being me – Page 19 – Pernille Ripp

It seems more and more initiatives are coming out proclaiming that all kids need to code. Tech companies like Google are joining forces with other influencers to ask for money so that all students will have the opportunity to learn computer science. Coding is the new black in our schools it seems, the one thing that school districts tout is keeping them innovative and cutting edge, Well isn’t that just nice…

But here’s the thing; not every kid wants to be a computer scientist. Not every kid wants to work with a computer. Not every kid wants to stare at a screen, nor do something with technology. Did we forget that in our eagerness to jump on the coding wagon?

What about the kid that wants to play music? Or the kid who wants to be an artist? How about those who want to be chefs? Or clothing designers? Or even just readers or writers? Where is the outcry for funding for all of those classes that are being cut and slashed across our public school system? Where are all of the companies urging congress to make sure that every child has access to a full-time librarian in their schools? That every child can take an art class? That every child can play an instrument? Will that not make the biggest difference to some of our children?

So while coding may be great for some kids, may be the one thing that keeps them coming to school, that offers them a future they never realized they could have, it will never be that for every kid. It will never fulfill the dreams of every child. I wish that reading, playing music, creating, or anything else that seems to be so often on the chopping block was just as worthy as coding. Perhaps then people would start to notice just how many programs are being cut. Just how many opportunities our children no longer have. So as Rafranz Davis pointed out; yes, all students should have the opportunity to code, but they certainly should also have the opportunity for all of the other classess too.

If you like what you read here, consider reading my book Passionate Learners – How to Engage and Empower Your Students. Also, if you are wondering where I will be in the coming year or would like to have me speak, please see this page.

aha moment, Be the change, being a teacher, being me, mistakes, Student dreams

When We Are the Problem

April 16, 2016 Pernille Ripp

Sometimes we don't see ourselves fully until a child holds up a mirror @pernilleripp

I thought she just wasn’t a very strong reader. Not yet anyway. She seemed lost, perhaps a little quiet, and definitely not invested. In my head I was already planning for all of the interventions that I probably should try to make sure that this year was not a lost one.

As the year passed, her disinterest grew. I guess I wasn’t surprised., after all, when the tasks get harder some kids tend to disengage more. It didn’t help that she constantly seemed to be mad at me, we clashed over little things; cell phones, eye rolls, not reading. I wasn’t sure what to do.

Mid-year and all students fill out a survey. One question I always ask is, “How can Mrs. Ripp teach you better?” That night as I looked through all of their answers, hers hit me hardest….”I don’t think Mrs. Ripp really likes me so perhaps that could be something she changes.”

I sat there quiet, realizing all of the clues I had missed. That sometimes happens when we can’t see the forest for all of the trees, or the individual child for all of the students.

So the very next day, I pulled her aside, and I thanked her for her honesty. I apologized, told her that I did like her but that it probably had not seemed that way. The smile she gave me at the end was a furtive one, but it was a start, a promise of a new beginning. A promise I needed to make to be a better teacher for her.

That child is no longer behind in reading. She swallows books like a meal. She participates. She is engaged, always ready to learn, eager to share her ideas. She pulls others with her as she becomes stronger, more powerful in her thoughts, and I stand sometimes on the sidelines realizing what a fool I was. How much we can destroy without even knowing we have a part in the destruction.

I often speak of the things we do to make students hate reading, and yet, how often do we look at how we affect the kids? How we affect their relationship to whatever we teach because we may not be the best fit. We may be focused on them in a negative way and we may not even be aware of it.

Not every kid has the courage to tell their teachers how they feel. I am so grateful to my incredible 7th graders that they speak up, that they help me change. Because I try, we all do, but sometimes we don’t see ourselves fully until a child holds up a mirror.

That girl has a special place in my heart, she may not even know it. But every day I look at her and she reminds me that I need to be the best for all of them. I need to see the good in all of them. I need to see everything they can do. And I need to see myself and how I play into the equation. Sometimes we may not like what we see, but that should never stop us from looking.

If you are wondering why there seems to be a common thread to so many of my posts as of late, it is because I am working on two separate literacy books. While the task is daunting and intimidating, it is incredible to once again get to share the phenomenal words of my students as they push me to be a better teacher. Those books will be published in 2017 hopefully, so until then if you like what you read here, consider reading my book Passionate Learners – How to Engage and Empower Your Students. Also, if you are wondering where I will be in the coming year or would like to have me speak, please see this page.

being a teacher, being me, testing

The Test Does Not Care

April 13, 2016 Pernille Ripp

When the test passes we will resume learning in all of its glorious messiness

We teach our students to ask questions, to share, to discuss. We teach them to find help when they need it, take their time when they can, and to always use their tools.

They sit where they are comfortable in order to access the learning best. They reach out to those they trust and they use us whenever they are lost or just want to make sure that the path they are headed down is, indeed, the right one.

