. And the more you discuss it, the more they may start to come around as well.
Front load with parents. I tell my parents in our welcome letter that there will be very limited homework and why. Invite the conversations and questions right away so that they can understand why your classroom may be different than others. You may be surprised at how parents react so give them a chance to speak to you about it.
Think about each subject. What do you traditionally assign and why? Can you structure your time differently to include work time or practice time? How can you still cover what you need to cover to check for understanding and depth?
Start at the end. I plan backwards meaning I think of where we need to end up and then try to envision how to get there. This works incredibly well with student choice as well since that way I can include student ideas and thoughts in the process. This also means I know exactly what my learning outcomes need to be and where we are headed.
Stop talking! The biggest consumer of time in a classroom tends to be the teacher. I know I felt like I had to be the knowledge bearer and thus had to impart that knowledge on my students through lecture. I now realize my mistake; students will understand and love whatever they are learning about if they get to explore and dig into it rather than sit and listen to me explain. While I still do openings and support throughout, I got rid of homework by letting students work on concepts in class rather than listen to me.
Check for understanding through conversation. Often I used worksheets or projects to see how much my students understand, now I accomplish that through conversation. This seems so simple and yet conversation and checking for understanding is the quickest and most accurate way to see what a child knows and what you need to help them with. I often have a clipboard or a notebook with me as I check in so that I can jot down any observations and assessment I take throughout class.
Start small and easy. I got rid of homework in almost every subject my first year of doing it and I now only ask students to read 30 minutes outside of school but do not check it (I can see who reads and who doesn’t). You don’t have to do what I did though, you can just find one subject area and cut back there.
Don’t beat yourself up. I thought getting rid of homework meant that I never assigned anything ever again. This is not how it is in reality for me. There are times where I assign students tasks but I try to make them meaningful and worth their time. I limit the times I do and I try to give them a long time to do things outside of class. You don’t have to be perfect to make a difference. I have written about my struggles here so don’t feel you have to be perfect as you get rid of it, but do take steps to think of the meaningfulness of the things we ask students to do outside of our classroom. Start somewhere and reach out if you have questions. I am here to help.
I am a passionate 5th grade teacher in Middleton, Wisconsin, USA, proud techy geek, and mass consumer of incredible books. Creator of the Global Read Aloud Project, Co-founder of EdCamp MadWI, and believer in all children. I have no awards or accolades except for the lightbulbs that go off in my students’ heads every day. First book “Passionate Learners – Giving Our Classroom Back to Our Students Starting Today” will be released this fall from PLPress. Follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.
One week left of vacation as I write this from Chester, Massachusetts. One week until 25 students walk in through our door, eager to learn, not quite sure what to expect. One week until I put my money where my mouth is and live the things I preach.
It is easy for me to write about all the things I am going to do this year. It is even easy for me to tell others to do what I do, try what I try, believe what I believe. But when those students show up with all their wonder, with all their personality, with all their quirks, that’s when the real test begins. That’s when I have to live what I say. That’s when Common Core meets ELO’s meets learning plans meets IEP’s meets unique personalities. That’s when my expectations meet reality and I quickly realize that these kids are not quite where they will be by the end of 5th grade and that I need to go back to the beginning. That’s when I realize that even though I have thrown out punishment, thrown out rewards, thrown out grades, and limited homework for 3 years now, every year it still feels like I am starting over.
And yet, because I put my beliefs out there, because I tell my kids this is our classroom, because I believe in giving the classroom back to the students this year will be a challenge once again. A challenge I cannot wait to embrace. A challenge I cannot wait to tackle with my students.
What about your words? Will you stand behind them as the year starts? As the challenges come? As the pressure grows? Will you stay true to who you say you are or will you cave into easiness?Let’s face it, it is easy for us to say what we will do but hard for us to do. The real challenge is not saying it, the real challenge is doing it. Are you ready? I know I am.
Once in awhile words stop you in your track, you take a breath, and then realize just how important those words are, whether they were meant to be or not. Last night as I sat in bed with a tired body after the twins’ birthday party, I turned on the PBS POV documentary “Neurotypical” and only 2 minutes into the movie, I heard these words….
“I had been abused and hurt so much by people trying to make me normal…” says Wolf, an adult living with Autism.
Normal – what is my definition? I immediately thought to my own children and what I deem normal behavior, whatever society deems normal. And yet, I know how tainted my view of normal is just from my upbringing, my culture, my experience. To be normal, you must fit in, but to fit in you must be like me.
Later, a young adult says, “…if people are normal they are allowed to act however they want to some extent, but if people have a syndrome everybody feels like they need to improve them.”
Another punch to the gut as I realized the truth behind these words. People who we deem “normal” we give plenty of leeway when it comes to what we expect as normal societal behavior, but the minute a child comes to us with a label of some sort our leeway decreases in a sense. We expect them to play by our rules because our rules are what is normal.
So I get when parents refuse the labels for their children. I get when my friends are hesitant to draw attention to a need their child may have. I get why I look at Thea and wish for her to be normal in every way, just so society wont try to change her. That is what normal has done to me. I wonder what it has done to all of us?
Pernille Ripp 