being a teacher – Page 134

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As we find ourselves surrounded by more and more technology in our profession as teachers, we see teachers react in strong ways. You have the embracers, the ones that think any tech tool will enhance their teaching whether it really will or not. You have those who are open but sceptic, who look for tools that will create deeper meanings and not just be another flashy gadget. You have the hesitaters, the ones that will not request but will use the tool when they get it. You have the hand-holders, those who stare at something and do not use it until someone else walks them through the entire process, multiple times. Then you have the skeptics, the ones that do not think any tech will enrichen their teaching because they don’t believe in gadgets. Finally you have the resisters, those who resist pretty much any change, whether technology related or not. All of these types of teachers have their reasons for being who they are, all of them base their perceptions on assumptions and on past experience.

So for all of them I offer some advice.

Don’t blame the tool. Often we hate the tool before we have even tried it, it is like a gut reaction to change in education that one develops. “Oh, here they come again with their fancy new ideas while the old ideas work just fine.” And while there is some truth in that, it is not the tool’s fault it was placed in your room, so the least one can do is explore it. Otherwise it leads to…
Judge first, condemn early. How many teachers have gotten upset over new initiatives or things being introduced before they have even tried it? Sometimes it is easier to get upset rather than just wait and see; many words have been eaten this way.
You don’t have to love it but do try it. I don’t love every piece of tech in my room (SmartBoard I am thinking of you) but I do use it. After all it is there so I might as well. I may just prefer to teach in other ways and use different tools.
Mess with it. Too many times teachers are afraid to even turn something on, let alone push several buttons. This approach can no longer be accepted. We should be guided by many of our students’ approach to tech; turn it on and mess with it. You never know what you can discover on your own.
Give it more than one try. Even with my SmartBoard I continue to explore it, hoping I will have that aha moment where I embrace it. It hasn’t happened yet, but I will not give up on it. It is there to stay and so am I.
Ask questions, but don’t gripe. Yes, satisfaction can be reached through commiseration over the latest tool but will that really push us any further toward figuring it out? Start a conversation, reach out to others, but leave it productive. You will feel better when you walk away.
Get help. Sometimes teachers are too proud to ask others for help but not me. I ask my students to help me figure stuff out, I ask other teachers whether globally or in my school. Somebody else is bound to have run into the same problem at some point so why not solve it together? Team approach works best with technology.
Be fearless. Technology is not the master of us and it never was intended to be, and yet, how many teachers are deathly afraid of it all? Yes, you may break something but so what? At least you attempted to use it. Again look to our students for how we should embrace technology; try it, use it, make it work for you.

Being a 21th century teacher means we have to equip our students with the know-how of technology, there simply is no excuse to not fulfill our job. Our students learn from us, even the way we react to change, so think of your approach as the newest thing is shown to you. Will you model how to be fearless?

being a teacher, homework, students

I Know Worksheets are Bad and Yet I Assigned One

January 19, 2012 Pernille Ripp

There they lie; staring at me with their guilty weight of uselessness, reminding me how I made another mistake. I thought I had them beat, that I had conquered the urge to assign them, and yet I slipped and now that pile of 32 math worksheets reminds me of why I gave up on them in the first place. I don’t know why I thought they would be a good idea, why I found them necessary that morning, but I did and now I have to come to term with what that means for me and for my students. I know my good intentions of practice is hidden in there somewhere but I forgot to listen to my common sense, to look at my past mistakes, to think of the students.

We reach for worksheets when we want to make sure that students get something, when we want to have them practice, to secure a skill. And yet who assigns worksheets with just a few problems? After all, you want a lot of problems to make sure they really get it, that they will never forget. So why didn’t I just assign them 5 problems to show me they knew, why the need for a double-sided sheet with 32 problems on it? The time I must have robbed from my students outside life haunts me.

So I take my pride and put it aside and I realize I made a mistake. Tomorrow I am going to have to tell the kids that, own it, and apologize. It shows that i am still learning, that I make bad decisions too, I am nowhere near perfect as a teacher. And I learn, I learn from my mistakes, from my good intentions gone bad. I learn from the feedback of the students and I admit when I mess up. That’s what makes us better teachers. That’s what builds better classrooms. Humility, humanity, and reflection.

being a teacher, change, classroom expectations, our classroom

What Dreams Reminds Us Of

January 15, 2012 Pernille Ripp

Last night I lost control of my class. It was a dream, of course, it being Sunday today, but I have had this dream before. The students are older – nothing likethose older students to be disrespectful. The classroom is crowded – poor teaching conditions. The task is simple and yet they don’t understand. They talk amongst themselves. They get up and move around to talk. They are too busy, too bored, to listen to me.

So I raise my voice and I yell at them. Except in this dream I always start to lose my voice thus leaving me feeling powerless. The students proceed with their misbehavior.

They rush into the task I have created, they do it wrong. I signal for their attention by yelling but I cannot yell over the crowd. They ignore me and we do not get through what we need to.

They start to answer my questions but they are doing it all wrong and the frustration increases until finally the bell rings; class dismissed. the students are upset, I am ready to quit teaching, and my heart is pounding.

The first time I had this dream I thought it was a reflection of me and it was; how I used to be. How I used to control my classroom. Yet this dream is nothing like my now classroom. The students are the perfect age for me, they are moving around because they learn better that way. They pay attention when they need to and I barely ever raise my voice. Instead I wait until I get their attention and then provide them with the task. But the biggest difference; the task itself. In the dream the task is meaningless, not tied into anything, and totally controlled by me. In reality our tasks are building blocks, shaped by the students and with a bigger purpose.

