being a teacher – Page 130

See that kid walking in; the one who smiles every day and then just kind of retracts into their own world. yeah that child, well, it is not too late to make a connection. In fact, now, as the end of the years nears is the perfect time to try again. I know you are busy, I know summer looms large, but still, how about another try?

With less than 5 weeks to go, some are in summer mode, both teachers and students, and others continue to push on. At the end of every day with my students I say, “There goes another day in 5th grade but boy we have a lot to do.” In our room there is a sense of urgency; a need for efficiency, hard work and a little bit of pressure because the learning just does not have time to wait. Students are busy with larger end of the year projects and I work more as consultant than direct instructor. Sure side conversations slip in but overall there is a sense of mission. A sense of using the year to the fullest degree, of finishing with a bang rather than a fizzle.

So what can we do to keep ourselves motivated?

Reach out and speak to someone new. We tend to retract during this time, feeling that our schedules are overpacked and there is so much to do but there is something about reaching out and making a new connection. Whether it is with a student, a colleague, or a parent even, now is the time to continue to build relationships. It provides spark and energy and new ideas, what else could you want in May.
Get heavily invested. I am very invested in these end of the year projects and I am in new territory with all of them. Students are acting as teachers in one with an assessment piece even tied in by them. Another lets us use Adobe Elements which I have never attempted, you get the drift. Instead of resting and trying something safe, I continue to push it and it keeps me revitalized, which directly translates to the energy level of the classroom.
Now is the time for conversation. Although my mind is fully in this year, knowing I have a maternity leave coming up, I want to make sure I set my sub up with the best options, so my students and I speak a lot about what works and what doesn’t. How would they tweak the classroom, how would they alter projects and so forth. I, in turn, listen and take notes, changing as I go.
Trust them more. I see some teachers pull in the reins and really try to control students more as the end of year nears. And yes, energy levels are up across the board and yet, I give mine more leeway. I trust them more to make the right decisions, to represent, and to push themselves. They have grown so much over the year, now is the time to acknowledge that.
Crank the music. And don’t take yourself so seriously. Yes, you may be frazzled with so much to do, we all are, but is it fair to give that to the students? I try to laugh more, smile more, and dance more as the year comes to a close. We al need the body breaks and you an get a lot of classroom cleaning done with a great 80’s song blaring.
Stay with the kids. And with that I mean, in your mind and in your heart. I always have an awful time letting go of “my” kids even though I know they are ready, but it is something I pride myself on. These kids know I am fully focused on them and on their academics. They know that I want to hear their stories and I want to support them. Even though our official year is almost over does not mean our relationship is. So I continue to work on all of my relationships with them to ensure that they know that they belong, that they are accepted, and that room 310 will always be their home, no matter how old they get.

being a teacher, classroom expectations, punishment, rewards

How Do I Punish My Students? Umm, I Try Not To

May 4, 2012 Pernille Ripp

Recently a comment on my post “If We Would Just Stop Talking, We Might Learn Something” has made me think quite a bit. Short and simple, it asked, “Do you have your non-punishment strategies written down? Could you please share it?” And I went hmmm, non-punishment strategies sounds much more fancy than what I have. The truth is, I don’t have any strategies; I simply do not punish kids. In fact, even the word punish is such a heavily loaded word that I cringe at the sound of it. It brings to mind canning or publicly embarrassing children, simply not my thing. So instead I handle situations as they arise, mostly with common sense. Let me explain by taking some every day situations in a classroom…

