Category: being me

assumptions, being me, Decisions, life choices, students

We Should All Be Surprised

Pernille Ripp
image from icanread

A teacher contacts me at the beginning of the year at their wits end; they have this one student, you know the one, the one that doesn’t listen, the one with the rap sheet miles long even though they are just in 5th grade.  That student that smiles and laughs and then turns deadly the moment you turn your back.  yeah that one is now in their room and this teacher tries everything.  Throughout the year we share tips and ideas, what if’s and have you tried’s.  Sometimes there are small victories but most often the honeymoon is over before it began.  At the end of the year the teacher is exhausted and the student is about the same except maybe taller, faster, and even more hellbent on saying no and getting their way.

Over the summer I hear once more from the teacher, this time telling me that the student had been in trouble with police.  Something minor but still a gateway to worse, a gateway to things we so diligently try to shield our kids from.  What comes next floors me; “I’m not surprised, just thought it would happen later, that’s all…”  The words form a rope around my neck and I feel myself at a loss for words.  I don’t know how to answer that, not then, but now I do.  You should be surprised!  You should be shocked that any kid decides to go down that path.  We should never lose our surprise when students, kids, make bad decisions.  I don’t care what path they were on in our classrooms.  I don’t care how destructive they may have come off as.  We should be surprised when they make terrible decisions and not just say, “See, I knew it would happen…”

I know this may be idealistic and perhaps I have one foot in utopia, but yet, we have to be surprised when our students fail our expectations.  We have to be surprised when they wander into dangerous territory and make poor decisions.  Be surprised when all of our hard work, all of our efforts, don’t seem to make a difference.  Someone has to keep believing in these kids, even the ones we think are lost.  Even the ones that give us the hardest time, sometimes, because after all, they are the ones that need it the most.  So stay surprised and keep believing.

advice, being me, new year

Take Your Moment

Pernille Ripp
image from icanread

Tonight I had to get out of the house.  Leave with no children needing things.  Just me, alone, caring for my own whims, doing nothing and everything, whatever I needed right at that moment.  Being a new mom of 18 day old twins and a very active 3 year old, I am not surprised that I hit this point, indeed, it was nothing dramatic, just a realization that a break was needed so that I could continue to function optimally.  And so I left when the opportunity arose, went to the mall of all places, to surf from store to store, aimlessly, yet breathing and thinking of nothing except for putting one foot infront of the other.

This has happened to me as a teacher as well, that moment snuck up on me on an ordinary day where things just were not working and I knew a break was needed.  For me, for the students, for the room to clear the air so we could all start over again.  How many of us haven’t had that time where our tricks didn’t work?  Where our glorious lesson fall apart?  Where there is nothing going right and we know we either start to get angry with the students or we just take a moment.  A moment to breathe, a moment to step out if possible, a moment is all we need.

So this school year, I will take those moments if needed.  I have found that with the way I teach they are very far and few in between, however, now with the addition of sleep deprivation who knows what will happen.  I hope you allow yourself to take those moments as well, to realize that you are human, that you cannot solve, soothe, or fix everything all by yourself.  That it is ok to call in the troops, that it is ok to step away.  As long as you return, after all, it should just be a moment you need.

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being me, classroom expectations, new year

About Those Little Things

Pernille Ripp
image from icanread

I say it is about those little things, those things that make the biggest impressions, and yet even I forget just how little those little things can be.

Is there a smile on my face?

Do I greet people I see in the hallways?

Did I dress appropriately, take the time to dress with care to show that I care about what I do?

Is my classroom neat and picked up or cluttered and crammed with stuff?

When someone speaks do I turn and listen or give them my back, or half of an ear?

Is there a choice or two or the kids already on orientation day or do I show a path of rigidity and control?

Do parents get a firm handshake if they want and do I remember their names and their faces?

Do I show people they are welcome in our room or do I merely say it?

Am I prepared, can I answer questions or admit when the answer escapes me?

Am I present or is my mind cluttered with things that need to get done?

Those little things make the difference, those little things set the tone.  What did I forget?

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being me, help

It Is Those Little Things

Pernille Ripp
image from icanread

I wake up and spot it right away; my phone plugged in charging next to the bed.  Not a big thing, just one of those little things.  I get downstairs, which takes a while this pregnant, and again; a cup of tea sitting there.  My husband may have left for the day but the reminders of his presence stays.  It’s those little things that make me smile.  Those things that take maybe 30 seconds or a few minutes but that carry me through the day; I am loved.

At school, I fill the copier with paper.  I sort the recycled paper and bring scraps back for the kids.  I clean the sink, turn off the lights, change a dried out printer cartridge.  None of it is in my job description but it is those little things that make others have an easier day.  I greet everyone I meet with a smile, I stand and listen while looking someone in the eye.  I email out a website that another grade may be able to use.  Those little things that help, those little things that show others concern.  I don’t make it a priority, I have enough of those, but I make it a part of my day, i take the time, invest it and move on.

Imagine if we all did little things every day.  If instead of hurrying through the day, concerned only about the happenings within our walls, within our brain, we took those seconds and did a little thing?  Imagine the example it would set for the kids, for each other, imagine what school would feel like?  

being me, new teacher, new year

Have You Found Your Soul? My Advice to a New Teacher

Pernille Ripp
image from icanread

The new year may be coming or it may be far away from you, but I sit here and ponder, what would I tell someone starting school?  What “wisdom” would I share with a brand new teacher or a teacher that has been around for a long time, not quite sure that they are ready to go back?  I think i would ask them this; have you found your soul of teaching?  Your essence?

I’m not talking mantras, although Angela Maiers’ “You Matter” hangs proudly above my door.  I am not speaking of teaching style or tips, classroom management ideas, or even your teaching philosophy.  I am talking the inner core, the you that you bring into the classroom.  Have you found it?  Have you listened to it?  And what does it look like?  Yes, we can get caught up in seating charts, grand ideas, and new programs to be implemented, but all those fall away if you don’t have you in the classroom.   If you’re not ready to bare yourself, invest yourself, and give those kids all of you.

What does it mean to be you in a classroom?  To truly put yourself out there, invest fully, wholeheartedly, some would even say foolishly.  What will you give to the students, because teaching is about giving and not just knowledge, but giving the essence of you?  Kids spot phonies from miles away, they see those that are there for the paycheck, those that bring in the baggage, those that cannot wait to leave once the day is done.  And they react, swiftly, without mercy, and we stand there wondering what went wrong?

So I hope you find your essence before the new year arrives, or if it is in the middle of the year for you then I hope you still have it.  I hope you take the time to figure out what you are and who you are and how that will play out with the kids whose lives you touch.  Think of the impact you can have and then use it for good.

Find your soul, find your essence, and then have enough faith in yourself to go in there and share it.

being me, followers

Introducing www.pernilleripp.com

Pernille Ripp
This morning I got up way to early and decided I was sick of my web site address.  Such things happen when you are very pregnant, in full nesting mode, but unable to do anything in your house.  So what happened?  Well, this blog is now housed at http://www.pernilleripp.com

I feel so grown up.

Now what does that mean for anyone who reads it?  I am pretty sure absolutely nothing.  The old address still works, but hopefully this will streamline things a bit.  Am I now a brand?  Well no, because I have nothing to sell.  But I do have a much shorter blog address and that makes me feel accomplished.

So the ideas will still keep coming, just on a sleeker website name.  And now I am off to tackle something in my house.

Oh, and I couldn’t just leave it at that.  The Global Read Aloud also now has a much shorter name:  www.globalreadaloud.com and that is something I am very proud of.