being a teacher – Page 95

Today our incoming 7th graders found out which teachers they will have. I hope they are happy. I hope they are excited. I hope they have heard wonderful things about our team. I know we can’t wait. Today was also the day that Thea, my now 1st grader, found out her teacher, a moment that was exciting yet filled with questions as well. Will her teacher “get” her? Will she love school? Will this be another incredible school year for her? What will my role be as a parent of a 1st grader?

For years I have tried to create a welcoming environment for all the people that are attached to our classroom. For years I have tried, along with my team, to create spaces where parents/guardians can feel like they have a voice, are welcome, and also can engage in tough dialogue with us when needed. It is something that we pride ourselves on because it has not just happened, we have had to work at it knowing that parent/guardian relationship is vital to a child’s success. So I was dumbfounded when I came across an article titled “Ten Types of Parents that Teachers Secretly Hate.” I read it (I won’t link it here because I don’t feel like giving it traffic) and I was so disappointed in it. Is this really what we as educators want to tell parents? That we secretly hate them when they are involved in their child’s education? That if they don’t follow our rules for engagement then we will complain about them behind their backs? Is this even what we want to be told as parents? That teachers secretly label us and hate some of us?

Yet, it wasn’t just the labeling of the various types of parents that upset me, it was the complete disregard for the cause behind this behavior. There was no discussion of why a parent might be over-involved, might be absent, might be going straight to the principal rather than us. There was no acknowledgement of what can lead to these types of parental behavior that we “secretly hate.” No discussion of what a poor school experience can do to future relationships.

I have worked alongside many types of parents and guardians. Some have been wonderful interactions, others have been tough. Some led me to tears while others led to great moments of joy. I am thankful for every single interaction I have had, even if it was a hard one, because each one has made me grow as a teacher. And sometimes the hardest ones have been the ones I have grown the most from.

So before we assume that parents are a certain way to annoy us, to discount us, to somehow make our workdays harder, how about we assume that all parents/guardians want what is best for their child? How about we assume that the reason they approach us in a certain way is because that is what they have had to do in the past? How about we assume that they may be absent because circumstance is keeping them from our schools, not choices? How about we afford them the benefit of the doubt and try to get o know them before we label them as being a certain way.

Much like we try to uncover the past of our students to find out how it affects them now, we should also be trying to uncover the pasts of the adults attached to them. I am sure I will meet many of the archetypes of parents listed in the article in the coming year, but what I won’t do is assume that I know why. What I won’t do is hate them. What good will ever come from that?

We all know relationships matter most when it comes to a successful school year, so why not actively build a relationship with adults as well? It starts now, not when something comes up, not when it is too late. What will you do to reach out to them before they reach out to you?

PS: I posted my welcome parent survey today, I cannot wait to read their answers.

If you like what you read here, consider reading my book Passionate Learners – How to Engage and Empower Your Students. The 2nd edition and actual book-book (not just e-book!) comes out September 22nd from Routledge.

advice, aha moment, being a teacher, new teacher, new year

6 Things New Teachers Remind Me to Do Every Year

August 6, 2015 Pernille Schmidt Ripp

You can usually spot a new teacher a mile away. There is just something about the way they talk about the upcoming year, how they hold themselves, and even the very air that surrounds them. So much joy, so much enthusiasm, mixed with a certain air of fear. Right now seems to be the time where people start talking about all the mistakes new teachers make their first year and pass on advice to them whether they need it or not. Yet, every year I learn so much from the new teachers I meet. Every year they teach lessons to me.

