Category: being a teacher

being a teacher, being me, new year, reflection

I Am Afraid

Pernille Schmidt Ripp
image from etsy

I have been to my new classroom twice this summer.  Twice.  This coming from the queen of being in the classroom over the summer.  So while I could chalk up my lack of visits up to the fact that I have been super sick for the past 8 days, or that I have moved to a new house, that I am further away, or that I having too much fun with my kids (which I kind of am), none of those reasons would be true.  The real reason is that I don’t know what to do there.  I am not sure where to start.  I can’t get the vibe of my room and I don’t know where to start.

So imagine how my incoming 7th grade students will feel?

Yet, the fact that I am recognizing this leaves me hope.  That means that those unfamiliar cabinets, filled with books I am not sure what to do with, has my attention.  That the desks (urgh desks) will need to be rearranged somehow.  That my own 3 teacher desks can be downsized.  That I can unpack my 100’s of books onto my new bookshelves.  That I can go garage saleing for more shelves because 3 bookshelves will not contain my collection of books.

And yet, that’s not really it either.  It is not the things that are stopping me.  It is the newness.  It is the unknown.  It is the feeling of being in over my head not sure where I can rest my feet, and yes, I am afraid.  I knew how to do elementary.  I knew how to do elementary well.  I knew what to do with 9 and 10 year olds.  But 12 and 13 year olds?  Yup, they terrify me .  And even though I am okay with that, there is just so much new that I don’t quite know where to begin.  As a 6th year teacher you would think I would remember what it feels like to be a new teacher, apparently I don’t.

So I will allow myself to be terrified a few days more.  I will allow my mind to procrastinate planning for a new year a few more days.  I will pretend that my heart doesn’t itch to unleash all of my books and dreams onto my new room.  I will pretend that my thoughts aren’t starting to think of the new adventures ahead.  I will pretend I did not just order new books specifically with our first unit in mind.  I will confront my fear and then chip away at it.  I will take my own advice and plant a seed of change.  I will allow myself baby-steps into the room, into the change, into the new me that doesn’t seem to have an identity anymore.  No longer a 5th grade teacher, no longer me.  I will continue to be afraid but I will start to reach for hope.  I will reach for the new me that really is just me but changed.  That really is me but just with a new title.

I will allow myself to be afraid but I will not let it stop me anymore.  The clock is ticking, the days are slipping, and my new students are waiting.

I am a passionate  teacher in Wisconsin, USA,  who has taught 4, 5th, and 7th grade.  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 Classrooms Back to Our Students” can be purchased now from Powerful Learning Press.   Second book“Empowered Schools, Empowered Students – Creating Connected and Invested Learners” can be pre-ordered from Corwin Press now.  Follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.

 

 

being a teacher, being me, classroom management, new year, punishment, Uncategorized

So How Do You Manage Your Classroom When You Don’t Punish?

Pernille Schmidt Ripp
image from etsy

 

Following the debate over public behavior charts, many people wondered what they could do in its place to still keep students engaged and on track?  I referred to a few posts but then realized that I did not have just one post that laid out exactly what I do in my own room, tips and ideas are in many different places.  And then I realized, I don’t really have one system because my approach changes every year depending on the needs of the students and the type of community we strive to make.  And yet, there are threads that run through every year with my students of what we do.

