building community – Page 3

Be the change, being me, building community, new year, Student-centered

May I Speak to You Privately?

August 4, 2014 Pernille Ripp

“Hey Pernille, can I speak to you in my office?” My new principal asked me today. Immediately my heart dropped; what had I done? Had I screwed up already? Were they regretting their decision to hire me?

I followed her in, sat down, took a deep breath and waited for the inevitable. I must have screwed up somehow, why else would she want to speak to me privately? And then she surprised me. It wasn’t to yell or reprimand, nor was it to point out my rookie mistakes. It was to connect, to ask questions, to ask how she could help. To further welcome me and discuss the year ahead. I stayed for almost 30 minutes, inwardly amazed at the moment. So thankful that this is the kind of person I get to work for and with. That this is the community I get to represent.

As I left I couldn’t help but cringe at my initial reaction. My assumptions had gotten the better of me. Yet, I realized that those assumptions are based upon my experience, that asking to speak privately with someone has a negative connotation. That being asked to step into an office is usually not positive.

So think of how our students feel when we do the same to them? When we ask them to stay back for a moment? To come in during recess? To hang on? Wait up? Don’t go? Do they assume we have something positive to share or something negative? I can tell you right now, that I have missed so many opportunities to use this moment for praise. I have reserved the private moment for corrections, reprimands, careful questions of concern. I have almost never used it for good. Have you?

This year that will change. I want to reclaim the power of the private moment and change the assumption. I want students to not automatically assume that staying behind means something bad. That waiting for a moment does not signify trouble. Sure, there will be times where a private moment is needed to discuss decisions or actions, but there should be more of celebration. There should be more positive surprises.

So just as I tell students what I notice on post-it notes, I will look for the moment to praise privately. I will look for that small sliver of time where I get to speak one to one to someone and tell them what I see, how proud I am, how I am here to help. I hope they leave feeling relieved like I did and then proud. I hope they will see that I care.

I am a passionate teacher in Wisconsin, USA, who has taught 4, 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. I have no awards or accolades except for the lightbulbs that go off in my students’ heads every day. First book “Passionate Learners – Giving Our Classrooms Back to Our Students” can be purchased now from Powerful Learning Press. Second book“Empowered Schools, Empowered Students – Creating Connected and Invested Learners” can be pre-ordered from Corwin Press now. Follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.

being a teacher, building community, classroom expectations, classroom setup, new year, Student-centered, Uncategorized

Back to School – January Edition

December 27, 2013December 29, 2013 Pernille Ripp

January comes at us like a lion it seems bringing students who were just getting used to being on break, miserably cold winter days where no sledding is allowed at school, and more assessments. Every year January always reminds me of the beginning of the year and last year I started to treat it as such. Goodbye January humdrum, welcome January excitement. So what will we be doing to battle the January blues?

