Category: being a teacher

being a teacher, difference, making a difference, Passion

What Type of Difference Do You Make?

Pernille Ripp
I have been accused of being a good teacher, something I carry with me when the days are long.  I say accused because I am still looking for the proof, the evidence that indeed whatever it is I have chosen to do makes a positive difference in the lives of my students.  We know we make a difference every day, however, we do not always know whether it is a good or a bad one.  And as teachers we make the choice of what type of difference to make.

When I was child I was bullied by my classroom teacher.  For 3 years she hated me with a passion so deep that I ended up switching schools and leaving everything behind.  I was different, having been taught English at a young age, and she did not like anything about me.  She stopped friendships, singled me out whenever anything went wrong, and once kept me in a closet. It was extreme, and not something many students thankfully ever have to experience, but she made a difference in my life.  She taught me how exactly not to treat a child.  How exactly to make a child feel unwanted, unloved, and like an overall outcast.  She taught me many things.

Another teacher thought that I just wasn’t trying hard enough.  Every conference, he would tell my mother that I was smart, but…obviously, I thought school was a joke.  He thought my essays were too dark, too long, too sappy.  He thought my witty comments in class were not so funny.  No matter how hard I tried to emulate the students he did like, he did not like me much.  I never got the good jokes or the extra remarks.  He taught me to believe in myself even if someone didn’t get it.  He taught me it it is ok to be too sappy or too dark as long as it is not all the time.  He taught me that my mother believed in me no matter what he said.

And then there was my music teacher.  Oh, for two years she thought I was a musical idiot.  Although I asked her for help when it came time to compose, she offered me the same explanation over and over again, hoping that this time it would make sense.  It didn’t and what I composed sounded crazy, yet, I had no idea, because I didn’t know how to play it.  I scored high on performance but crashed in music theory and composing, leading me to abandon being a music teacher.  She taught me to explain things properly to my students, and not in the same way but in a different way.  She taught me to listen when someone explains why they do not get it and not just jump to conclusions and move on.  She taught me that I am supposed to believe in the abilities of my students and not box them in.

There were others.  Others who didn’t get me, didn’t believe in me, or lost me as a student.  Thankfully there were many as well that liked me, supported me, and nourished me.  All of of my teachers shaped me into the teacher I am today, however, those that harmed me somehow shaped me more.  They taught me what not to be, provided the example of how not to teach, how to shut out and disillusion.  So when we speak of making a difference in our students lives think of what type of difference we want to make.  Do we want it to be of negative consequences or positive?  Either way, we make a difference, but it is up to us to decide which type.  I hope you choose wisely, after all, these are just children.

authentic learning, being a teacher, creativity, Innovation Day, Student-centered

4th Grade do Innovation Day

Pernille Ripp
Once again my students astounded me.  Given the opportunity for a full day to just create and inovate, they showed me that if we truly trust our students, they will be able to manage their time, create an exciting product, and have fun while doing it.  On Monday we did our very first Innovation Day, an idea being integrated in other schools around the globe but originating from companies who call it FedEx Day.

The idea is simple: the students get to pick a project to work on for a full day and it has to be done within that day.  the requirements were minimal:  They have to learn something, they have to produce something, and they have to be able to present it the following day.  We decided as a class too that it would be best if no more than 2 students worked together.

Two weeks prior to the day students were given a brainstorming sheet, supplied by Josh Stumpenhorst and modified for 4th grade.  Immediately the excitement grew.  “A whole day where we get to decide?  That’s not what you do in school!”  Some students knew right away what they wanted to study such as Aidan and Erik who were keen to build and research a Celtic castle due to their heritage.  Other students changed their minds almost overcome with the idea that they could do anything they wanted to.  After some conversation even the most excited were able to choose.  They had to outline their process more detailed as the day grew closer and we spoke of how they would proceed Monday morning, finally,  they were ready.

Monday morning I was as excited as my students: would they be able to pull it off? Watching them walking super fast down the hallway told me they were as anxious to get started as I was.  Indeed, right after announcements we jumped into it.  The room quickly erupted in noise and paper, which can be seen right away in our video.  I stepped out of the way and let them work.  As the teacher, the hardest bit of this day was to truly get out of their way!  Instead of me solving problems, they were solving their own, using all of the resources that we have discussed throughout the year.  It was incredible to watch them work together and other own.  Throughout the day students would show me their progress, parents would pop in as well as other teachers.  I live tweeted the event and even some videos.  The kids were so into it they asked to skip recess and lunch.  As the clock wound down and students started mellowing out; I knew that this was a must do event!