  • I don’t set the rules.  The students know how to do school, in fact, by 5th grade they are experts at it.  So instead of me telling them what the rules of the room is, I ask them to make them.  They discuss expectations in their table groups and then share with the class.  Nothing is written down on paper but instead we get a feel for what type of classroom we want.
  • We create a vision.  Every year, I ask the students to create a vision of the room.  Sometimes a theme emerges and other times it is just our hopes and dreams.  This is one of the first steps in our community building.
  • We do community building all year.  Even on the last day of school we are trying to create family, and so we do challenges throughout the year, we have “huddles” (meetings led by me or students), we discuss how our room is doing, we change our rules, we set up new expectations, we sometimes even call people out.  Building community is not a beginning of the year thing, it is an all the time thing.
  • We do challenges together.  The very first day we do a bloxes challenge simply so I can get the students working together, this has to do with seeing them grow together and how they function without my guidance.  I love what this simple challenge shows me about the students.
  • When a problem arises, I consider my option before speaking.  Rather than call out a student for misbehaving I often pull them aside, ask them to leave the room to think about it, or do a quick check in.  Humor also gets me far in many situations.
  • When a larger problem arises, I stop if I can.  Often when a students is very, very angry, it needs my intervention or if more than one student is involved.  There is a root to the anger and something needs to be done to uncover it.  While it is very hard to stop what you are doing if you are the one passing out the information, often my students are engaged in a self-driven project r investigation.  This therefore frees me up to discuss/deescalate situations.  Not always, but often.
  • Engagement matters.  If my students are engaged, they misbehave less.  So if behaviors seem to be out of control it is often because of what we are doing.  If we need to stop, reevaluate, and re-think whatever we are doing then we do just that.  Yes, there is curriculum we need to do, but there are many ways to get through it.
  • I ask the students point blank what is going on.  I used to assume I knew why a child was misbehaving, now I ask them instead.  If its because they are bored, I dig deeper.  If it because of some other reason, we find the time to figure it out, even if it means for now they sit and take a breather for a bit.
  • I ask the students how they think their day is going.  If a child seems off, I can guarantee I am not the only one that notices.  That child, more often than not, is acutely aware of it as well.  So why not take this opportunity to build a deeper relationship?  If a child is acting out, there is a reason, we have to try to find the time to work with them and uncover it.
  • I look for the good.  I used to get so fixated on all of the things that were going wrong in the room, all of the “naughty” things a child kept doing that I forgot to see all of the good.  I now remind myself to look at the moments of kindness, the hard work, the laughter and learning that happens within a room on a daily basis.  I hold that up higher in my mind than the bad.  Sometimes it is all about mindset.
  • Every day is a new day.  Rather than label my students, I try to wipe the slate clean every day (of course, this is easier said than done).  Just like I want a new chance every day, I afford that to my students as well.
  • There are consequences, but they make more sense.  When I tell people I don’t punish they assume kids get away with whatever they want in our room, but that is not it at all.  There are consequences yes, but they are not meant to publicly shame a child, but rather to have them reflect and work on their behavior.  This can certainly still be viewed as punishment in the eyes of the child, but I do try to have a growth opportunity for them instead of just a  one action fits all solution.

In the end, I believe student motivation is a huge part of why students behave in a certain way in our rooms.  In fact, so much so, that I wrote about it in my book, “Passionate Learners – Giving Our Classrooms Back to Our Students.”  I therefore leave you with an excerpt from the book to help you peek into my brain some more.

Not punishing students does not mean letting things slide or letting them walk all over you. It simply means handling situations calmly and figuring out the “why” behind the behavior and then working on that rather than enforcing a set of rules. How you react changes from situation to situation — something that’s much more difficult to do when you have cut rules into stone the first week of school.

Much of misbehavior comes from students’ perception of control within the classroom. That perception also affects their intrinsic motivation for wanting to be successful participants. A problem with punishment and reward is that it often only motivates in the short term. And yet many teachers do not know how else to get students to behave. I certainly was not consistently successful until I realized that the problem wasn’t the students, it was more often the curriculum and how I taught it. Meaning, it was really me. While I may not be the one who decides what to teach, I am most certainly the one who decides HOW to teach it. If I thought that mostly lecturing (which even put me to sleep in

college) was going to capture the imaginations of 9-year olds, then I was in the wrong job. So I began to think and learn a lot more about motivating learners.