Reassess our classroom rules. Students get a little tired and a little more restless so it is the perfect opportunity for them to set new rules for the classroom. They also know each other a lot better, particularly each others’ quirks, and so I find the conversation tends to go much deeper then it did in September.
Set up the classroom. While I think our work space works really well, I am not the one constantly using it. Time to ask the students if things need to be moved around and then do it. Also time for me to re-evaluate the room.
A heart to heart on work habits. While I ask the students to self-assess constantly throughout the year, we need to have some honest reflection on how they have been working independently. I like to think of it as new year’s resolutions set with an eye on middle school.
Take stock of projects. How have they been doing on projects, are they pushing themselves into new venues or are they sticking to much of the same old same old? What are new ideas they can’t wait to try and how will they try them?
Re-introduce genius hour. We took a break from genius hour in the last month or so because we have been too busy, but January is the perfect time to refocus on it, this time in science rather than social studies. Students have been busy at work learning about landforms, now is the time for them to take charge of what they want to learn.
Have a classroom reading challenge. The students have been excited about reading but January is typically the time they start to feel overwhelmed or bogged down. Last year we did the classroom reading challenge and it really brought in a lot of excitement. It is quite simple: Every child sets a secret goal (they only share it with me) for how many books they will read in the month of January, the goal can include picture books, graphic novels, or chapter books. We then reveal the total number of books we pledge to read on a bulletin board. They then read as much as they can and report to me whenever they finish a book (paper on my desk), I print out a picture of the cover and add it to our huge bulletin board. Nobody knows who read what or how many books they have each read but everybody is reading and if we meet our goal, we have a huge read-in party as a celebration with an author Skype call. I cannot wait!
Re-do routines. We have great routines but now is the time to re-assess, what do we still need to work on, what is no longer needed, what should we streamline? Again, this discussion is student-led with input from me.
Throw some surprise challenges their way. They have been working hard on our team challenges throughout the year and now is the time to give them even more. I am thinking the boat building challenge, as well as marshmallow catapults. Oh, and I do believe we have to build some vinegar rockets as well.
Re-assess my own opinions. Have I labeled students unknowingly, do I really know the child in front of me? What are the priorities we need to have for their learning journey and what will I do to help them accomplish their goals? Now is the time to reflect about each child.

What will you be doing to re-energize the classroom?

Be the change, building community, challenge, Student-centered, students

Hey, It’s Ok To Go Outside the Curriculum Once in a While

November 17, 2013November 17, 2013 Pernille Ripp

I have felt like a new teacher this year. Chalk it up to 27 students with a crazy range of learning needs, new program implementations, and just an insane amount of meetings to make sure everyone is on the same page. We also have a new block schedule to implement, which has been amazing in some ways and limiting in others. Most nights I work 2 or 3 extra hours at home making up for the time I don’t get in school. While I love this year, it has also been a crazy one and every day I feel the curriculum pressing down on me urging me forward, to just get it done.

So why on Friday, with the pressure of everything we need to get through, did I have my students do the spaghetti and marshmallow tower challenge, swallowing up 40 minutes of our day? Why “stop” the curriculum so the kids could have a team challenge? Haven’t we already built community?

I did it because the kids need it. They need to continue working in new teams. They need to be challenged. They need to think differently and deal directly with failure (there were epic attempts!). And if you look closely, you would have seen how it absolutely was curriculum, even if FOSS science had not mandated it. The students worked with design, creating a standard prototype and then testing their theory, adjusting along the way. They changed and tried to control the different variables and engaged in deep on-the-spot thinking to ensure success. In fact, as I looked up the Common Core standards for speaking and listening, I couldn’t believe how many of them we had covered.

Yet it’s bigger than that. I made the teams so that kids who would not pick each other worked together. I told them they would more than likely fail (based on previous years’ experience) and it was what they did with that failing moment that mattered. The spirit of living up to expectations swallowed the room and carried the children home. They did it together, and even though there was a winning team all of the kids celebrated and laughed about it.

We may think that when we leave the confines of our curriculum, we are breaking the rules or not teaching. And sure there are times when the educational value can be hard to uncover. But if the challenges are right, we are teaching the children more than some lessons do. It takes courage to step outside the boundaries, but do it right, and the pay off will be immense. My students left asking when they would do the next challenge, I told them “Soon!” and I meant it. We have to think outside the lines of our own rush and needs to keep those kids challenged and engaged.

I am a passionate (female) 5th grade teacher in Wisconsin, USA, 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. I have no awards or accolades except for the lightbulbs that go off in my students’ heads every day. First book “Passionate Learners – Giving Our Classroom Back to Our Students Starting Today” will be released this fall from PLPress. Follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.

building community, new year, Student-centered, students

Building Community Activities Just for You

August 30, 2013 Pernille Ripp

Every year I try to have various community building activities for the kids to do on those first few days of school. And while I detest ice breakers, in 5th grade, we do like the occasional get to know me activity. Though the years I have used various scavenger hunts, time capsules, and bingo games to get to know them a bit better, to get them to know each other, and also for me to keep until the end of the year. Then when summer beckons and we cannot believe that the year is over, I pull out the forgotten letters, the time capsules, the about me’s, and we reminisce and we laugh and we shake our heads at the answers we gave so long ago.

