Be the change – Page 59

You never know when you will have one of those weeks that is worth looking back upon, they mostly sneak up on you. This was one of those weeks and although I should blog about every single one of these things, well most of them anyway, I won’t. I would, for once, rather just get to the point so you can too.

Ask someone what they are really into right now and see what happens. I have been asking colleagues virtually and face to face what they are really digging and cannot believe what I have been learning. From great new picture books to awesome doodads (who doesn’t love doodads) and all it took was asking them.
Get yourself into an intimidating situation. I am an extroverted introvert so when John Pederson asked me to join him, Will Richardson, Diana Laufenberg, Curt Rees and Stuart Ciske for dinner my immediate thought was, “No way!” I tend to shy away from meeting people I admire on Twitter because they are just way out of my coolness range. With some pushing from my husband, who even set up a sitter so I could go, I took the plunge and had a very interesting evening. I didn’t add much to the conversation but I was there just listening and that in itself was enlightening.
Unfollow everyone. I thank John Pederson for this idea after I explained I felt like I was in a Twitter rut not really following new people or making new connections. He told me to unfollow everyone and start over, so I did, and was he ever right. I am already making new connections and branching out into more conversations. And by the way if I unfollowed you and haven’t yet followed you, reach out, I am sleep deprived and can only recall so many Twitter names.
Toot your horn. Today wraps up The Global Read Aloud which this year boasted more than 30,000 students participating on 6 continents. No one from my district would know that if I didn’t speak up, so I did, and it’s ok. Because this project is my passion and gosh darn it others like it too.
Toot the horn’s of others. Professional development in my district has been a mixed bag of failures, lameness and all around insanely boring times, except for the one this week. My district finally nailed it when they had teachers present and allowed us to sign up for what we wanted to go to. So I took to Facebook and Twitter to share the love for the presenters who finally gave us something worthwhile to do.
Trust your gut. My kids started a new daycare this week and although the provider is full of love, it is just not the right fit for us. So instead of sucking it up, I have spent the last two days frantically trying to find new care for them, not an easy task in Madison if you want quality care. However, I cannot with a good conscience send my kids somewhere where they don’t have a great learning environment, right now I can control that, so I will.
Celebrate but realize what you are celebrating. With the Wisconsin report cards being released for all schools, I was thrilled to see my school, West Middleton Elementary ranked 31st in the state. Ironic since my school is also a Title 1 focus school for our achievement gap. So at first I thought of how great an accomplishment this was, until I realized that most of that ranking are based on things I have nothing to do with; student financial situation, housing, food, sleep, and just being a school in a suburban district. We are still failing to reach all student but do a good job with most, I can take credit for the most but I have to focus on the few.
Take a risk even if it is small. I was approached to be a monthly contributor to a big blog this week and at first I was really excited, but then decided against it. When you let your self-doubt control your actions that is often what happens. Upon further consideration, I realized that perhaps I could do this after all, and that my voice matters. So take a chance, believe in yourself, like we believe in our students, and do something just a little bit out of your comfort zone. (And look for my upcoming monthly guest blog on TeachHub.com starting in November).

Be the change, being a teacher, choices

Find Your Change

September 10, 2012 Pernille Ripp

image from Case&Co

I write a lot about change, after all, in education how can you not? Change does appear to be the constant every year and this year is no different. However, the change I love to focus on is the personal change; the one where we know that something has to be different for us to keep on going. The change that tells us that we will burn out in teaching if we don’t act now. So the one question I seem to get the most is; how do you change?

The answer for me is; start where you are. Take stock of what it is that makes you tick and what makes you stop. What burns you out and what do you have power over? There are many things that wear my soul down that I cannot control so I try to focus on those that I can; homework, grades, punishment, ways I present information, community, and so on. And then I focus in on a few that I need to change right now. I do not marry an idea, I date i,t and year after year it may get transformed – the change may change, and I am at peace with that.

I also don’t buy into a lot of programs. I already have enough to memorize with the curriculum I have to teach so I look for natural changes; those that speak to me, that I know are authentic to me, nor purchased and packaged in a sleek form. I have tried to implement many programs in my classroom, Tribes anyone, only to watch them disappear because I don’t remember what the main components are. So my change is my program and therefore not prescriptive, it works for me in that moment, in that year, and I believe those are the best types of changes.

So this year, as I sit on maternity leave and wait for the calendar to show November 5th, I think of changes I may implement this year. There are many I can think of but none that I know for sure, after all, how can I know what to change when I don’t know what will work with this amazing group of students? And yet, the need for change is there, I can’t wait to blog about it.