Be enthusiastic. The joy that comes with teaching your very first year is one we should chase after every year. We should love teaching, not take it for granted, not get caught up in the misery of all of the outside things that make teaching difficult. Let’s all be excited that we have a job and that we will get to do what we love so much for another year.
Ask questions. New teachers know that they don’t have all of the answers so they ask a lot of questions. As a veteran teacher, I sometimes think that I should know all of the answer so I feel stupid asking many questions. Yet teaching is about learning and we stop learning when we stop asking questions. Ask away and don’t be embarresed if you don’t know something, embrace that you are learning.
Know their students names. My first year of teaching I spent hours memorizing names with faces so that on the first day of school I knew all of my students by name. This small gesture of respect went a long way in building classroom community. As a middle school teacher, I have a lot more names to memorize – I think I am up to 136 students this year – and yet I have started looking at their pictures already. I want to know all of their names by the end of the first week, no later.
Say”Why not?” a lot. First year teachers tend to question many things we see as established norms, and sometimes I think veteran teachers, myself included, can get a little bit offended when something we hold near and dear is questioned. Yet it is in this questioning that we start to discuss new ideas, we find inspiration, and we change the way we teach. we should all be asking “Why not?” a lot more than we are.
Stay true to our noble intentions. I became a teacher to help students become better people, yet within my first few years, I lost sight of that. New teachers joining our profession may seem idealistic or delusional to some, yet within their dreams is something we should all be chasing; the belief that what we do matters. The belief that we can make a difference. That we can create schools that students actually want to be a part of.
Make connections. As a new teacher you don’t know that many people so all year you are trying to find your tribe. yet, often, we settle into our patterns of who we speak to and shut ourselves off from the rest of our community when instead we should be continuing to make connections as often as possible. why can’t you know all of the people in your school? Why not reach out across your district? While it is nice to have people that know you well, make sure you make connections with new people as well. You never know who will become a part of your tribe.

If you are a new teacher reading this, welcome, this is truly the best job in the world. May you love it this much or more each year you teach. And if you are a veteran like me; I hope your year is filled with wonder, with laughs, and with joy. We are lucky to be teachers, even if the world sometimes seems to be against us.

being a teacher, Literacy, Passion, Reading, student choice, student voice

Stop Feeding the Beast – The Reading Myths We Pass on As Truth

August 4, 2015August 13, 2015 Pernille Schmidt Ripp

“This is not a “girl” book even if the cover makes you think it is, boys can love it too…”And I stop myself. And I cringe inwardly. And I want to rewind time for just 10 seconds and tell myself to stop. A “girl” book? What in the world is that? And since when did I label our classroom books by gender?

The stereotypes of reading seems to be a beast in itself. We feed the beast whenever we pass on hearsay as fact. We feed the beast whenever we fall victim to one of these stereotypical sayings without actually questioning it. Through our casual conversation we teach our students that there are books for girls and books for boys. We teach our students that a strong reader looks one way, while a struggling reader (God, I hate that term) is something else. We say these things as if they are the truth and then are surprised when our students adopt the very identities we create.

So what are the biggest myths that I know I have fed in my classroom?

11232142_10153492591360196_439666777097332585_o — Thank you Debbie Ridpath Ohi for this image

“This is a girl/boy book.” I have said this many times as I try to book talk a book. I say it when I think the boys, in particular, will not give a book a fair chance because of its cover. I say it when I think the girls will find a book to be too violent, to have too much action. And every time I say it, I am teaching these kids that certain books are only meant for certain genders. What I forget is that I read all sorts of books. That I, as a female reader, like a good violent book. That I gravitate more toward “boy” books than “girl” books. So why do I continue to pass this on to my students? It stops now.

“This is an easy read.” Another common statement I have made while book talking. What I mean by it is that for most students the text will not prove difficult to understand, yet I know now that ease of reading looks very different from student to student. That what I may think is easy, even when I pretend to be a 7th grader, is not easy at all. That even if a book is short does not make it easy. Even if a book has a manageable story line does not make it easy. That “easy” means different things to different readers and therefore does not provide a good explanation to anyone. It stops now.

“He/she is a low or high reader.” Our obsession with classifying students based on their data does not help our students, it only helps the adults when we are discussing them. There is an urge in education to group kids according to data points so that rather than take the time to discuss each student, we can discuss them as a group. Yet the terms “low” or “high” make no sense when discussing readers. They make sense when we are discussing data points, but is that really all our students are? How many of us have taught students who were amazing readers, yet scored low on a test? What would we call them? We need to discuss students using their names and their actual qualities, not these shortened quantifiable terms that only box them in further. It stops now.