As I shared some of this with my teammates yesterday, I realized I should share it here as well. Some of this is me created, some of it is adapted from others a long time ago. Either way, I hope you have a phenomenal back to school and that some of these may be useful to you.

Around the Room Scavenger Hunt – customize to fit your room, helps the kids notice the things they need to find or know.
Human Treasure Hunt – great for when you have a lot of new kids so they can discover things about each other
A Letter to Me – I use this to peek into the kids’ thoughts and then save it until the end of the year to see how they have changed
Me Collage – a secret collage where the kids have to guess who made it
3 minute time test – there are so many variations of this one but it is used to discuss the importance of following directions
Group Bingo – Instead of numbers they have to find kids that match the description
Time Capsule – Students fill in the blanks (this one always cracks me up)
How We Started – All of their favorites are listed here

Other Ideas for Community Building:

The Bloxes Challenge
– a favorite of mine the past few years and this year the whole grade level will do it.
Create a flag pennant: Cut a white piece of 12”X18” construction paper diagonally to create two pennants. Students write their name in large letters with color and then fill in the pennant with things about them. Laminate and display above their lockers.
Writing sample to see how they grow, a great prompt is; “What color is (blank) grade?”
Every year I have the outgoing class write “Dear Future Student” letters so we read these in the first couple of days.
Using Animoto.com the students create a classroom vision video. Educators can get a free account and then use that for student work. We use the stock pictures and add out own sentences to show what we want to get out of the year.
Random pictures of you slideshow. Create a slideshow with pictures that are meaningful to you and have students guess what they mean – this can be a lot of fun as students guess their meaning.
The firs test of the year! Surprise them with a pop quiz that is all about their teacher, true/false questions work best.
Connect the students – this is a great activity that only requires a large sheet of paper and sharpies. Students all write their name on the border of the paper and then one person makes a statement about something they like or do such as, “I play soccer.“ Anyone else that plays soccer gets to draw a line from his or her name to the name of the person who made the statement. Then the next person states something and so on until everyone has had a turn. Great way to visualize all the things we have in common.
Name your table and create a banner for it.
Toilet paper introduction. Pass a roll of toilet paper around and instruct students to take as many squares as they want. Once everyone has taken their squares, tell them they need to share as many things about themselves as they haven taken squares.
Guess the like. Every student writes down something they do or like on a piece of paper (no name on it!) then crumble it up. Have a paper toss battle for a few minutes and then everyone grabs one “ball. Try to guess whose paper it is.”

Some of these I use, some I don’t but either way, feel free to use.

I am a passionate 5th grade teacher in Middleton, Wisconsin, USA, 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. I have no awards or accolades except for the lightbulbs that go off in my students’ heads every day. First book “Passionate Learners – Giving Our Classroom Back to Our Students Starting Today” will be released this fall from PLPress. Follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.

building community, classroom setup, new teacher, new year

Some Ways To Show My Students They Matter

July 29, 2013 Pernille Ripp

This year we start the first day of school with a first day of school. And while there will be no orientation day, no meet and greet, I still want them to feel that excitement of a new year, a new room, a new group of kids, and definitely a new teacher. I want them to know that I am so happy to teach them, because I am! So I have been thinking of little ways I can show them how much they matter, feel free to add more in the comments.