So what did we learn, well, students created:

  • A huge cardboard model of Big Ben
  • A painting of the Golden Gate Bridge
  • Scrapbooks from kindergarten to 4th grade
  • Snowflakes and their patterns
  • A Celtic Fortress
  • A board Game called Advance
  • A dream house out of Lego’
  • A model of the Washington Monument
  • A model of the The Pentagon
  • A model of the The Capitol
  • A T-Rex
  • A commercial for Fleels (flats that can be converted into high heels)
  • A model of D-Day
  • A model of Apollo 11
  • A clay model of Big Ben
  • Glogsters on favorite basketball players
  • A paper zoo
  • And many research papers

And what did I learn?

  • That staying out of the way is a great thing.
  • That trusting your students to create will result in magical things happening.
  • That students will use the resources they are taught to use.
  • That innovation and creativity is alive and thriving, the problem solving that occurred in my room that day was just incredible.
  • And that some students do need help when picking a project to ensure it is enough for the whole day, although that was remedied by adding research components to it.

As the year comes to a close and these incredible 4th graders look more and more like 5th graders, I am thankful that we had this opportunity to learn together.  The students showed me how much they are capable of, how much learning can transform them, and how school should indeed be fun.

My students made a video trying to convince other teachers to do Innovation Day, I think they say it best.

being a teacher, choices, life choices, Passion, students

Today I Choose to be Happy

Pernille Ripp
Image from I Can Read

This morning as I woke up. I chose to be happy.  It was not a hard decision, the temperature has finally reached above 60, the birds were chirping, my husband was there.  And yet, I made a choice to be that way.  When I get to my classroom this morning, I will also choose to greet my students with a smile, give them a run-down of our day and end it with a “I am so excited for today.”  I do this every day and my students crack up, after all, how can one teacher be so excited about every single day?

The attitude we bring into our classrooms is a choice, and a very important one.  There has certainly been days where I have chosen to be in an awful mood, stress will do that to you, but when those kids walk in our door, then I choose differently.  I don’t believe in putting on a show for the kids but I do believe in giving them my best, after all, they choose to come to school excited as well.  So together we get excited, sometimes we choose to be mellow and snuggle in with books in our special reading spots, other times we meditate on the floor, whatever we do, we choose it together.

So today I choose to be happy and just a little bit goofy.  The school year is winding down, my students are having  harder time focusing, so together we will not just get through the day, we will experience it.  Every moment is a choice we make, whether we acknowledge it or not.  What do you choose?

being a teacher, Passion, students

This Year, I Was Not the Teacher

Pernille Ripp
I have written of all the things I have changed this year and how amazing the journey has been.  I  have written of the things I have tossed, the things I have kept, and what I never want to try again.  I have argued against something and then changed my mind.  I have dreamed big and I have fallen hard.  But most of all I have been honest.  I may have taught some things to my 23 kids, but really I am the one who has learned.

I have learned that being a teacher means every year your heart grows bigger and you arms longer.  I have learned that my memory can really contain names of former students and their parents, even when I haven’t seen them in 3 years.  I have learned that my students think I am funny, even though my husband would argue against that.  I have learned that there is always a good reason for a dance break particularly if it involves Justin Bieber, even if only to see the boys cover their ears.

I have learned that riddles are best done when paying attention and that not all technology enhances my teaching. I have learned that I can decide to keep a clean classroom or an organized one but not necessarily both, I have also learned to be at peace with this.  I have learned to correct myself when I say my things, or my classroom, this year it has truly been all ours.

This year I have learned that standing by the door in the morning means the kids see me smile right away.  And that standing by the door means good morning is said and I get an instant read of their mood.  I have learned that when I check for homework there will always be one students who forgot it at home or forgets to hand it in.  Thankfully, I have learned that it is truly not the end of the world when homework doesn’t get handed in on time.