My lessons in motivation

Here is what I know about motivation from shifting my own teaching practice:

  • Choice matters. When students choose not just what they will do for a project but also what they would like to learn about (within some boundaries), you get buy-in. This continues to be one of the most simple and exciting realizations I have experienced.
  • Motivation is contagious. When one student gets excited and has an opportunity to share that enthusiasm, the contagion spreads. My students get to blog about projects, we have huddles where we share, and we are a bit louder than we used to be. But guess what? Those loud noises are usually indicators that my students are super excited about something inside those boundaries I mentioned.
  • Punishment/reward systems stifle learning. This short-term approach to motivation proved to be more harmful than helpful. It created a toxic learning atmosphere. Now we have class parties when we feel we want one. I have lunch with all my students several times a month because they ask me to. No one is excluded from anything. When homework doesn’t get done (I have limited homework when kids don’t get enough time to do it in class or they don’t use their time well), I ask them how they plan to fix it, and most students choose to do it at recess. This is fine by me; they are free to go out and play if they choose.
  • Be excited yourself. The fastest way for kids to lose interest is if you are bored. I faced up to the fact that I hated some of the things I taught and how I taught them (goodbye grammar packets). Something had to change. Now my students joke about how I almost always introduce something new with “I am so excited to do this…”
  • Consider outside factors. Some students have a lot more on their plates than we could ever fully imagine. We need to ask questions, get to know our students, and be a listening ear. When my husband lost his job, it was hard for me to be excited about everyday life. I was too busy worrying. I understand how outside worry can influence the way we function within our school. I’m sure you do, too.
  • Manage and guide what’s in front of you. We will never be able to control what our students go home to, but we sure can guide what happens in the room. Good teachers choose to create a caring environment where all students feel safe. Students let their guards down and feel it is okay to work hard and have fun. It’s the first essential step toward building a learning community.

And finally, read more about old and new ways to deal with common forms of misbehavior in this chart I’ve put together.

I am a passionate  teacher in Wisconsin, USA,  who has taught 4, 5th, and 7th grade.  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 Classrooms Back to Our Students” can be purchased now from Powerful Learning Press.   Second book“Empowered Schools, Empowered Students – Creating Connected and Invested Learners” can be pre-ordered from Corwin Press now.  Follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.

Be the change, being a teacher, being me, new year, reflection, Uncategorized

Stop Labeling Different – It’s Time to Stop Teacher Bullying

Pernille Schmidt Ripp
image from icanread

I took a deep breath before I hit “publish” on my post “When Teachers Bully Teachers.”  I had decided that it was time to stand publicly behind the story, to claim my words, to face my fears, and yet with my fingers hovering over the button,  I couldn’t help but be afraid.  Afraid that nasty comments would follow, afraid that people would shun me, afraid that it would start all over again.

Within minutes the comments started coming.  At first, I opened each one with trepidation; would this be the comment that told me I was full of it?  That I had done it to myself?  That surely I deserved the treatment I had gotten?  Instead, it was story upon story of teachers sharing their experience, of teachers saying it had happened to them.  Then my inbox started filling up with private reach outs, then Facebook.  As I closed my computer that morning, I looked at Brandon and said, “There are so many of us and I thought it was just me.”

Teachers bullying teachers is real.  Principals bullying teachers is real.  Within our communities, where we try to teach children how to act as adults, there are many adults not living the words they teach.  Some are doing it on purpose like in my situation, others may not know the damage they are doing.  But it needs to end.  For me, hitting publish was the first step, but now I see that there is so much more must be done.

If you are being bullied:

  • Know you are not alone, unfortunately.  Look at my post and all of the comments it got. This is important, you are not alone, you are not the worst teacher in the world, you are not a horrible person, you do not deserve this.
  • Stop labeling yourself.  I was so good at coming up with excuses for why this was happening to me that I only made it worse.  I kept thinking how I was doing this to myself and it was all my own fault.  No one deserves to be treated poorly, not even someone who does things a little bit different or has a strong opinion.
  • Share your story and speak up.  Even if you are not ready to confront your bully, share your story with someone; an administrator, a colleague, the whole world like I did.  Reclaim your story to stop the process.
  • Then stand up for yourself or find a way out.  There are two ways to fix the situation because suffering through it is not one.  One is to confront your bully and try to put an end to the situation, however, when I tried to do this it didn’t do much.  SO then know it is okay to leave, to find another job, a better situation.  You are not a coward, nor are your running away.  You are saving your soul and that is important.
  • Make peace with yourself.  I still worry about what I did but it is time to let it go.  With each moment this summer I am allowing myself to put the past in the past.  We have to forgive ourselves and allow ourselves to heal.

