Category: being a teacher

Be the change, being a teacher, being me, Reading, reflection, students

Why It Matters to Be Passionate About Reading

Pernille Schmidt Ripp
image from icanread

“…I used to hate reading, it wasn’t cool, you know?  But then when I heard you were my teacher, I was kinda excited because in your room it was ok to like reading.”

He speaks these words to me as if they are no big deal.  To him they probably aren’t, just another conversation with his teacher.  But in my heart and mind, these words mean everything.  These words are why I am so passionate about books and about kids loving books.

I chose to finally unleash my passionate reader last year, thinking it might make a difference in my classroom. Little did I know just how much of a difference it would make.  We are a reading classroom now.  Not that we weren’t before, but not like this.  Not this excited, not this engaged, not this immersed.  Reading is cool in my room, something that matters to 5th graders.  Reading is what we do.

When I pull out a new picture book, the kids cheer.  They laugh, they comment, they re-read.  When I bring in a pile of books, I have to step out of the way while my students grab the one they have to read now and others scramble to make signup sheets so they can read it next.  All it took was for me to be passionate.  All it took was for me to share that passion.  (And of course, incredible books).

We wonder whether passion matters in education and in reading in particular.  Do teachers really need to be readers themselves to teach reading?  I am here to tell you it makes the biggest difference.  Children who have long given up on school can find solace in books.  Books build connections.  Books build memories.  When we are passionate readers ourselves we are actively sharing our lives, our connections, our feelings, with the kids that we hand books to.  When we go all out in our love of reading, we show kids that it is okay to be a reader.  That it is not something to be ashamed of.  Not something to hide.  But rather something that should be embraced and shouted from the rooftops.

So when students come to me and tell me reading sucks, or reading is uncool, I am not afraid.  Nor am I upset.  They just haven’t found the right book, they just haven’t laughed at the right read aloud.  They haven’t experienced the magic of reading a picture book as a big kid.  They just haven’t had that moment where everything disappears and all that matters is the book.  And that’s ok, hopefully, this year will be the year.  Hopefully this year they will find their passion.  Because I am not giving up on them.

PS:  Have you heard about the Global Read Aloud?  The books for 2014 were just chosen and I promise this year will be amazing.  Connect your students to the world through a shared read aloud, after all it only takes one book to connect the world.

I am a passionate (female) 5th 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 Classroom Back to Our Students Starting Today” can be pre-bought now from Powerful Learning Press.   Follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.

being a teacher, being me, reflection, students

We Carry It With Us

Pernille Schmidt Ripp
image from icanread

There are moments in teaching that makes my heart heavy.

Whether it is the disappointment faced by a student rejected.  Or the sorrow that weighs down some of my students as they come through my doors.  The uncertainty some face.  The anxiousness that travels with others.  The sadness, the lost joy.  They bring this along, into our rooms, and it becomes one more thing we have to address and work around.  One more thing to add to our day and to our hearts.

We don’t leave those worries or fears of our students behind when we close our door.  They travel with us in the car.  They walk in through our front door, trailing us into our homes as we worry whether that child will ever be okay.  Worry whether that child will have something to eat or will be back the next day.  Worry about what that child may do that night.  We push them aside and focus on our own lives but they stay in our hearts as the hours go by.

Sometimes those worries wake us up at night and we remember to  hug our own kids a little more, tell them they matter a little louder.

So we return the next day with our hearts still heavy, not sure what to do other than to love those kids as if they were our own.   When a new worry shows up we make room for that one as well.  We carry it with us because we are stronger than the children we support.  We carry it with us so that they are not alone.  We carry it with us so that maybe, just maybe, they will find a moment of relief.

I may not be a superhero but when it comes to the children in my life, I have super hero strength.  No child should have to carry their worries alone, that’s why I am there.  And that’s why I teach.

 I am a passionate (female) 5th 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 Classroom Back to Our Students Starting Today” can be pre-bought now from Powerful Learning Press.   Follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.

Be the change, being a teacher, Student-centered

You Mean We Just Get to Learn?

Pernille Schmidt Ripp
image from etsy

The students look a bit confused as I finish speaking.  I wait a second and then ask them if they have any questions.

“No project?”

“Nope.”

“Nothing to present?”

“Not if you don’t want to.”

“Can we present if we want?”

“Sure, if we have time.”

Then smiles, murmurs, and whispered comments.

“Ok, Mrs. Ripp, this sounds fun.”

I have just told the students about our new resource time schedule and how I have built in project time – a  30 minute time block once a week for each child where they get to just learn something.   Not time to create a presentation, not time to think of how they will share what they have learned, not time to work on homework, but just pure, self-regulated learning for the fun of it.  Learning driven by their curiosity.  Learning driven by their desires.  Not genius hour even, just soaking in knowledge.