The welcome letter – I spend a lot of time crafting this letter because I want them to get to know me a little bit, get excited about the great things we will explore, and for them to feel welcomed. I change it every year, but here is last year’s letter as an example. (Don’t mind the atrocious picture quality, I had to compress the file).
The book bins – Every student will have a book bin waiting for them with books carefully selected from last year’s students. On each book is a post-it note explaining why the book was chosen and how much they loved it. I hope this makes my new students excited about reading.
Student created book bins with selected books
The letters from former students – each student also has a handwritten letter from my old students giving them tips on 5th grade, insider information about “surviving” their new teacher, and things they can look forward to. I love the care my old students take to welcome the new students even though they are not at the school anymore. (And I keep these letters every year after the new students have read them).
Pencils with messages – these don’t show up for a few weeks as I get to know them but I love leaving small messages on number 2 pencils. Why buy them pre-printed when you can write exactly what you want with a sharpie?
messages on pencils from last year
Purchasing their favorite picture books – I have been on a picture book binge this summer – they are just so absolutely fantastic. So what better way than to expand my library then by asking my students what their favorite picture book is and then surprise reading it aloud for them at some point? I cannot wait to make this a reality, even if it means spending more of my own money on books.
The precepts – we finished last year sharing “Wonder” and I asked my students to write precepts for how to love 5th grade. They did and these will be welcoming my new students in the hallway leading to our room.
The family picture – Someone smart (and if it was you please let me know so I can give you credit) wrote about how they would have students bring in a family picture to leave in the classroom all year. I love this idea! So I will ask every child to bring in a special picture (or photocopy of one) and then we will make a display out of all of them for the whole year. I want the students to feel this is is their room as much as mine right from the beginning.

I am sure as summer winds down there will be more ideas, but for now I am excited about these. What will you be doing?

building community, classroom expectations, community, new year

A Teacher’s Biggest Fear

August 29, 2010 Pernille Ripp

Last Thursday I had a parent meeting for the students that will be in my 4/5 class. We had set up this opportunity since my school has not had a combination class for a long time and therefore wanted all questions and concerns addressed before orientation day. It was a great turn out and a great night, something I wish anyone could do really before they start the school year. And although there were many great questions, the best one was, “What is your biggest concern?” My answer was “Building community.”

I am sure many would have thought I would have answered how to get through the curriculum or something of that nature but that does not worry me as much as building community does. And I am not alone with this concern. Every year, when we start a new year, we want the best class possible. We want our students to walk away from the year feeling that they belonged, that their teacher trusted them, respected them and that they had a genuine voice in the room. No longer is it my room, but ours. So community, that old catch phrase, is the one that keeps me awake.

Since we are a combination room, community has to be a major focus right away. Some students know each other and a lot do not. However, that is true for almost any class. Students tend to congregate with like-minded peers but often at the 4th grade level we start seeing some of the first shifts in friendships as students spread their wings a little and discover the world.

So how do I plan on building community, well let me count the ways….

One thing I am big on is language; language can destroy or build up. In this case being a combination room rather than split class says a lot about how I feel. We are a fusion, a combination, not something that is split off from the school, from other classes, other kids. My welcome back bulletin board says, “We are a Terrippic Combination” and a bag of Combo’s, one for each student, with their name on it, is stapled around the door. This is the first things students see; combination rather than split.

I hate ice breakers. They are awkward and contrived. Rather we need to create a common purpose and that purpose is to have an amazing learning experience together. So our first week activities reflect that. We will be creating a digital scavenger hunt through questions made up by the students, they will decide what is important to know and find in our room and then do a voicethread presentation on it. I will share my Animoto with them and invite them as a class to create one of our vision and class environment. Armed with cameras and ideas students will lead this as well. We will come up with filmed definitions of what student, classroom, and community means and share them on Wordia.

Students will come up with what they would like to be called when I do need to split according to grade level. I don’t want to continue calling them 4th and 5th graders, those words stick, whereas the birds and the dogs or something else does not remind them of their age difference. We will talk about ourselves, our families, our hopes, our worries. And then we will talk some more. Although curriculum is super important, these first days and weeks set the tone for the rest of the year.

So as I continue focusing on community, I wonder, what other teachers are doing? What works for you, what will you never do again? I have many small exercises as well that I will not bore you with, but what are the big things that leave students smiling, ready to learn?