To stop bullying at your school:

  • Be welcoming.  So much can be said for reaching out to new staff.  A friendly hello and introduction can go a long way, but don’t just do it in the beginning of the year, keep checking in.  Keep reaching out and making sure every person in the building feels they have someone to speak to.
  • Reach out to everyone.  Sure, my bullying started my first year, but there are others that have said it started later.  So make it your mission to make new connections every year, even with current staff, you never know who might be feeling lonely.
  • Be a nice person.  I know many of us assume we always are, but this is something we should all focus on.  Be nice, be kind, be open, be inviting.  Don’t put others down just because you disagree with them.
  • Don’t believe the talk.  I know many teachers at my old school were swayed by powerful words about me.  Instead, dismiss the talk completely or seek out the person who is being talked about to hear their story.  One teacher did that with me and it made a huge difference in how I saw her and our relationship.
  • Stop labeling different.  Too often the people we ostracize are those doing things differently.  Don’t be afraid of change, or at the very least, ask questions!  If someone has made a change in how they teach there is probably a reason for it, so ask them why, dig around a little bit, be open to new ideas.
  • Recognize your own behavior.  Too often we don’t see what we do as malicious or even bullying, but we need to be honest here.  How often have we slandered?  How often have we snickered?  How often have we excluded?  Take stock of yourself and see how you need to change.
  • Follow your own classroom rules.  We had one rule in our room, “Represent.” Whatever your rules are, make sure that you are following them too.  If the kids can do it, so can we.

We must say, “No more!” and share our stories.  Don’t be afraid like I was, don’t suffer in silence.  As a close colleague of mine told me when she read it, “I guess I knew you struggled, but I just never knew how severe it was.”  And that was my mistake.  I should have gone to administration with the union, or I should have gone higher up.  I should have stood up, but in the moment it was too hard, too scary, and so I kept my head down and suffered through it.  I will never make that mistake again.  Please help me stop the bullying.

I am a passionate  teacher in Wisconsin, USA,  who has taught 4, 5th, and 7th grade.  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 Classrooms Back to Our Students” can be purchased now from Powerful Learning Press.   Second book“Empowered Schools, Empowered Students – Creating Connected and Invested Learners” can be pre-ordered from Corwin Press now.  Follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.

being a teacher, classroom management, punishment, reflection, students

Call Me Crazy But It Is Still About the Kids…

Pernille Schmidt Ripp

I stopped using a punishment system in my classroom, when I realized I already knew who would get in trouble.

I stopped using a reward system in my classroom, when I realized I knew who would be rewarded.

Few kids ever proved me wrong, instead they mostly stayed within the track that my management system had placed them in.  And those that were always on the board?  Who I was always calling out?  They didn’t stay there for lack of trying, oh I tried to reach those boys behaving badly(because let’s be honest most of them were boys).  I tried to reason with them, talk about the future, praise them when they made better choices, point out their mistakes so they could fix them, help them grow, help them learn.  Support them, guide them, punish them when needed.

Sure, there was change.  I could usually get them to work after a while.  You take enough away and most kids will crumble at some point.  You yell enough and most kids will get to it.  But their behaviors never changed for good.  The next day, the next week,sometimes the next period, the battle started over and sometimes I ran out of punishment options.  Where do you go after you have sent a 10 year old kid to the office, had the principal yell at them, and pulled in their parents?  Do you start to suspend so that they will work harder?  Do you take away every privilige until they break?

It wasn’t until I got rid of my systems and started working on relationships, community, trust, and creating a passionate classroom environment, that the behaviors changed.  It wasn’t until I took down the behavior charts, and started to get to know my students better that the kids, those kids, started to care more.  As one principal told me, “It is not for themselves they work, it is for you, we will get them to work for themselves later.”  So I set out to create an environment where they wanted to be, create a classroom filled with learning that spoke to them.  That didn’t mean throwing out the curriculum but it meant working with it in a different way to reignite a curiosity that had been forgotten.  It didn’t always work, sometimes kids come to us with bigger demons than we can ever fight, but a seed had been planted in some of these kids that perhaps school wasn’t just out to get them.