Be the change, being a teacher, choices

We Make Kids Hate School

September 7, 2012 Pernille Ripp

image from icanread

I think it is time I take responsibility for the damage I can do. Most definitely for the damage I have done to those kids that came to me loving school who left my room changed. Those kids that thought they were good at math until my long-winded lectures and explanations confused more than clarified, and in the end they did not know whether to ask for help or just pretend that they got it. I changed my teaching because of the damage I had done. I still change my teaching hoping that the students I teach will not leave my room hating school, but loving it instead, seeing it as the ultimate learning challenge to be embraced and celebrated. Not scorned, survived, or floated through.

So how do we make children hate school so much? I teach 5th grade and by that time certain subjects have already become hated for most kids. Math tops the list but social studies comes in a close second. Most love recess (which so doesn’t count), art, reading (not often writing) and science. PE is up there and as is music for the girls. But math and social studies, yikes. I think of how I used to teach math; lecturing at the students with hardly any time to actually apply. I thought they could go home and “practice” on their own time. Often we had so much to get through that questions were not always answered thoroughly and discussion was certainly discouraged; can’t you see we have a lot to do here? Social studies belonged to the textbook, to spice things up we would share the reading aloud of the text and I would try to catch students not paying attention so I could point out that they were not paying attention. Nothing beats a good old fashioned public embarrassment routine. By the time I was done with them in 4th grade they knew how to follow along in a textbook and fill out worksheets really well. Too bad the incredibly fascinating history we had just read about got buried in the disgust.

So what is so different now? Well, I don’t talk as much. That’s huge. In math I prepare just what is important, then showcase it, and we discuss, answer questions, and practice as we go. Time is given to finish pages in class and I never feel I have to assign it all if need be. If a students asks one of those questions that are just too hard to miss out on, we explore it and deal with the time constraint later. We pull out manipulatives and whiteboards whenever we can. We work together when desired and we move around when it makes sense. I stress that not all concepts are meant to be conquered that day and that the most important thing is growth; no longer rote memorization but application and deeper meaning. We discuss the similarities between concepts and how they are connected; I hope students see the red thread that runs through our year and why things are presented in this order.

Social studies starts much the same way; I don’t talk as much! And I no longer fool myself into believing that reading round robin style counts as interaction. Instead, the massive text book is used as a spring board for discussion. We find the key concepts and then we set off through projects to explore them. Students have choice in how they explore and often in what they explore within a topic. History is brought up to the now as we discuss the parallels we can see between the past and the present. Student questions are invited and we debate whether we would have proceeded the same way or anything else that needs to be debated. Student voice is as important as my own and so is their understanding of why we are where we are now in the world, how we got there, and that doesn’t come through rote memorization either.

So while not every kid that leaves my room falls back in love with school – sometimes the damage takes years to undo – I try to put them back on the path. I take responsibility for my own actions as a teacher and realize the damage I can do. I go to school every day with the mission for kids to love learning and to show my own curiosity and be a rolemodel for loving school. I go to school knowing that I can be the difference between love and hate and between further success in school or not. I hope everyone takes that responsibility.

advice, Be the change, being a teacher, education reform, new year

Who Is to Blame? Who Cares…

August 23, 2012 Pernille Ripp

image from icanread

In the ever expanding debate on the state of education, it seems a lot of blame is passed around. Teachers blame parents, parents blame teachers, public schools blame society, charter schools blame public schools, and politicians, well they seem to blame everybody. Not a day goes by without another blaring headline of one side versus the other and frankly I am sick of it. I know there is blame to be passed, I know there is blame to be had, but in the end, who really cares?

Blame doesn’t do us any good. Blame doesn’t fix the problem. Yes, I can lament the fact that not all of my students have the same socioeconomic background, the same level of parent commitment, heck, I can get upset about their varying degrees of pre-school involvement, but at the end of my teaching day, none of it matters. What matters is what I do now. What matters is how I work with the students, with all of their background, and how we keep them successful from there. Blame is great to discuss, it can get us all riled up, it can get us more invested in the debate, but really it takes our focus off of where it should be – what we can do in education with the students we have.

So this year, I am going to try to step out of the blame game. Yes, I know there are many ills in our public schools and society in general. Yes, I know poverty is a major factor in many students’ lives. Yes, I know that I cannot control what happens outside of school or what happened before they became my students but I can control the now. I can play a part in what happens starting September 4th and for a whole school year within the walls of our classroom. I can focus on the students as I have them, rather than the blame I would like to assign. I am going to take my energy off of blaming and place it back with my students. I will continue to work and fight for change. I will continue to be a voice in the debate. But I will not continue to just pass the blame and do nothing. Are you with me?

Be the change, change, classroom expectations, guest blog

Flying Above the Radar

August 2, 2012 Pernille Ripp

With the arrival of our twins, I asked for guest bloggers and was super excited to share this post with all of you by Kaitlyn Gentry…

Too often in education, and in life, people aim to fly under the radar. No one wants to fail, but appearing overtly successful makes a lot of people uncomfortable. It is like a cultural regression towards the mean. Occasionally people fly high and norms are challenged, but aren’t those are statistical anomalies, ones that can be corrected with a wider data sample or retests? Why would a tiny point continue to appear above the radar, outside of that regular curve?