We decided as a group we would have an overarching theme every week, a common theme to get excited about, so geography will greet us next week.  The students can create if they want or they can just soak in knowledge.  They can work by themselves or learn with a friend.  They can decide what part of geography they want to learn out of need or out of interest.  I don’t set the direction, I don’t set the tone, I don’t tell them how.  I give them the time, they pick the tools, they push themselves.

I can’t wait to see what they learn.  I can’t wait to see what they do.

 

being a teacher, being me, Reading, reflection

My Students Hate Our Read Aloud

Pernille Schmidt Ripp
image from icanread

I could tell they were falling asleep.  Drowning in their disinterest, faking it just for me.  So I tried to make the voices like they like, I tried to quicken the pace.  I emphasized the action that happened.  Nothing…  The read aloud had started 2 minutes ago yet it felt like an hour.

I closed the book.  Asked what was the matter.

“It’s so boring, Mrs. Ripp,” whined a student (yes really, whined).

“There’s no action…”chimed another.

“Remember how with “The False Prince” we asked you to keep reading?  That hasn’t happened once here!” exclaimed a third.  Heads nodding all around.

So I did what most teachers normally do when their meticulously chosen read aloud is torn apart, I got defensive.

“What do you mean there is no action?  Didn’t you just read this part?  And also, you have to give it a chance, not everything can happen all at once…”  I could hear my own sales pitch but I couldn’t stop it.  “Trust me, I  picked this book and it is phenomenal, it gets so good.”  I was starting to sound desperate.  I shut the book, sent them off to read, and sat n the rocking chair licking my wounds.  How could they question what I had chosen?  Didn’t they trust in my opinion?

Now, looking back on it I see what I should have done.  I should have listened.  Asked more questions, taken their notion to heart and opened it up for a classroom discussion.  I shouldn’t have gotten defensive, I shouldn’t have shut it down.  I shouldn’t have taken it personally.  It is not me, nor the book that is the problem.  It is the choice of the book right now that isn’t working, that’s all.

So tonight I realize that perhaps we need to just abandon the book.  That it is not a case of me being wrong on my selection; the book is one of my all time favorite books, but that it may just not be the right fit for us right now.  That it may not be the best read aloud.  That doesn’t make it a bad book, far from it.  It just means that kids should discover it on their own, at their own pace, much like I did when I first read it.

Tomorrow when I am with my students again, I will ask them their thoughts.  Should we abandon or should we continue forward?  I will not be offended, I will not become defensive.  I will instead take it as yet another learning moment just like I should have done from the start.  Although we try so hard to find the perfect read alouds for our class, they don’t always work.  And that’s ok.    It is when the students have the courage to speak up against our choice that we must listen the hardest.  After all, as teachers isn’t that we strive for them to gain?  The courage and independence to form an opinion about something?

My students didn’t set out to upset me, nor to disappoint me.  They spoke up so that we could be saved 200 pages more worth of bored read aloud time.  I am not mad, nor upset anymore, but instead renewed by the challenge of finding the perfect read aloud.  The one that will have the students begging for just one more page.  The one that they will clamor to read themselves once I am done.  That’s the one I need to find.  And the best part, I know it is out there.

Post Script:

Today we talked about the book, I shared with them the new book that they could switch to and then we did a secret vote.  In the end, I was surprised.  The majority decided to stay with our current read aloud, however, I struck a deal with the other disappointed kids.  We will revote in 50 pages and see if we want to continue with it then or not.

I then discovered something important as I read aloud.  While I hate to stop a read aloud, I asked them if they knew what a passage meant.  They had no idea.  Between my sub and I, we had not discovered that the students were not catching a lot of the meanings in the text or even some of the context!  I had miscalculated their background knowledge as well as their vocabulary.  No wonder they dislike the book so much, they were missing half of the action.  As I finished our read aloud telling them a little bit about WWI, I could see I was re-hooking them into the book.  While it may not be everybody’s favorite book still, I think it still has a chance…

being a teacher, being me, reflection

I Don’t Know What It Means to Be My Student

Pernille Schmidt Ripp
image from etsy

I grew up in a small town in Denmark, population 7,509.  There was a handful of minority students at my school, all adopted with little knowledge of their old culture.  I didn’t grow up in diversity, I didn’t grow up in poverty, I didn’t grow up in instability or transitional homes.  I didn’t grow up in anger or uncertainty.  I grew up surrounded by the love of my family and kids that looked just like me.

I teach in a school with a diverse population, yet you would not know it looking at our teacher population.  Mostly white, mostly female.  Much like many elementary schools across the United States.  I am asked to relate to my students, to be sensitive to their needs, their background.  To be aware of how their situation, their family life, their culture affects their entire being.  And yet…

I don’t know what it means to be a minority.  I don’t know what it means to come from poverty.  Or a broken home.  I don’t know what it feels like to be in a classroom where no one looks like you or to be judged because of the way one speaks.  I don’t know what it feels like to be homeless or angry at the world.   I can pretend I do, but I don’t.