A student keeps blurting out. Sense of humor works for me here most of the time and I tend to look at it through a positive lens; wow, that kid can’t wait to share the answer because they are having so much fun! Strategies used to curb or direct it has been to give them dry-erase boards to write down their answers and then flash them to me or have them tell it to a partner. If the blurting is more like an epidemic I place a blank post-it on their desk and have them make a tally every time they blurt out. This is used for self-awareness not as a way to reward or punish and I have seen it help kids realize the extent of their blurting who were otherwise unaware.
Homework is not handed in. Even in a classroom where I try to stay homework-free, some students do not use their time as effectively as others and may have a page or two to do at the end of the day, mostly math. So the first thing we speak about is time management; what could they be doing differently in class to curtail taking work home? Then we also discuss taking responsibility for not having their work; if a child tells me in the morning that they did not do their homework and have a strategy for getting it done such as bringing it tomorrow or spending some time during recess, then I am fine with that plan. The point to the conversation is; I don’t want to be the one that has to come up with the plan or have to find out that they didn’t do their work. They need to come to me, take responsibility for it and then fix it. Just like we do as adults.
And yet, the homework continues to not get done. This does not happen a lot in my room because we just don’t have the homework. And yet it does happen once in a blue moon. Besides a conversation with the student where we discuss things they have tried to fix it, we often do a quick phone call home to discuss strategy with parents. This is not a punishing phone call but instead a “heads-up” we need to give a little more support here both at school and from home because the work is disappearing. Often I find the root of this to be disorganization rather than laziness, so my number one point is; ask what happened!
Students goof off and generally not paying attention. This is a huge flashing sign to me that what I am doing is not engaging and that the kids need a break. So unless I for some extreme reason cannot stop what I am doing, I do just that; stop and switch gears. Whether it just entails giving them a body break or asking them how they would like to learn about this concept something needs to change. I have also had them do partner share, journaling, or whatever pops into my head to make sure they stay engaged. Sometimes a lesson is continued but in a different format, sometimes we scrap it for the day.
Students are staring into space, reading a book or doing other work. For anyone who has ever been absorbed in a great book, we know how hard it is to stop reading, so I always smile a little when I see a student reading under the table. And yet, students do need to be doing whatever it is we are doing at the moment. Often a quick tap on the shoulder or even just silence and waiting for them to join the rest of us works. It is not a big deal, nor do I make it into one.

Yes, I have had students throw chairs and tables in my room, yes I have had students hit each other, and yes, I have had to send students to the office because they needed a cool down moment. And still, even during those more extreme situations, I always try to keep in mind that there is a cause to this behavior and it is my job to figure it out. So I do not punish my students. I do not take away their privileges to coerce them to behave. I do not threaten, I do not dangle things in front of their nose. Instead I start out the year by inviting them to create the rules of the classroom and then asking them to responsibility for it. We help each other out, we steer each other as we do, and we take the time to talk.

So although I may claim to not have any strategies, the one I might have is to listen with not just my ear,s but also my eyes. Listen to what their behavior tells me, listen to what they tell me, and then listen to my own reflection on how to create better situations. And that’s how I don’t punish my students.

being a teacher, hopes

Please Don’t Become A Teacher…

April 29, 2012July 24, 2013 Pernille Ripp

If you believe that those who can’t; teach.

Please don’t become a teacher if you think you just get to play with kids all day, leave when they leave, and just have them work from a textbook.

Don’t become a teacher because you think it will shelter you from the demands of a high paying job, or give you those summers off to pursue your real interests.

Please don’t become a teacher if it seems like an easy job where all you have to do is fill students’ minds and then test them on it afterwards.

But do become a teacher if you believe in all children, not just those with fortunate lives.

Become a teacher if you want to be part of someone’s life, good or bad. If you see the world through challenges and things to explore.

Please do become a teacher if you have unwavering faith, love, and patience. If you are not afraid of change, have convictions, and honestly believe that ALL children can succeed.

Then become a teacher; if your heart is in it, because it must be in it to endure all of the outside demands that we face. Please do become a teacher if you want to grow and have a job that changes you as a person while you help change others. Become a teacher if you have much to give, much to love, and much to believe. But if you don’t, please don’t become a teacher.

Inspired by this sad secret on postsecret

assumptions, being a teacher, lessons learned, Student-centered

Even With Our Changed Classrooms, Have We Changed Anything At All?

April 27, 2012July 24, 2013 Pernille Ripp

Image from icanread

It relates to school because there are calculators…

It relates to school because he uses math in counting out the tickets …

It has to do with math and that is why it has to do with school…

My students are journaling about the movie “Caine’s Arcade” and how it relates to school. These wonderfully creative, powerfully imaginative students don’t see the deep connections between the environment that I try to create and that of Caine. They don’t see how I try to challenge them to problemsolve, to create, to use materials in different ways. to try, to fail and to have hope and perseverance.