I never knew that writing about public behavior charts would ignite a firestorm of comments on this blog.  After all, I have tackled bigger topics before.  But this one, this seemingly small part of our classrooms, has taken on a life of its own.  Some agreed, some discussed, and some simply thought I was crazy to put it mildly.  My skin has definitely grown thicker every day.  What upset me the most were not the words spoken about me, but rather about the kids we teach and how if we don’t do something like this, they will turn out in a certain way.  Here are a few highlights from comments…

” I’m sorry, but being an overprotective, hypersensitive teacher will get my students nowhere.”

“Maybe if we didn’t “baby” kids they would be stronger individuals.”

“…we are raising an entire generation of hypersensitive kids who are unable to behave appropriately, and take responsibility for their own actions. ”

“…is it almost came off sounding like if you use behavior charts you’re a bad, horrible teacher that could care less about the feelings of your students.”

“You want a society of sociopaths? Keep rewarding (or not addressing) bad behavior and failing to teach values.”

“So tired of these parents who want to caudle these disrespectful beings….oh I don’t want to hurt their feelings….please….I seriously would like to see you try to teach a group of children who are quite difficult….making noises, throwing chairs, flipping desks, kicking or hitting THE TEACHER! ”

In the end, what we do is about children, and I chose to get rid of a system that did not work for my students, nor me.  It did not promote unity, self-control, or solutions.  It was  a quick fix that sure let a child know where they stood for the day, but also let the rest of the world know.  As an adult, I am given the privilege of a private conversation whenever I screw up.  I wanted to afford my students the same thing.  That doesn’t mean I baby them, nor that they are coddled.  My difficult children, the ones that fist fought, that threw tables, that told me that there was nothing I could do about it.  They were the ones that needed me the most.  They were the ones that needed some control the most.

You may not agree with me on public behavior charts, you may even want to attack me personally, calling me delusional or worse.  But the kids?  They are not all bad kids, who we need to toughen up.   Some of these kids have had lives that I could never imagine dealing with.  They are not all kids that get away with whatever they want.  They are not all kids whose parents are not raising them right.  They are kids who are trying.  They are kids who want to make good choices.  They are kids who probably have dreams.  They are kids…Let’s not forget that.

I am a passionate  teacher in Wisconsin, USA,  who has taught 4, 5th, and 7th grade.  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 Classrooms Back to Our Students” can be purchased now from Powerful Learning Press.   Second book“Empowered Schools, Empowered Students – Creating Connected and Invested Learners” can be pre-ordered from Corwin Press now.  Follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.

being a teacher, being me, reflection

The Best Things I Have Learned, I Have Learned from Others

Pernille Schmidt Ripp
image from icanread

I didn’t set out to learn from others, after all, as a new teacher, I was pretty sure I knew a lot.  In fact, I thought because I was new, I knew more than many who had been out of school for years.  I didn’t think I could learn that much from others because my own ideas were so wonderful, so original, so new.  And then I learned my very first lesson: how I knew very little. And once I had realized that, I found out that some of my best lessons have come from others.

I learned that being a good listener will make people want to talk to you.  While it can be fun to talk about the cool things one gets to do, or the incredible things one has learned, life is not about promoting your own words but instead about listening to others.  Teach yourself to be a good listener, eye contact and all, you will reap the rewards in so many ways.

You can be part of the solution or part of the problem.  While I sometimes find myself on both sides at the same time, I try to make myself work proactively to solve something.  This is a conscious decision, because let’s be honest, it is much easier to gripe about something then it is to think of solutions.

It’s okay to wallow in self-pity, but only for a short time.  Thanks to Angela Watson’s incredible book, “Awakened,” I realized that I didn’t give myself a time limit in my self-pitying.   So I either was stuck in a rut for whole days or I tried to suppress it, thus never solving the actual problem.  Now I embrace when I am down, then I get over it.

