being a teacher – Page 160

We’ve all been there, bouncing around at your school or home because you just discovered something absolutely, truly, fantastically wonderful that you just cannot wait to try in your teaching. It is a marvelous feeling this one, one that makes you want to sing from the rooftops and share the idea with everyone you meet. And then you do and the person who you indulge it with looks at you blankly. Silence. Deflated, you walk away, thinking to yourself that maybe that idea was not so great after all.

But wait it’s not them, it’s you. Or me in this case. I am one of those can’t wait to try it and then tell everyone about (mostly on this blog) idea kind of people. I get so overly excited about something that I am practically bursting at the seams with my newfound wisdom and my poor husband is forced to listen to hours upon hours of blissful teacher talk. I rave, I rant, I share and then I don’t understand why others don’t see the magic or get as excited to try it as I did. Take Twitter for example, I don’t think I have convinced a single person to get on it, and yet it is one of the most life-altering educational experiences I have ever had. But it’s not the “them” that are to fault, it is me.

We all love great ideas. We all have them and we all share them. Some great ideas work especially well for us and others just really don’t. As I grow as an educator, I am beginning to understand more which type of ideas I am really drawn to; student-centered, technology integration, and no grade/homeworks/rewards etc. are things that just rock my world. Others not so much. So when other people come up to me and share their great idea, I might be the one with that blank stare that does not show any kind of enthusiasm. Because to me it just doesn’t sound that exciting, or it goes against something I think I believe in, or I just don’t have the time.

And that’s when I realize, hey it is okay for others NOT to get excited over my great idea.

After all, being a teacher means you get to work with an incredible array of personalities that have one thing in common; they really love kids. So whichever way, or whichever ideas we use, to get us to change the world one kid at a time, is alright by me. However, I will promise myself that the next time someone presents their great idea to me, even if it seems a little strange, I will give it a good listen, perhaps even try it, and then decide. After all, I can only change myself.

being a teacher, education reform, Student-centered, students

Let Them Speak – Notes from my RSCON#11 Presentation

January 9, 2011 Pernille Ripp

Just a disclaimer with these; they were written late one night as I was brainstorming what i would present on. They are not polished but just free thoughts as I went through my slides.

Hi, my name is Pernille Ripp and I am not an expert. I am a 4th grade teacher in a school with around 450 students and I am on a journey. A journey into questioning everything I was taught in school, a journey that has led me here today opening up about why my classroom is changing, and hoping to inspire others to question their classroom as well.

Many articles have been written about student centered classrooms, there are many people that know more than me, use them, connect with them on twitter or through the internet. I am only here to tell you my story, so let’s begin.

Last year I had fantastic students, I felt more confident, and I had a great team, and yet at the end of the year I was deflated. I was spent. I questioned what I was doing as a teacher, why did I teach the way I did and why did the method I had been taught just not seem to work? I shared this with my husband and he asked me, “What can you change?”

So I joined Twitter and started thinking about who I was as a person and how I wanted to be as a teacher. I also started blogging and doing most of my thinking aloud. I knew a big problem for me was the amount of control I had in the classroom, it seemed to be a dictatorship at times, and yet, I didn’t know how to change it or whether I could do it at all.

Control – a huge word in education. In college we are taught tricks on how to control our classroom, or classroom management strategies. But the control doesn’t stop there, we not only have to control the room, but also the learning. There are many books written on how to control the learning in your room and we eagerly read them as new teachers, desperate and afraid of not having it. So if you walk by most traditional classroom settings what you will see is the teacher at the front of the room, talking at the students that are sitting in neat rows all facing the teacher, or at least that was my room. Questions are answered when students raise their hand, or not at all. It is evident who is in charge.

Some people think the opposite of control must be assumed chaos. Because if there is not a clear power structure in the room then no one will know how to act, behave or learn.

This was almost my classroom last year, I had pods but still it was all about me. I was always in control, carefully planning out every lesson, every step. There is a beginning point, a middle, a finished product that then gets graded and handed back. Once it is handed back to the students that journey is finished. Students are participants in the stalest form of the word. They are participating in what the teacher allows them to participate in. There is no shared control.

So what happens when we give up that control to the students and create a student centered classroom? Well, most people assume that chaos reigns supreme. I was one of those people. I was petrified of the little things, of noise, of clutter, of not being in control at all times. I thought my classroom would be wild and crazy filled with screaming kids that refused to work. Instead this is what happened, this is from a regular day doing writing in my classroom.

Student centered means putting the focus on the students rather than the teacher. Think of how powerful that statement is. We think as teachers that that is what we do at all times, but is is not true. It is often a show put on by the teacher where the students get to watch and do some work, but every step of the way has been predetermined. The path has been chosen and we are in a hurry to get to our destination. So when the focus is shifted back to the students we have to ask ourselves how will my students learn this? How will they explore and get to our goal? The how becomes just as important as the what.

