Category: being a teacher

being a teacher, failure, students

When Students Are Afraid to Try

Pernille Ripp
Today it smacked me right in the face; what I am so disheartened over, what I am fighting to end, what I think is one of the downfalls of the way we educate.  It wasn’t something grand, nor something I had expected and yet there it was; taunting me to do something about it, making me feel oh so powerless.  What was this beast, you ask, fore it must have been epic?  Well, in my world it was because it was kids afraid to try…

My kids, those who I fail in front of all of the time.  Those kids who are not afraid to try something new, to create, to think of wacky ideas.  Those kids that try again and again and again every day, they just froze.  Came to me in droves, asking for help, giving up without even putting their pencil to the paper.  The culprit?  Having to create a data-set that fit the clues; one math problem.  Frustrated at first I told them to just try, mess around with some numbers, attack it whichever way they thought made sense.  Just do something.  And yet they didn’t.  They had given up, they had surrendered to this math problem, it simply made them feel stupid.

So this evening, sitting at the dinner table I shared my story with Brandon, who does more teacher reflection than the average teacher it seems.  I asked “Why?  Why were they so afraid to try?”  He stated, “Failure.”  And I think he is right.  My kids, my adventurous, smart 5th graders, were afraid to fail.  Were afraid to not get it right, so instead of trying it, they simply refused.  That way I would have to show them how, I would never know that they were not smart enough to do it, I would never know that this itty bitty problem had matched them, even if none of this was true.

So what do we do when the kids are afraid to even try?  What do we do when all of the times we have failed in front of them is forgotten?  When they have started to believe that if they cannot get it right, they should not even attempt it?  I have a classroom were we thrive on failed attempts, learn from our mistakes, and always pick ourselves up and yet today that all vanished.  Tomorrow it will be back, I am sure, those kids will be daring again, but today, they were simply scared and all I can think to myself is; what have we done to our kids?

being a teacher, classroom management, Student-centered

What Happens to the Doodlers?

Pernille Ripp
Recently Richard Byrne shared the fantastic short TED video by Sunni Brown called “Doodlers Unite.”  (Shown below).  Being a lifelong doodler myself, and also one that has realized how much my students do it, I was eager to share the video with the rest of my school and see how they reacted.  So imagine my delight, when my principal emailed me the following story today:

The framed pencil sketch of “Mr. Rykal’s class” on my wall is from my first classic doodler. When he was in 4th grade, I went to him, ripped a doodle page from his notebook, and then stapled it to my bulletin board. I told him if I couldn’t stop him from doodling, I was going to be the first person to own his original work. The result was the portrait.

Later, when he graduated from HS, he sent me a note, thanking me for recognizing that he had to doodle.

He is now an artist who illustrates children’s books. I purchased one for our library, and a couple years ago emailed him a picture of the portrait on my wall.


As a new teacher, I was always the one that would try to “catch” students not paying attention and doodling was definitely one of my many “clues” as to who was aptly listening and who wasn’t.  I assumed that if they were busy with their hands there was no way my fascinating lecture could be captivating them as well.  Often, my doodlers would be embarrassed by being called out in front of the class like that and their  doodling would disappear.  I wanted control so badly of my room that I confused it with controlling my students’ every move as well.

It wasn’t until two years ago, when I realized that some people focus much better when they doodle and perhaps I had just given doodling a bad name.  What was an annoying habit that I needed to get rid of, was something I myself do when I sit in meetings.  Oops.  Big learning moment when I realized that.   And now I wonder how many students grow into be artists when we let them doodle?  How many students discover their love of using tools to create when they doodle?  How many students focus more aptly because their hands are busy?  I now encourage doodling in my classroom as we work and have had students share their doodles as well.

So there we have it – Doodling isn’t wasteful, it is an art-form, something that helps students focus.  Rejoice and celebrate the doodling.

being a teacher, lessons learned, students

10 + 1 Lessons I Learned the Hard Way

Pernille Ripp
Image from here

Sometimes life smacks you in the face and makes you change your ways for the better.  Fortunately in education, this happens quite a bit, unfortunately it is not always in the most pleasant way.  I present a list of my lessons I learned the hard way.