We try to create learning environments where discovering facts is only the first step of the journey, using them as a way to further understanding is the next. We use our shared ideas to further the knowledge of others. Where mistakes happen and we try again. We try to create learning environments where students have a voice, where they have choices, where we try to make it personal so that the experience they have makes sense for who they are.

We do not pride ourselves on the scores that they get but instead on the books that they read, on the aha moments they have, on the growth they show. We pride ourselves on who they are as learners and not just what they produce. Their value is bigger than a number.

And yet…

In two weeks, my students will sit in rows in a bare room and spend four days taking the state standardized test. They will not be allowed to ask questions. They will not be allowed to help each others. They will not be allowed to use the very resources that I have taught them to use.

We will not reflect. We will not discover. We will not question. We will not grow. Not in a way that matters, anyway. Instead, they will sit, they will read, and they will answer. I will sit, I will watch, and I will make sure no one cheats. I will have a few scripted responses that I am allowed to say if a child asks a question. Once done, someone hired by the state, who has no idea who my students are, will grade their answers as if a short response will ever give a proper window into what they really know.

Because let’s be honest, the test does not care that they have grown in ways that cannot be measured.

Because the test does not care how hard they have worked to get where they are.

The test does not care that they may finally see themselves as a reader. Or a writer. Or a learner. Or even as someone who deserves to be a friend.

The test only cares for multiple choice. For pick the right answer. For write it right or it will be counted wrong.

So in two weeks when my students are reduced to nothing more than an entry ticket, I will hope that they know that they are bigger than that. That they are worth more than that. That everything they have done, how hard they have worked, how much they have grown may not be measured on the test, but I know. And so do they. And when the test passes, because this too shall pass, we will resume learning in all of its glorious messiness. We will fill our walls with what we need and our voices will ring true again.

I hope I have taught them enough. I guess the test will tell. Or perhaps maybe it won’t.

aha moment, Be the change, being a teacher, being me

Share You

April 12, 2016 Pernille Ripp

Share you. because no one else is. @pernilleripp

I didn’t know I had a story to share until I started sharing it. Until I started writing. Until I started speaking up. I didn’t know that the thoughts I had every day or the small ideas I came up with would matter outside of those 4 classroom walls. Not until I shared. Not until I had the courage to find my voice. Not until I hit publish and those things I had thought by myself were no longer my private thoughts. They were now public. They were now searchable. They were now open for judgment.

It still scares me to this day.

It still stops me at times.

There are conversations that I will never have on this blog. Topics I will never broach. And yet, those that once seemed terrifying sometimes lose their fear factor and find their way out into the open, just like that. And sometimes those thoughts start conversations that I could never have dreamed of that led me down a new path.

Yet, this blog is not just about me. It is about the kids that I get to teach and their stories that I get to share. The little things they ask me to change so that we can be better educators. And so I write for them because when I found my voice I knew I had to help my students find theirs.

So this past weekend when I sat at the amazing WGEDD conference with other educators and they told me of what they do in their classrooms, I asked them if they had shared those ideas in some way. Is there a place where others may find their genius? The answer was no. It often is, and I couldn’t help but wonder; what if?

What if we all found the courage to share more?

What if we started by sharing those small ideas that make our lives better? Those little things that may not seem flashy, or innovative, or any other buzz worthy adjectives you can think of. Those ideas that just work, that make our jobs easier, that make education better for our learners.

What if we found our courage because we realized that we are experts in our own right and what we have to share is worthwhile? That we do not have to wait for someone to give us a title, to pay us money, or to even give us permission (although if you need that; here have mine).

What if we found our courage to share more so that our students would also share?

There are too many who are silent. Who are afraid. Who do not think that what they do can help others. But they are wrong. Together we are better, and we never know what little idea may make the biggest difference to someone else.

So share your thoughts. Share your dreams. Share you. Because no one else is.

being a teacher, being me, Literacy, Reading, Reading Identity, student choice

Let My Students Read

April 3, 2016April 3, 2016 Pernille Ripp

My friend John Spencer had shared this on Facebook tonight

As I got ready to share the quote myself, the comment below it caught my eye…

“It’s also the job of the school to push children to read books that challenge them and take them out of their comfort zone.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Big Nate, and Captain Underpants are fine for kids to read and enjoy at home, but teachers should not permit them in the classroom. They provide no educational benefit.”

And I knew I couldn’t stay silent. I knew I had to respond even though I try to not get into it with anyone on Facebook. Even though I didn’t know the commentator and that I might be opening myself up to an argument I don’t feel like having as I wind down on a Sunday night. But when something like that is said, I have to say something back. After all, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Big Nate, and yes even Captain Underpants all reside in my 7th grade library. Their covers are torn and tattered, they are often replaced. They are loved by many, myself included, and not because they are easy to read, but because they make students fall in love with reading.