The first step is to realize that you as the teacher no longer is the only authority on learning. Students are given control as well and you step back from your big brother role. To do this you have to realize first what you can let go of and what you cannot. I knew there were certain things such as interrupting others that I would never be ok with, but many other things such as sitting in desks, rubrics, grades, homework, I could let go of.

So in the truest sense of the words, it is elementary. We must unlearn some of the lessons from college and our experience and stop hogging the limelight. And this is much easier than it sounds.

So baby steps becomes the way to first do it. Many students are not prepared for student centered learning. Their voice has been hushed or diminished for so many years that we first have to help them find it again. This can be accomplished through activities already in the first week. Some things I did was have them create classroom rules, and also have them help me set up the room. This way they already started taking ownership of our learning environment.

I also spoke to them about my choices and the why’s behind my decision to get rid of grades and most homework. For more information on that you can see my blog. I also kept quiet a lot of the time. Now I am a talker, but they needed to see that it wasn’t all about me from the very first day. This is huge. Set the tone from the very first moment you meet them. Explain to them the journey you are going on and how you will be challenging them, it was incredible to see the kids get excited about all of my crazy ideas and it was a great way to field any questions right away both from students and parents.

Then began the actual learning and the real challenge begins. We are so used to being the bringers of learning that we forget what it means to let students explore. This was and is my biggest challenge. I still have to stop myself from just talking at students. So instead, for everything I continuously ask myself what is the goal of this lesson? If I know the goal, then I can backtrack from there. An example could be a unit on crayfish, I have a set curriculum I am supposed to guide the students through. I chose to instead ask the students what they wanted to learn and do with these animals. I knew the overall goal of the unit was to teach them respect for life and animals. Well, you can certainly get there in many ways. By giving the students ownership of the unit, they became much more invested.

so ask yourself what the goal is of your lesson. Can it be accomplished through an exploration rather than a teacher led discussion? Most of the time it can. Another huge lesson for me was to actually inform the students of our goal. How many of you teach without telling the students what the goal of the lesson is? I used to until I realized it is like putting someone in a car every day without telling them their destination or purpose of the trip. It doesn’t make any sense. Once students know the destination or goal you will be surprised at their methods for getting there. In fact, students are usually way more creative than I will ever be in coming up with project ideas.

It doesn’t always go perfect though, so then what do you do? Well, you ask the students what went wrong. In a recent exploration of Native Americans, my students asked to pick their own research projects and choose their own finished products. I was scared and excited since this would prove to be my biggest letting go of the year. I did meet with the kids to hear their project ideas and help them if needed. It was amazing to watch kids do their thing. Almost all of the kids were deeply engaged and very, very excited about the project. When it came time to present their finished project one pair of boys came up and told me they were not done. In fact, for two weeks there weren’t quite sure what they were really supposed to be doing. Instead of asking me for help they just made it look like they were busy and when I walked by they were always working on something, or so it seemed. So what did we learn? Well all of us learned to ask more questions! Also for me to tune in even more. While most kids were ready to do this free of a project, some were not.

This is a major point of student-centered learning; not all students are ready for the same level of freedom. Some benefit from working with a teacher as facilitator and others can do it on their own. It also completely depends on the project and can change all of the time. My students whom others may consider to be struggling did really well in this project. So make yourself available to all of the students and don’t be surprised by who asks for help.

Another important aspect of this type of learning is to really give students an outlet for their voice. I accomplished this through student blogging. I use kidblog.org, which is a free blogging websites particularly for teachers and students. Greta Sandler did an incredible presentation on the how and why of student blogging, which I have linked in my presentation. Every week my students have a blogging challenge where I get to either reinforce something we have discussed in class such as protagonist and antagonist, or I pick their brains. I ask my students questions about the classroom, about me as a teacher, about what they would change, what they like or dislike. And they are honest! If you give kids a chance to tell you they will. We worked hard on how to comment and blog and now it has become one of our biggest tools for communicating. Never mind all of the people we have connected with throughout the world. Now when my students talk about projects they try to bring the world in rather than just focusing on their own little world. This shift in perception could not have been done without student blogging.

So what all of this means to me is really just focusing on the students. My goal is to make sure that these kids still love going to school when they are done with fourth grade and student-centered learning helps me do that.
ask yourself, what can you let go of? What do you not need to be in control of? When can you be quiet? And continue to question yourself! I certainly do not have all of the answers and yes some times I have to talk to the students and be the bringer of knowledge but if you balance that with student led explorations, you will see it becomes less and less you and more them. And ask the students what and how they want to learn something, they bring quite a bit of knowledge in as well. As teachers we cannot be the only people with the knowledge, we have to give that power back to the students. Student-centered learning is the tool to do that.

I thought I would end with letting my students speak for me, because in the end, it is truly all about them.

aha moment, assumptions, being a teacher, memories, school staff, students

It Happened at a Meeting

January 6, 2011 Pernille Ripp

Today I took notes at our staff meeting. Yes, a highly unusual task for me as I just sit and listen most of the time. But today was a day for note taking as we discussed hidden assumptions in life. I have written about this before mainly on this post, but the discussion keeps pulling me back in as I continue to challenge myself.