So I wake from my nightmare shook up but aware that i have changed my reality. That I no longer thrive on controlling my students but relish the freedom they have in my room. Relish the community we have built. relish the learning happening. My brain may be playing tricks on me but it does serve a reminder of why I changed my classroom philosophy; I did it for the students.

being a teacher, being me

I Don’t Want to Be Superwoman

January 11, 2012 Pernille Ripp

We worry about whether we are enough. Whether we plan enough, whether we know enough, do we grow enough or are we outdated? We worry about whether we are reaching them, teaching them, and always making them feel like they can do it, like they matter, like they belong. We worry because that is what teachers do. Did we do enough? Did we listen enough? Did we let them speak, find their voice, share their passion? Did we uncover their talents and boost their weaknesses? How will they remember school? How will they remember us? Will it matter all of the tears, the time, the trouble we went through so that they knew they were important?

I know I am not superwoman, and nor would I ever want to be. Superwoman isn’t human, she is too busy to sit down and listen to a story or see a lightbulb moment. Superwoman has to save the world and my shoulders cannot carry that. So I would rather be human, be me, be here in this classroom, at this time, working with these students. Being there for them, catching the moments, guiding and stepping back. Letting them fail and learning with them. I would rather be me, thankful for this time, for this moment, for these challenges that I know I can carry. Superwoman cannot invest, but I can, and I do, every day, every moment, even after they are gone. They are my children and I grow with them. That is what teachers do.

being a teacher, Student-centered, technology, tools

Teachers Do More Than Teach – Why Technology Can Never Replace Them

January 9, 2012 Pernille Ripp

I hate that technology and education seem to be at odds with each other as presented in some media. This “either or” mentality is, in my opinion, detrimental to the future of education. We should embrace technology when it serves its purpose, but not treat as a replacement for teachers. Computerized tests may be better at accurately assessing which reading skills my student needs to focus on, but a computerized test will not know why that student has not mastered that skill. It can dictate a learning program fit to fix that gap, or to propel them forward, but hitting rewind and watching it over and over will not always guarantee that a student masters a concept. So when we let videos be the only teaching tool for a child, or a computer program, then we stop figuring out why that child is not understanding. We lose that human connection that teachers provide.

We need the human connection for that, we need some form of a teacher to sit down and figure out what is happening in that child’s mind. To figure out how we keep them engaged and interested. How we keep them invested. A computer program will always analyze but forget about the human aspect. It will assess the problem from a deficit standpoint whereas lack of understanding may be as easy as lack of vocabulary or lack of sleep.

In high school, I failed math and I repeatedly asked my teacher for help to explain the concepts to me. She would explain it the same way she had explained it before and I finally stopped asking, it simply didn’t make sense to me no matter how many times she repeated it. Mind you this was before YouTube and vast internet communities, before Google, and Twitter. The only other place I could turn was the library. And yet we let tools that do nothing but repeat take so much value away from the job that we do every day as teacher. We have let the media portray it as the saviour of education.

A frightening future to me would be one where teachers are nonexistent or serve a secondary role to the almighty computer. Where students are greeted by machines from their own private spaces and curriculum is served through a computer program. Lunch is served by themselves and extracurricular activities are gone by the wayside. Drastic sure, but scary nonetheless. Teachers don’t just teach the curriculum; they process it, they analyze it knowing their students’ skills. They invest their time in it so that students will want to invest their own. They make it meaningful, relevant, and they make it fun. Technology can help with that, but it shouldn’t replace. Teachers do more than just teach; they shape, they mold, they model behavior, and they connect. Often that connection is worth more than any curriculum. Worth more than any computer program.

So the path of the future is our hands; we can show the way of how to use technology correctly as a tool to help propel us forward as practitioners or we can hide from it and lament its coming. Technology was never meant to replace teachers, but it slowly is, it is up to us whether we let it.

being a teacher, being me, choices, classroom expectations, classroom management, Student-centered

Why Trusting Your Gut Can Be the Best Classroom Management Course You Ever Take

January 7, 2012 Pernille Ripp

A year and a half ago, I went through a radical change in the way I am as a teacher. The whole foundation of what my classroom was was discarded and re-born, all on the basis of my gut instinct. It told me that to increase student motivation and increase buy-in that my method of teaching and, indeed, the whole feel of my classroom had to change. That to see motivation increase and excitement build that the old method I was using was so far away from what I wanted that it simply should not exist anymore. So instead of dismissing what some may have viewed as a crazy whim, unsafe territory if you must, I pursued, I went there and I took the chance of implementing it into my classroom and my unsuspecting students.

I trusted my instincts and my own desire for how my schooling should have been; projects, team-work, choices. And now in the second year into this implementation I am the proof that it works. I am the proof that if you believe in your students, if you believe in their ability to make great choices, to work together as teams rather than as individuals their learning will benefit. I have students who love coming to school, and not just those 50% that love you no matter what they do. I have kids that had given up, that believed that they could not succeed, that they were not smart enough to go to school, now tell me that they love coming, that they cannot wait to learn. That they cannot wait to be challenged. They may not ace every single assignment but they try and they grown. They may not get the grades that others get but they participate, they share and they know that their voice is just as important as those who used to be the top-kids, the stars of the room. They smile, they belong, and they own the community. School is a place they want to come to, not somewhere they have to go.

I cannot take credit for all of this because the students trusted me as well. They trusted me with their dreams of school and of learning. They trusted me with how they want to learn, how they see themselves as individuals and the paths they want to take. That speaks a lot of the relationships we have created. Those children trusted me enough to let me in, and to make our classroom their second home. So my classroom is the proof that these strategies work, even if you do not know that is what you are doing. My classroom is the proof that sometimes following your gut is more important than following any college class on classroom management. My classroom is the proof that even though your mentor does it one way, it is ok for you to do it completely different. We can change the way we do school and we can make school all about the children. We just have to be willing to change ourselves.