But there are things I can understand.

I can understand what it means to be the new kid.  To not speak a language.  To not have 2 parents.  I can understand what it means to feel the like the world is against you and there is no one that cares.  I can understand what it feels like to think that not a single person cares about you in the whole world and that you will always be alone.

I cannot connect to my students using experiences we have not shared  and I will not pretend that I can.  Yet that doesn’t mean I cannot be a great teacher to them.  That doesn’t mean we cannot forge a deep relationship.  I can connect with my kids through listening.  Through caring.  I can connect through the love of a book ,a song,  a class or a laugh.  I can connect with my students by acknowledging that we are different and that I will never know what their lives are truly like but I will try.  I can connect not through their background but what we create together.  I can connect with them based on the now,  while still acknowledging the before.  Together we can try to understand, together we can make a new connection.

I don’t know what it means to be them but that’s ok.  I know what it means to be here, now, in our classroom.  And that’s a start at least….

 I am a passionate (female) 5th 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 Classroom Back to Our Students” will be released this April from Powerful Learning Press.   Follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.

Be the change, being a teacher, PD

Small Moment PD or How To BE a PD Ninja

Pernille Schmidt Ripp
image from icanread

I am busy working on my second book to be published by Corwin in the fall hopefully, tentatively titled “Empowered Teachers – Empowered Students” it is all about how to change the climate of a school and a classroom.  One of the things that I have been writing about is the need for “small moment PD,” particularly as we get busier and busier in our educational lives.  What follows here is an excerpt from the draft, I would love to add your ideas to it or just get your thoughts.

 So where can small moments of professional development happen?

  • 5 minutes after the first bell.  This may be a sacred time for attendance but why not dedicate it instead to article reading time or video viewing time. Send a short blog post or article for teachers to read the first five minutes during the day.  Students are typically settling in, working on morning work, listening to announcements, and getting ready for class to start.  While you read they could still be doing all of that or they could also be reading an article to benefit them.

  • Create school-wide independent reading time.  Once a day or once a week, everyone should drop everything and read.  Often teachers think that independent reading time (if at all implemented) should be used to meet with students, grade papers, get ready etc, but instead give permission to just read something.  You can choose whether it should be something pre-determined or whether teachers can choose their own reading material but give them the time.

  • Buy professional books for book clubs.  Some teachers thrive in informal book club discussions but don’t want to spend their own money buying the books needed.  So why not allocate money for staff to pick their book club books and then highlight that a book club exists.  Often all it takes for teachers to start reading is to give them a nice, new inspiring book.

  • Forward on condensed magazines filled with information.  One of the biggest obstacles to quick professional development is finding the time to find things to share.  Magazines such as “The Best and Next in Education” do the work for you.  All you have to do is subscribe and then pass it on to staff.

  • Preload iPods with podcasts.  I know teachers who drive for more than 45 minutes to get to work, why not have pre-loaded iPods ready for them to check out with great new podcasts to inspire them?  There are so many wonderful podcasts available for free that is destined to inspire.  What’s more many podcasts nowadays are 15 to 10 minutes long, that means even teachers driving short distances can benefit from these.

  • The all school read in.   Why not have a weekly or bi-weekly read-in in the gym where teachers can drop their students off and meet in teams to learn something together?  Often teachers are eager to learn but don’t have the time to meet, so even a 30 minute read-in can provide the time needed with minimal supervision required.

  • The bathroom article.  The one place that all teachers go at some point is the bathroom, so why not post relevant articles in them?  While this may seem silly or disgusting to some, having reading material right in front of you usually means you will read it.

  • Bribe teachers with lunch or coffee.  Where this is food, there can be learning.  Once a month, my incredible PTO provides a teacher appreciation lunch, why not combine this with a great video or discussion group.  While it could not be made mandatory, if the content being delivered is worthwhile, you should see at least some teachers choose to participate.

  • Combine PD with students.  Some of my best best PD has been in discussion with mystudents after watching a video or reading an article.  Now these are 5th graders so the content being delivered has to fit the appropriate age group, but I have always left these student discussions with ideas to implement in our classroom the very next day.

As I said, this is not the ultimate list, but rather a beginning to spark ideas for you.  Every school is different, as is its culture.  Brainstorm with teachers and students where to find the time for extra professional development.  Create the opportunities and then highlight the teachers that take it.  Lead them into new leadership positions where they can share their new-found knowledge, after all, it is not just meant to provide teachers with more knowledge, but for them to become experts in their own right.

 I am a passionate (female) 5th 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 Classroom Back to Our Students” will be released this March from Powerful Learning Press.   Follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.