If you are in a bad mood, figure out why, and then get over it.  I used to let a bad mood permeate everything I touched, rather than think about what key event had led to the bad mood.  Now, I stop and recognize what has happened, try to solve it or realize it is what it is, take a deep breath and release it.

If you want a team, be a team player.  While it is great to come in with all of your amazing ideas, as well as the notion that what you are doing is the best way to do it, this will not create a team.  Learn when to share, learn when to compromise, and learn when to inspire.

This too shall pass.  I remember when I had my first negative parent interaction and how it completely destroyed me.  I kept thinking this was it, that I had now been deemed a terrible teacher and there was no way out.  Then a few days later, I realized that my heart was not as heavy as it used to be, that I had gained a little bounce back in my step.  The lesson still hurt, but it had turned from soul crushing to growth promoting.  The same applies for when I am soaring high as a teacher, while this may sound pessimistic, I know that something will knock me down a little at some point.  I am ok with that, because this is how life is.

Everybody has something to add.  And by everybody, I mean everybody.  Too often as teachers we only give expert status to those people we like, how about widening our scope and including other people in our building a voice as well.  From the custodial staff to the students, they can all add something to the conversation.

If you are feeling insecure, chances are someone else is as well.  I thought I was the only extroverted introvert in the world until I found others just like me.  If you are not sure how to appraoch someone to start a conversation, they probably don’t know how to approach you either.  So take the first initiative, connect with someone new, and invest your time in relationships.

If you want to be liked, be nice.  I know this may sound silly, but this has been a big drive for me in everything I do.  Smile, listen, give your time when you can, and be a nice human being.  I would rather be known as a being nice than being an expert any day.

I am a passionate (female) 7th grade teacher in 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 Classrooms Back to Our Students” can be purchased now from Powerful Learning Press.   Second book“Empowered Schools, Empowered Students – Creating Connected and Invested Learners” can be pre-ordered from Corwin Press now.  Follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.

Be the change, being a teacher, reflection

How The World Sees You Matters, So Tell Your Own Story

Pernille Schmidt Ripp
image from etsy

I started a classroom website  4 years ago with the intention of keeping parents informed.  What I didn’t realize was that while I may have been doing just that, I was also telling the story of my classroom to the world.  I was posting pictures of the students working, videos of things we did, information to those who cared.  I didn’t realize others took note until I looked at the statistics one day and realized that it was not just parents who were tuning into our story.  The world was seeing what was happening within our walls.  And the world was paying attention.

Why does that matter?  Because what I chose to display was, and is, a story of positivity.  A story that showcases the incredible thinking my students do.  A story that shows their investigations into failures, their curiosity driven learning, and their growth as leaders throughout the year.  I chose what I put out into the world to represent our classroom and that is what people see when they search for us.  Not the words of a district, or a parent (although they share our story too), or a journalist, but our own words, us telling our story.

How we share our classrooms, our schools, our districts matter.  In fact, many people such as Tony Sinanis and Joe Sanfelippo talk about the brand of your school and asks, “Who is telling your story?”  Are parents?  Is the newspaper?  Are kids?  Are teachers?  Are administrators?  Because if you are not telling the story the way you want it to be told, then who will?

So I urge you to find a way to tell your story.  To share your story the way you want the world to see it.    As a district share the amazing events happening within  on a Facebook page (yes, this is my new district!), Twitter, or whichever way that will work.   As a principal, take pictures of your staff doing incredible things, tweet them out, highlight them, share them with staff, with parents, with anyone who will listen.  As a teacher create a classroom website, a Facebook page, a blog, anything where you can share the stories of your students and then have your students share it with you.  You shouldn’t let others tell your story, who knows if they will get it right?

I am a passionate (female) 7th grade teacher in 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 Classrooms Back to Our Students” can be purchased now from Powerful Learning Press.   Second book“Empowered Schools, Empowered Students – Creating Connected and Invested Learners” can be pre-ordered from Corwin Press now.  Follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.