I have learned that when you really trust your students to learn, they will push themselves even higher than you could possibly imagine.  I have learned that when you give up a little bit of control, they rise to the occasion and even the worst of days cannot make me want to bring back punishment or rewards.

This year has been a big one for me.  One that will be remembered for many years as the year where I learned to trust my students, fully, completely, and passionately.   So when I look back at why I became a teacher, it was not to be the teacher, but to be part of something bigger, to be part of something that I felt would change the world.  I may not be perfect, lord knows, I would rather not be, but I am doing ok as a teacher.  My students have taught me that.

being a teacher, change, inspiration, motivation, Student-centered

Some Thoughts on Motivation

Pernille Ripp



Honestly, this post has to start with a disclaimer.  I have only been teaching for a little over 3 years in a middle-class school at an elementary level.  Because of this I have had few run-ins with highly unmotivated students, as well as older students.  And yet, unmotivated students surround us, they show up in our schools at an alarming pace and already at the elementary level we struggle to reignite the fire.  So perhaps an elementary perspective is not so awful after all.


“Mrs. Ripp, this is so boring.”  That sentiment greets me on semi-regular basis from one child.  Most days he is passionate, funny, and involved, that is, if he likes what we happen to be during.  Today is no different, he has been involved, engaged, and eager most of the day but now the fatigue has set in and the writing prompt just does not want to get done.  This is a regular occurrence throughout America, passionate students that are mostly motivated at all times but sometimes hit slumps.  This post is not about them.


Instead, this post is about those kids that put their head on their desks, that groan when we give directions, that could not care less about threats, rewards, punishment or motivating pep talks.  Those are the kids we all meet; the truly unmotivated.  Those students that do not see the relevance, the importance, or even the wisdom behind school.  Those students that feel that this is just a temporary illness, something to be waited out for real life to begin.  And yes, we have them even at the elementary level.


The other night, I shared on Twitter, “I always wonder if having unmotivated students just mean that what I am teaching is unmotivating, I think it does.”  Lo and behold a man I admire greatly, Tom Whitby, was kind enough to engage me in my train of thoughts.  As we discussed, my own thoughts became much clearer:


Motivation is linked to the teacher whether we we believe it should be or not.


If a student fails, the teacher is most often the first to be blamed before any outside factions are investigated.  


We have the most control over what happens within our classroom.


As part of this discussion, Tom Perran offered up this article discussing how teachers only have control over 10 of 16 motivating factors.  And yet as teachers we do have to own up to our part in motivation.  Last year, when I sat through another round of book report presentations I yawned often, stretched to stay awake, got droopy eyelids, and yet admonished the students for getting restless and unfocused  Hmm, that doesn’t seem right.


As teachers, part of our job is to provide engaging lessons, but it is this definition of engaging that seems to mess us up.  I used to think that by engaging it meant me lecturing for a while and then giving the students work time, as long as I kept the questions coming, the students were engaged, right?  For some reason most of the time my results were less than stellar.  I also used to think that as long as I provided some sort of choice then the students would find their motivation.  And while our more self-reliant students did because they already have a sense of duty instilled by the teacher, some students didn’t.  Enter in punishment and rewards.  If a student didn’t turn in their work then recess was taken away, and if that didn’t work then a 0 was given.  Ooh a failing grade.  They even got their name on the board and were not offered a chance to enter the weekly drawing for the monthly pizza party, confused?  So was I.


The problem with punishment and reward though is that it often only motivates in the short term.  A student knows that as long as they hand something in, even if it is awful, then that counts as a finished product.  As a teacher, I often lost sleep over what to do with these students.  they seemed already by 4th grade to hate school, finding it a punishment for childhood, and worst of all, they knew how to work the system.  So what to do?  Again, I realized that the problem wasn’t the students, it was the curriculum and how I taught it, so really it was me.  See, I am the biggest in school motivator there is.  While I may not be the one that decides what to teach, I most certainly am the one that decided HOW to teach it.  And if I thought that lecturing (which even put me to sleep in college) was going to capture the imaginations of 9 year olds then I was an idiot. 