“Most boys don’t really like to read.” I don’t know how many years of teaching boys I need to finally stop saying this. Many boys like to read – period – but when we say that most don’t, we are telling them that what they love is not a masculine thing to do. That boys loving reading is something strange and different. If we want this to come true, we should just keep repeating this over and over. Our male readers will soon enough get the message that reading is for girls. It stops now.

“The older they get, the less they love books.” I used to believe this, until I started teaching middle school. Then I realized that it is not because students want to read less as they get older, they read less because we have less time for independent reading, and we dictate more of their reading life. Homework builds up as do other responsibilities outside of school. Compare a 5th grader who has 30 minutes of independent reading most days to my 7th graders that get a luxurious 10 minutes – who do you think reads more in a year? Also, I wonder if anyone would want to keep reading if they did not get time for it in school or had choice over what they read for several years? Sometimes I think it nearly a miracle that students’ love of reading can survive what we do to them in some educational settings. It stops now.

“But they are not really reading…” I used to be the hawk of independent reading, watching every kid and making sure that for the entire time their eyes were on the text. If they stopped I was there quickly to redirect. Independent reading time was for independent reading and by golly would I make sure that they used every single second of it. Yet I don’t read like that myself. When I love a book, I pause and wonder. When I love a book, I often look up to take a break, to settle my thoughts. When I love a book, my mind does not wander but I still fidget. That doesn’t need a redirection, that doesn’t need a conversation, that simply needs to be allowed to happen so I can get back to reading. Our students are not robots, we should not treat them as such. Re-direct when a child really needs it, not the moment they come up for air. It stops now.

“They are too old for read alouds…picture books…choral reading…Diary of Wimpy Kid…” Or whatever other thing we think our students are too old for. No child is too old for a read aloud. No child is too old for picture books. No child is too old for choral reading. No child is too old for books like Diary Of A Wimpy Kid. Perhaps if we spent more time showcasing how much fun reading really is, kids would actually believe us. It stops now.

The myths we allow ourselves to believe about reading will continue to shape the reading lives of those we teach. We have to stop ourselves from harming the reading experience. We have to take control of what we say, what we do, and what we think because our students are the ones being affected. We have a tremendous power to destroy the very reading identity we say we want to develop. It stops now. It stops with us.

being a teacher, books, Literacy, Reading, student voice

Books Are A Chance To See the World They Do Not Live In

August 3, 2015August 2, 2015 Pernille Schmidt Ripp

My classroom library is a large mix of reads. Several thousands of books greet my 7th graders when they enter and are free to leave the room in their hands. Over the last year I have tried to expand it as much as I can afford to make sure that it represents the world we live in, that it represents their experiences, that they can find themselves within our library and use that knowledge to boost their own lives. My students need to see themselves in our books.

Yet, after a conversation with a great friend, I realized that it is not so much the need to find themselves within our library that I should be focused on because let’s face it, most of the world surrounding them is filled with images that look just like them, sound just like them, and share many of their same experiences. They are used to turning on the TV and seeing kids that are like them. They are used to picking up books and seeing like them in the pages. To many of my students seeing something other than white is uncommon. For my mostly white, rural population of readers it is important that they find the rest of the world in the pages. That through our library they can experience the world that they do not live in. That their emotions can be stretched to encompass events that they will most likely never have to encounter. That the library provides them with a window to things that they most likely will never have to live through such as racism, extreme poverty, no access to education, civil war, religious intolerance and a myriad of other issues that exists in only small ways in most of their lives.

So when we rally the cry for diverse books, it is not just so that our kids can find themselves within our pages and find books that mirror their experience. It is so they can see the world they do not live in. It is so they can see a world that may not make sense to them and start to make sense of it. It is so they can start to develop empathy, interest, and community with other parts of the world, other societies, other experiences that do not mirror their own.

Most of my students have plenty of books that they can find themselves in. My job is to provide them with ones they can’t.