To assume means to suppose to be the case, without proof and it is this last bit of the definition that really sparked my interest today. When we assume in our classrooms, do we do it because it is easy? Because of intellectual laziness? Or is it some inane need to classify in order to navigate through life?

As teachers we often assume whether we can admit or not. We assume perhaps that a child who rides a certain bus has a laundry list of issues that need correcting. Or a child who comes from a wealthy neighborhood should be fine academically. Perhaps we assume socioeconomic status based on a pair of worn out shoes, rather than stop to ask the child, who may in the end, just really like those shoes. We provide snacks for the kids who live in rental properties, and extra time to do homework because their home-life may be tough, but how often do we ask our middle-class kids whether they are having difficult or whether food is sparse at their house? So in this instance, we assume because we are used to it.

I didn’t start my job with these assumptions, in fact, I prided myself on how much of blank slate I was. And yet, here they are now, fighting me every day. We see our class list and images and connotations frequent our thoughts until we meet the kids and then (hopefully) realize how wrong we are. We base our class lists for the coming year on even more assumptions about how a certain student may be do in a certain class based on the assumptions we make about that teacher. Sometimes others correct us and sometimes the assumptions is given more life because others nod their head, already victims of the same cloaked inferences.

So why are assumptions bad? As a victim of many, I can tell you they diminish you as a person unless you fight hard enough to break out of them. Because I moved a lot as a child due to my mother being awarded Fullbright scholarships, I was assumed to be transient with everything that entails. Because I was taught English at a very young age, and thus was the only 1st grader fluent in English, I was assumed to be gifted, which I am not. Because I was raised by an incredible single parent, I was assumed to have “daddy” issues or be the victim of a lackluster childhood, when the opposite is true. My mother’s scholarships means I learned what it means to be a global citizen. Being fluent in English means that I can teach my class with a native accent, rather than the awful Danish one (Lars Ulrich anyone?), and being raised by the most passionate and inspiring of mother’s who later married her soulmate gave me a role-model that I will forever try to emulate both in life and in love. In short, my “messed up life” on paper proved to be a fantastic journey.

As we pass our assumptions on in the hallways, meetings, or lounge conversations, we breathe new life into them. When we have one more child that fits the bill of what we thought they would be like, then we pat ourselves on the back, and know that we were right to categorize them such in the first place. Every year, as more students come our way, we strengthen our categories, our distinctions, and it becomes harder to see the truth, to wipe them all away.

Some will argue that there is nothing wrong with assuming certain things, and I agree that this is not a black and white discussion. Yet something has to be done with the monologue constantly running in our heads. When we do not speak our assumptions aloud, no one is there to refute them, and so they take on more “truthiness” until we don’t remember a time when we didn’t know this to be a fact. We have to fight our assumptions before we make them truths, the future of our students are at stake.

being a teacher, blogging, reflecting

You Know You Are a Blogger When…

January 5, 2011 Pernille Ripp

Being a blogger has nothing to do with how many people read your blog, so you know you are a blogger when….

While having a conversation with a colleague, you keep getting inspired to write another post about what they say.

When someone tells you a new idea, you think of the comment you would leave if it were a blog post.

You cannot help getting ideas for new post whenever you read anything.

You base your new technology purchases on whether or not your blog platform will be supported.
When signing things you almost sign your blogging name.

You constantly tell others about the incredible comments you have received or made on your blog.

Your students know the names of the top people that you interact with.

Your professional reflection has never been better.

Your PLN is a vital and important part of your life.

You are pretty sure your mother knows everything there is to know about your daily life through your blog.

What did I miss?

being a teacher, community, difference, hopes, self

We are Not Born Selfish

January 3, 2011 Pernille Ripp

As I watch my daughter interact, I realize that we are not born selfish. Instead we become it as our lives turn into one long competition for more, bigger, better. This can be seen in school where many teachers suffer under constant business or stress, and if they are not suffering from it, they are a rarity. I used to be one of those teachers, too busy to even think some time, until I realized that by projecting this frantic persona, I was being selfish.

When you are constantly busy, or claiming to be, you shut yourself off to others. People realize that you will not be able to help, because you are too busy; you will not give them that precious time they may need, because you have too much to do. This is detrimental to furthering personal connections. When people stay out of your way because you are frantic, they often do not come back.

So when you return to school, make a conscious effort to turn off your busyness. Instead open yourself up to others. When someone approaches you for help or an extra hand, give it to them, even if it interferes with prep time. This small gesture of giving time fosters goodwill in your environment. When we actively help others, they notice and they in turn may help others as well. We all know that helping breeds helping, so why not live it? I know we are busy, all people are, but it is how we choose to deal with that busyness that makes the difference. So remember that doing something that may seem inconvenient to you may make a huge difference to someone else. Don’t be selfless but be less selfish.