So after almost a year of changing things up, this is what I have realized as far as motivation:

  • Choice matters.  When students choose not just what they will do for a project but also what they would like to learn about within a perimeter, you get buy-in.  This continues to be one of the most exciting simple realizations I have come across.
  • Motivation is contagious.  When one student gets excited and has an opportunity to share that enthusiasm, it catches.  My students get to blog about projects, we have huddles where we share and we are a bit louder than we used to be.  But guess what?  Those loud noises are usually students super excited about something.
  • Eliminate punishment and rewards.  This short-term motivator seemed more harmful than helpful to me.  This year we have class parties when we feel we want one, I have lunch with all my students several times a month because they ask me to, and no one is excluded from anything.  When homework doesn’t get done, I ask them how they plan to fix it, most students choose to do it at recess.  Fine by me, they are free to go if they choose.
  • Be excited yourself.  The fastest way for kids to lose interest is if you are bored.  I realized that I hated some of the things and taught and how I taught them (goodbye grammar packets), so something had to change.  Now my students joke about how I almost always introduce something new with “I am so excited to do this…”
  • Look at outside factors.  Some students have a lot more on their plate than we could ever realize.  Ask questions, get to know your students, and be a listening ear.  When my husband lost his job, it was hard for me to be excited about things as well because I was too busy worrying.
  • Control what you can.  We will never be able to control what our students go home to but we sure can control what happens in the room.  All the teachers I know choose to create a caring environment where all students feel safe.  This alone means students let their guards down and feel it is okay to work hard and have fun.
Loss of motivation doesn’t just happen overnight, I believe all students start out motivated and then life gets in the way.  At some point during their school years they start to hate school feeling it is stagnant and irrelevant.  I therefore do everything in my power to ensure that students leave my classroom still liking school, perhaps a small goal, but an incredible important one.  If they like to be in your room, then it is up to you to figure out how to keep them engaged.

being a teacher, change, Passion, questions, Student-centered

Would You Like Being a Student in Your Own Classroom?

Pernille Ripp
It was a simple question really, “Would I like being a student in my own classroom?” that stopped me in my tracks.  Last year when the students had left, the chairs had been put up, and the exhaustion hit, I realized that no, this was not the type of classroom I would have wanted to learn in.  And so began a quest of soul-searching, revising, and rethinking, in order for myself not to become a statistic; another new teacher who quits.

I don’t know where I went wrong.  After all, in college, teachers loved my lesson plans and raved about my ability to connect with students.  I graduated with a big heart and a big head.  I was going to save the world.  And yet, something didn’t click.  In social studies last year I remember scolding my poor students because they were obviously uninterested.  I kept telling them that this was important and they better listen, thinking that yelling at them would make them snap to attention.  Or the student who once again didn’t do his homework, he got an earful as well because that would show him.  Oh how off track I was.

It really hit home when I read a parent magazine last summer in which a question was posed, “My child dreads going back to school, what should I do?”  The answer?  “Remind them that they will see their friends and how much fun they will have during recess, art and music class.”  Recess?  Art?  Music?  What about writing, reading, math?  What about the majority of the time?  Would they be glassy-eyed robots just waiting for the next bubble of fun outside of my room?  I had to change.

So I looked inward, reflected, and realized that i had it all wrong.  School wasn’t about me, or about the knowledge I was going to impart on my students.  Instead it is about them, the students  Those eager kids that show up ready to learn if you let them.  So I had to get out of the way while still acting as a guide.  I have written many posts about my transformation and how much it has affected me as a person and as a teacher.  Most importantly though it is through this transformation of my own ego that real change has happened.  Now I look around my classroom and I celebrate.  There is the girl who was too shy to even look at me busting out of her shell as she acts in a fractured fairy tale.  There is the boy who barely could add two numbers nailing most math concepts.  Or the shy and kind boy, who’s biggest wish now is to be on more committees so he can decide things.  That is what it is all about.  My students are ready for 5th grade, they are ready to leave me with their new knowledge, their energy, their inquisitiveness.  I got out of the way and it worked.  Now when I ask my kids what is the best thing about school they tell me it is all the learning, the projects, the work.  Not recess, not the parties, not their friends, that is just extra.  And what a victory that is.

So I will continue to change and adjust.  I will continue to ask myself whether I would like to be my own student.  It was not a pretty realization back then and it wont ever be but it was a necessary one.  Now I am proud to say that yes, I would love to be a student in my own room, and not because of the teacher, but because of the opportunities to learn.  Would you?