I am a passionate teacher in Oregon, Wisconsin, USA but originally from Denmark, who has taught 4th, 5th, and 7th grade. Proud techy geek, and mass consumer of incredible books. Creator of the Global Read Aloud Project, Co-founder of EdCamp MadWI, and believer in all children. The second edition of my first book “Passionate Learners – How to Engage and Empower Your Students” is available for pre-order now. Second book“Empowered Schools, Empowered Students – Creating Connected and Invested Learners” is out now from Corwin Press. Join our Passionate Learners community on Facebook and follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.

being a teacher, being me

I Didn’t Become A Teacher

August 2, 2015August 1, 2015 Pernille Schmidt Ripp

I didn’t become a teacher so I could test my students into submission. So I could talk about them as data points and chart their growth on a spreadsheet.

I didn’t become a teacher so that I could make students cry. Or make them smile on command, make them sit still, make them schedule their breaks to my own benefit. Punish them into submission while I wondered why they seemed so disengaged.

I didn’t become a teacher so I could tell children which books they couldn’t read, where they couldn’t sit, and who they couldn’t work with.

I became a teacher so that I could help students make their voice louder. Help students believe more in themselves. Help students grow, learn, and thrive.

I became a teacher to help students find the guts to say, “This is what I need, this is what I want.”

I became a teacher not to kill a child’s love of learning, but to protect it.

And that is the reason why I am still a teacher to this day. I don’t want to forget that.

Be the change, being a teacher, new year

As We Start Another Year

July 30, 2015 Pernille Schmidt Ripp

There are journeys we start where that path is laid out, the route determined, the destination clear. While hard at times, they follow a set course and we plod along, knowing where we will end up. Knowing where our hearts will be once we finally get there. Then there are those journeys that start when something ends, when something abruptly happens and we have a moment of clarity and we realize that now another direction is needed. Sometimes these journeys start without us knowing and we don’t discover them until we are far on our path. Confused we wonder how we get here, where we are going, and why we didn’t know we were traveling anew. Those are the journeys that can change us the most.

We are travelers in education. Always searching for a path, always searching for a way. Tirelessly plodding along, sometimes pushing our students ahead of us, other times dragging them along. Our journey changes often, seemingly from year to year is a guarantee by now. We notice as the years pass, as summer inches closer and then ends. We notice when a crop of new students show up and then leave us. We notice seasons, months, and sometimes even weeks as we plan for our hopes and dreams.

Yet the daily journeys we take, the journey we begin and end within the span of 8 hours is often viewed as minor or insignificant, not worthy of our daily ponderings, not quite worthy of our dreams. After all, a day is simply a step, not a destination by any means. Yet, it is these journeys, the ones that happen every single day in our rooms that can matter the most to our students. To those children that travel along with us. A single day can change their course for many years to come. A single decision made by a teacher can change their path forever. We forget about that responsibility, probably a wise move in some ways, lest we drive ourselves crazy with the knowledge that even our small movements can cause oceans of change for others. Yet those journeys are the ones we should be watching.

Every day we have a choice to make; do I teach my students or do we learn together? Do we explore or do we wait for knowledge to find us? Do we stay on our path or do we change course? Do we support or do we hinder? Do we encourage or do we fault when missteps happen and our path gets rumpled? Do we always take the lead or can students show us the way? Do we listen to their voices when they tell us to change course or do we stubbornly stick to the path because we know best?

The day-to-day wrapped up in it mundanity offers us the perfect opportunity to make a change. Change doesn’t seem scary when you think of it as trying something for just one day. You can go one day without punishing. You can go one day without homework. You can try for one day to ask students what they want. You can try for one day to stop talking so much. One day does not seem like much, but it can be the seed to bigger change.

We have a choice of whether or not we notice the day-to-day or if we continue to plan as if we have unlimited time to reach every child. We don’t. We don’t know when the students we teach will no longer be ours. We don’t know when a child has moved beyond our grasp. So as we plan for the long, focus in on the short. Yes, keep the destination in mind, but don’t forget about the journey. What you do today has an incredible impact on what you will do tomorrow. Make each step count, make each step worthy of your time, and don’t forget that it is ok to get lost once in a while, as long as you bring your students with you as you try to find your way.