Instead they see a 9-year-old boy who realized life was more than calculators and math. That you could build something with what you have and have a little bit of hope. They see that boy as an inspiration, his arcade as incredible, but not those things in the environment we create here, at school.

What a lesson for me to be taught; school is still seen as its own world with set rules. Segmented and regimented. As something departmentalized from creativity, or at least where creativity is built into the day, scripted and called for. School is viewed as something to be lived through so the real experimenting can happen afterwards. I may think I do things differently, but I may be the only one.

achievement, being a teacher, students, testing

So This Is How A Teacher Breakdown Starts

April 25, 2012 Pernille Ripp

My students are doing their spring assessments as we prepare to wrap up the year and send them on their way. An innocent computer check-in that takes less than an hour, nothing to be worried abot really. The kids know it is not a big deal, to do their best, that this is only a snapshot of their skills on that particular day, at that particular time.

And yet….the dread is rising in me. How will they do? How will they feel about the test? Will the test know that they are excited about the talent show results? That they are hungry? That they have had a high intensity day and their brains may be just a little zonked? Of course it won’t, and why should it, the test doesn’t care one iota about my students.

But I do and that is my problem. With every point they gain or lose, my anxiety soars. How will it affect me as a teacher if a child lost 4 points, whatever that means. What did I do wrong since they didn’t make momentous gains on this test while in class they have blown me away with their increased participation, their inferences, and their overall depth of knowledge? Why can’t the test understand that all of these kids have grown, whether they wanted to or not? Why can’t the test prove that?

So I take a deep breath and let the results stand. The tests are done, the points have been given and I am trying to piece together what I need to change. What I need to salvage, what I need to challenge myself in. And I breathe a little more, realizing that much like I told my students, I also need to believe that this is just a snapshot. This is just a moment in their life, this moment in time where they are performing at this set level. That this does not determine their future success, their future growth, or even their future. Perhaps it will determine mine, but that I need to worry about another day.

assessment, being a teacher, discussion, grades, writing

Gender Bias in Assessment – Even Students Do It, Do You?

April 5, 2012 Pernille Ripp

“…But Mrs. Ripp, it is sloppy so they cannot get a 4…”
“… We can hardly read their explanation so we gave it a lower grade… “

All comments that made me think in today’s math class as students were assessing work samples to get them ready to assess their own work. Their open response work involved multiple steps, illustrations and explaining their work. They were therefore provided what we as teachers are provided; student sample work to figure out what the work was worth based on a 4-0 rubric. After partner discussions, students shared their rankings of the problems and the most common discussion point was the sloppiness of the writing, not the math presented, not the explantion, not whether they followed directions; instead a laser-like focus on handwriting neatness and presentation.

I kept my mouth shut and handed them all a post-it note, asked them to copy a sentence off the board and write their name lightly on the back of the post-it. I didn’t ask them to take special care with their note, just write it down. They handed them in and one-by-one I asked them to decide whether a note was sloppy or not as shown under the document camera. I didn’t know the names of the note writers but sure enough all the notes that were deemed neat and not sloppy were those written by girls. Not a single boy post-it note was in the pile. My students sat quietly as I gave them some think time. Then I said; “If you were a boy and I assessed your work based on your handwriting presentation you would not be able to get a full score. You would never be able to acheive what a girl can achieve in this class.” Silence and crazy stares.

When teachers base part of their grade on handwriting and neatness, particularly at the elementary level, we forget one important thing; handwriting is often determined more by our fine motor skill development and not the effort placed in the work. Neat handwriting does not mean a fuller understanding or a better writer, it does not mean more care was taken with the work, or that more effort was put in. Neat handwriting means just that; neat handwriting. So unless that is what we are specifically assessing it should not be part of our assessment, even if our inner voice screams at us to include it.

Try the same experiment with your students, see if you get similar results and then watch them discuss it. Watch them realize how their knowledge is judged based on their handwriting. Watch them gain a deeper understanding of all of the inner voices they carry telling them what makes work quality or not. It is quite a realization for teachers and students alike.