So I took a deep breath, pushed my snark aside and wrote this reply…

Not true at all, for some students a book like Diary of A Wimpy Kid is the first time they have felt like they were a reader at school. Our job is not to be gatekeepers of which books students read but instead provide them with successful reading experiences in whichever books they choose so that they will continue to read. Then we can help them stretch into more challenging texts.

But what I really meant to say is that we must not censor.

That we must not think we know better when it comes to what a child needs to read any day.

That instead of judging we should support.

That we must create environments where students choice in books will be celebrated and discussed rather than dismissed and banned.

That it is not our job to be the gatekeepers for our students as Teri Lesene has said so many times.

That if a child is choosing to read books like those mentioned then they have a reason for it, even if that reason is that they do not know what else to read. Our job as teachers is to help them discover why they love the books so much and then expose them to more, just like we would with any book that a child chooses to read.

I speak for the child that this year has read Diary of a Wimpy Kid every chance he got, always turning the page, rereading and laughing every time with joy when he came to beloved sections. He tells me how long he spends reading, how it is his favorite thing to do, how every time he revisits that same old book, he discovers something new.

I speak for the child that never felt like a reader until Dav Pilkey created Captain Underpants and they finally had a character they could relate to.

I speak for the child that has always reverted back to these books until 2 weeks ago when he asked if he could read All American Boys because he had heard it was so good and now is 40 pages in and tells me it is the best book ever. Even if he not quite sure what is going on. Even if we had to go back a few pages and get a few things straight. Diary of a Wimpy Kid may not have been as demanding as All American Boys but those books made him feel safe. Like he could be a reader in our classroom. Like he could be a success story, just like everyone else.

It takes a great book to make a child believe that they too can be a reader and for many of our students that great book has been Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Why anyone would want to take that away from students beats me.

So do not tell me those books do not belong in our classrooms. Do not tell me that my students should not be allowed to read them in school. Do not tell me which books do or do not provide an educational benefit.

If my job as a teacher is to get students to read, then by golly those books, and any other books I can think of, will help me do just that.

I did not become a reader when I could read Huckleberry Finn, I became a reader when I chose to read.

So let our students choose to read. Whatever that may look like. As good teachers we know what to do. We know how to challenge them. How to make them reflect on their journey as readers. How to help them stretch into harder books and protect them when they get too far out of their comfort zone. Let our students fall in love with books so that we can help them discover more books. So that they will leave our classrooms and choose to read, even when they are busy. Even when life gets hard. Even when school is over. Let our students fall in love with reading so that they will choose to be challenged, and not because a teacher forced them to, but because they felt they were ready.

I owe so much to Jeff Kinney, Dav Pilkey and Lincoln Peirce. I think many of us do.

aha moment, being a teacher, being me

Know Your Place

March 1, 2016March 1, 2016 Pernille Ripp

When I was a second year teacher I was told to know my place. To remember that although I might have a voice, I should be more careful. That I should not ask so many questions, nor share quite so many ideas. That some things would be better left unsaid because I had not earned the right to say them. And not just told it either. No, for extra emphasis it was written as part of my official evaluation that year. In my permanent record lest I ever forget that I had a place to be in. That the place I needed to be in was one of new teacher that followed most of the rules and certainly did not question so much.

I remember I went back to my classroom shell-shocked. When I closed the door, I cried. Maybe this teaching thing was not for me after all. Maybe asking questions was wrong. It certainly seemed that way.

So I took the lesson to heart; I shut my door, metaphorically and literally. I had to. I could not face what some others saw me as; a know-it-all new teacher that thought she had such great ideas. I skittered through the rest of the year watching every single word I spoke, always telling myself to just stay quiet, think it but not say it. To hide the new. To not share. After all, I needed to stay in my place, whatever that place might be.

By the end of the year I wanted to quit. It turns out that eating your own words leaves you hollow after awhile. But I didn’t, instead I changed, and as they say; the rest is history.

So for the past 6 years I have carried those words with me. I have known my place every single step of the way. Never forgetting that I do have a place in this world, in education. Never forgetting that, really, we all have a place if we only knew where.

So what I know now is that my place is with my students asking them what I can change. To realize that I am not a perfect teacher, nor do I have all of the answers, but that I will spend every ounce of energy I have to try to make it better for them.

That my place is among colleagues who push my thinking and always have what’s best for kids in mind. That while we may not always agree, we always respect, we always have each other’s back even when we have to have tough conversations.

That my place is on this blog sharing how I screw up so that others may learn from it without having to experience it.

Among the teachers that feel alone, much like I did so many days as I tried to change myself.

Among the people who question and show up every day trying make themselves better because they know they have a long way to go.

Among those that still doubt but try any way.

Among those that dare to dream.

Among those that still cry when it hurts.

Among those that know that even a small change makes a difference.

Those that change.

Those that question.

Those that fight.

6 years ago I was told to know my place and so I went looking for it. It was not pretty. I was not perfect. I was not always right. I did not always know what I needed to know. Yet within that quest, I found myself. So I ask today; do you know your place? Because if not, you should probably search for it some day.