  1. You may be really excited about something but that does not mean anyone else will be.  I joined Twitter more than a year ago and I have yet to convince anyone close to me of its value.  I remain undeterred in my plug for Twitter but at the same time also realize that perhaps they just don’t want to join.
  2. When you make a lot of changes, not everyone will think they are great.  I have changed many things in my classroom and while I see all of the amazing benefits, not everyone does.  I have many critics and my skin has grown a lot thicker, and yet, ouch.
  3. Not everyone wants to hear your opinion, even if you think it s a good one.  
  4. Not all parents want less homework.  I thought every parent would stand up and cheer at my decision to nearly eliminate homework, but no, some want a lot of homework for their children for various reasons.  I now encourage open dialogue on it and help out where I can.
  5. Lecturing does not engage – and neither does raising your voice and scolding the kids when they tune out.  I figured this one out after 2 years of teaching with glazed over eyes and less than enthusiastic students.  Now I look back at those two first years and shudder.
  6. Rewards diminish the learning.  I used to be a rewards fanatic but realized that kids focused more on which sticker they got then the feedback I gave them.  I also created a class divide in my room with the have’s and the have not’s.  If only I could tell all of those kids that I am sorry for what I did.
  7. When you think everything is going great, you are about to crash.  I don’t know how many times I have been on a teaching high only to crash and burn wickedly.  Life changes quickly, so enjoy the “high” while you can.
  8. Putting your thoughts on a blog means everyone wants to debate with you.  Some will cheer, some will challenge, and some will just downright criticize.  Either way, you have to take the good with the bad; it is all part of developing your voice.
  9. Even the best classroom can have a bad day.  I used to beat myself up wondering what went wrong when the day feel apart.  Then I realized that sometimes there is just nothing to do it about it that day, what matters is that you start over the next day.
  10. I am not always right, even if I really, really want to be.  I have some pretty strong opinions and fortunately for me, sometimes they change.  That means I have had to apologize to people, publicly state the change and eat crow in a number of ways.  This is a not a bad thing, but a human thing.
  11. I am not the only teacher in the room.  I thought I was the ultimate authority on everything in my room, and loved to share my vast knowledge into those empty vessels that were my kids.  What a rude awakening when I realized that my students are not blank slates.  Now I remind myself daily to step aside and let them explore and teach each other and me.  

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Be the change, being a teacher, education reform

An Easy Statement

Pernille Ripp

You know what is easy to say? That our education system is broken. It is also easy to say that it is because of standardized tests, because of politicians, too much red tape and clueless administrators. We need more money, we need smaller class sizes, more time, more enthusiasm. I could go on listing all of the things we need.

And yet, at some point we must own up to our own responsibility. At some point we must change our statements and no longer just say that the system is broken. At some point we must say, I am part of the solution. That perhaps not everything in the system is broken but that there are flaws and we can do something about it.

Saying the system is broken is too easy. It removes responsibility. Take the responsibility, be the change, and then spread the word.

being a teacher, being me, blogging

Blogging Gave Me an Audience and Then Some

Pernille Ripp
I never was a writer until I began to blog.  Perhaps I was a poet or at least I liked to call myself one as I dredged through hour upon hour of teenage self loathing in my journal.  I never was a writer though, just someone who liked to write but didn’t know where to do it or what to even write about.  Then one day I blogged.  My husband told me to, said it would be good for me and I trusted him so I thought why not?  Little did he know how big of an effect blogging would have on our lives and on our family.

To blog is to bare ones soul, to have a conversation with the world; a conversation where anyone can become  a critic and anyone can become an inspiration.  I quickly realized you have to have thick skin to blog honestly.  And yet, blogging has allowed me to create friendships and work relationships with people globally.  Blogging has allowed me to send seeds of inspiration into the world and I have been lucky enough to be told that I have inspired others.  We choose how we represent ourselves to the world, and I represent myself through blogging.  I am not always right.  I am not always coherent.  I am not always positive even though I strive to be.  But I am always honest.  I want my blog to be a true reflection of the world I live in, the classroom I get to call home, and the incredible children that get to be part of my family.  So through my blog I invite others in to our world.  I invite others to see how a classroom can function with respect, love and honest communication.  I invite others to be the change, to be positive, and to give those children a voice.  I am no longer shouting to an empty room; blogging has given me an audience.  I am no longer alone, there are others out there like me.  What a relief.

This blog is in response to the Rockstar Meme on How Blogging Changed My World – thank you for the inspiration.

I now invite these 5 people to share their journey and their story as I feel it is an important one:
Josh Stumpenhorst 
Matthew Ray
Chris Wejr
Greta Sandler
Katie Hellerman

being a teacher, Student-centered

I Can Change the World

Pernille Ripp
Yes, it’s true, we are small but we are not insignificant.  I may not be able to change the world, but I can change my classroom.  I can change my philosophy, I can change myself. 

So when I look around my room and I see those faces, I know they deserve the very best of me.  I know they deserve a room where there is no punishment, where there are no inane rewards in place.  They deserve to live life outside of school free from pointless homework and they deserve to know their progress and their goals. 

So through my change I change their school experience.  I change their minds that learning is static, boring, or pointless.  I change their perspective that teachers are out to get them.  I change myself so that I can help them go on their path.  Though we may think we cannot change the world, we can through our students.  The change starts within ourselves.