My previous year was a successful one: students grew, parents were happy, and I emerged from my first year as a third grade teacher unscathed. But that is what happens when you fly below the radar. Soon thoughts began creeping in…Why had the year gone so smoothly? It must have been those sticker charts and earned recess minutes, those warnings of “this is impacting your conduct grade”, the “If I were taking this test, I’d be paying close attention to the chart of page 52.” The carefully calculated control I wielded over my group of eighteen boys had allowed for effortless success; except when it didn’t. Those small failures: students no longer caring to earn extra recess because they saw through the ploy, boys ignoring the conduct grade pleas, memorization of the chart on page 52, without understanding the chart. These were easily explained away: these are the strategies that everyone uses, the boys are ready for summer, the required chart on page 52 is actually pretty boring.

Enter the outlier.

I realized I was wrong. Those excuses were just that, excuses, and I began to see that I wasn’t alone in my thinking. There was a cluster appearing outside of the curve…a conversation was growing about the amount of control exerted upon our students, about the threats of grades, homework, lost recess, and the more subtle “positive reinforcement” of earning stickers or treats to memorize, regurgitate, and perform in lock-step fashion. I realized that in order to make my next year a true success it was not going to be smooth, within the curve, or below the radar.

This year was messy: filled with conversations about citizenship, having a voice, effort, reflection, process over product, and growth over grades. Instead of discussing their monthly grades, each student wrote a reflection paper, covering areas of growth and difficulty in every subject, which we reviewed together. These reflections also went home at the front of their folder, to be reviewed with parents, before grades were discussed if they chose to do so. Instead of removing or adding recess time for talking in the hallways, we discussed the impact of showing respect for the other classes in session. Writing assignments were no longer assigned a letter, instead I wrote to each student on their papers, citing strengths and areas for improvement. My students did not simply “aim for an A,” but sought to improve their writing mechanics, structure, creativity, or detail. Not only did this allow my students to understand specific and measurable goals, but it also helped them take responsibility for their growth. They were not relying on me to “hand down” their grade, they were able to improve by focusing on specific skills. I eliminated many of the multiple choice tests and created projects which gave the students choices to experience authentic learning opportunities. They were no longer memorizing empty facts about the medieval time period; instead they were investigating the history of medieval warfare to design a realistic video game and “teaser video.” I stopped assigning stickers for books read or neatness. Instead, I learned about what my students liked to read, and why. We discussed beautiful artwork and made connnections between finished art and final papers, with students remarking that craftsmanship is present in both. It was eye-opening to realize how I devalued both of these areas by simply assigning stickers for completion, insteading of encouraging a conversation to occur. I was at times very uncomfortable, and so were my students, but our existence above the radar was making a real impact. Conversations were starting in classrooms nearby, students were responding, and growth was happening. Could I view this year as more of a success?

Enter the point under the radar.

It was one sentence on a final student survey: “I look like I know what I am doing in compositions, but sometimes I do not; next year look for the boys who don’t stand out.” I had missed one…A tiny, small voice, hidden below the radar. In all of my efforts to reach each student, to listen to them, to support their individual growth, I had overlooked at least one. He was reaching out now, but it was too late, the final desk cleaned, the last locker emptied.

However, his message will help me not regress towards the mean, because the mean is created by those who have already deemed their methods as successful, instead of striving for more. I will not count this year as a “success” because I missed at least one, there is much more to be done, and next year I will continue to be an outlier, to work beyond the curve to reach each student, even those hidden safely below the radar.

Bio of Kaitlyn Gentry:
I am entering into my fifth year of teaching, and my third year with my third grade boys at Calvert School in Baltimore, Maryland. I attended Calvert, and I feel fortunate to be able to give back to such a wonderful community where I am encouraged to explore, take risks, make mistakes, and to grow alongside my students everyday. I have loved establishing a PLN through twitter (@mk8g) this year and write about my ever evolving pedagogy on my classroom blog (http://ninthageboys9-1.blogspot.com/) to teach my students not to just be “consumers,” but “producers” as well!

Be the change

We Cannot All Be the Best

July 15, 2012 Pernille Ripp

Be the example! Set the bar high so others will rise to it! We want to be a beacon school! How often do we hear all of these statements in education. Be the best teacher you can be…Be the one others want to emulate…Be the best school…the best team…the best everything. And yet, we cannot all be the best. The whole notion of the term “best” automatically excludes most of us.

So instead of striving to be THE best, how about we strive to be better? To change things? To inspire others? To motivate? To set grand examples while still learning from others? The truth is if we were all beacon schools no one would be able to see us from the glare. So shine bright yes, but that doesn’t mean you have to shine the brightest because then all you do is blind others.