being a teacher – Page 131

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 Schmidt 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 Schmidt 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.

Be the change, being a teacher, control, difference, mistakes

Oh No, Not Another Change – Why Stay Skeptical When Curiosity is More Fun?

April 3, 2012July 24, 2013 Pernille Schmidt Ripp

Image from icanread

A new curriculum is announced for next school year… again. Every year since I have started something new has been introduced and so I find myself in the back of the group, murmuring about how once again something new is coming, more money being spent, more time needed to learn, to understand, to adapt. Once again I have to rewrite everything. Once again; change. I go home and discuss it with Brandon who stops me in my tracks with a simple question; why not get excited about it? And I think, yes, why not, indeed?

Why not replace my skepticism with curiosity? Why not embrace the new like I do within my own classroom; try it out and then judge it. Why am I, already, after only 4 years of changing turning into that teacher, you know, the one that is quick to judge. The one that jumps to conclusions, the one that wants things to stay the same because they are not broken and do not need to be fixed, thank you very much. I change things every year, I hardly ever use the same lessons, I change so it fits my kids, my mood and my goals. I change because if I became static I would be bored out of my mind and few things are worse than a bored teacher So why am I already so stuck in my teaching ways that I have to be the one adding negative thoughts to a new initiative? I don’t know how that happened so soon.

So I renew my vow of positivity. I want to embrace the new, which does not mean going into it blind, but rather than I will stay open to it. I will explore it, adapt it and make it work for me. I will give things a change, suspend my judge. Stay curious and not assume it will be awful. I am much too young to be so stuck in my ways and that is a healthy lesson for me to learn. Let’s hope I don’t forget it.

acheivement, being a teacher, believe

What Happened to Our Dreams and Expectations?

March 30, 2012 Pernille Schmidt Ripp

Image from here

I am reading the local paper about the growing achievement gap between minorities and as my heart grows heavy, my mind starts to spin. What happened to our expectations for all of our students? What happened to having the same dream that ALL students can achieve, even those that face special disabilities, crippling poverty or lack of parental support? We, as teachers, are supposed to be the last bastion, those that choose to believe in all of our students, no matter their race, their background, their belief in themselves.

I look inward and wonder when was the last time I asked for a file for a non-minority student that transferred in? When did my own assumptions cloud my belief that all students can achieve and that I just have to set the bar high enough and then support, encourage and challenge? That every year the slate should be wiped clean when they enter into my room, and yes, I may stare at those pages of past behaviors and troubles but that they should not be come my roadmap for the future?

I pledge again to believe in all of them. To set the expectations high and to support them where they need it. To look past color but not become colorblind. To see the whole child and not the papers that follow them or the path they chose before. To defend my students from academic prejudice and grow along with them. One young man in the paper said that if perhaps he had just had someone believe in him, told him he could have done it, his path wouldn’t have lead to jail. Perhaps he is right, the path cannot be changed, but at least I am willing to do just that; believe in all those children. Will you believe with me?

being a teacher, boring, challenge, Student-centered

When Students Tell You They Are Bored Can We Blame the Students As Well?

March 24, 2012 Pernille Schmidt Ripp

I am in a conference trying to figure out why a child seems less engaged, less into it, and just not all that excited about school. So far the conversation has been rather one-sided, meaning me speaking and being met with lsilence. Finally I ask, “Are you bored?” And the student looks up and says, “Yeah.”

I think that has happened to most teachers, a bored student, but what may not have happened to many is for that student to have the guts to tell you. I know I was incredibly bored throughout many classes in my school days but I never did tell a teacher since I figured nothing good would come of it. And I may have been right because my gut reaction the moment I was told was to get frustrated. How can you be bored in my room? We do so many exciting things! And yet, I bite my tongue, nod, and go home with a head full of questions.

I have a classroom full of noise, ideas, and engagement. It is something I work incredibly hard for and I am very very proud of and yet, it can also be boring. There are times when the base needs to be built for our further exploration and I have to talk. I try to make it engaging, I try to make is student-centered, and yet sometimes I can’t. It gets better every year but still; but yes I can be boring. So these thoughts follow me home and I ask my husband what I should he do since he acutely suffered from school boredom.

His thoughts stopped me; “Maybe it isn’t you? Maybe you do everything you can and that child needs to step up too. Maybe boredom is a two way street and you can only make it so exciting but if the student is not ready or wanting to be engaged then it doesn’t matter what you do.” I immediately started to defend the child and lament that it must be me until I realized he may be on to something; perhaps we as educators can only do so much. Perhaps we can only engage and excite until a certain point and then the student has to invest as well. Perhaps we cannot change every student’s perception of school no matter how many things we pull out to do. Perhaps, we are not the only ones with control in our classroom?

So I turn to you; what do we do when students are bored? After we have changed the curriculum, the approach and the task? What do we do when a student-centered learning environment is not enough? Do we dare tell the student that they too have to invest? That they have to make an effort to be interested or else school will be infinitely boring no matter what we do? Do we dare put some of the responsibility for school engagement back on their shoulders? Or is that taking the easy way out?