Category: choices

being a teacher, choices

I Choose

Pernille Ripp
The failing of the American teacher.  The crisis of our educational systems.  Headlines blare, people believe, and yet we can still make choices.

I choose to be a teacher because it is the only choice that ever felt natural.

I choose to think of my students as family, not numbers, or just kids, but my own.

I choose to let parents in, not exclude their voice, as mine gets excluded sometimes.

I choose to not label students but think of them as individuals who have talents and needs specific to them.

I chose to give my students a voice, to let them know they matter, that their thoughts shape our classroom.

I choose to not be punitive, knowing that trust, respect and relationships will take me much further in this journey.

I choose to have a team because I know that I am powerful in the greatness of others.

I choose transparency and honesty above all so that others may think they can do it as well.

I choose to change when needed, bend when it makes sense, and believe at all times.

I choose to put connections first, to not forget about standards but make them work for me rather than become a dictation of my classroom.

I choose to not let labels break me, to not believe in the naysayers, to believe in our system even though it is flawed and fight for change from within.

I choose to let others evaluate because even among our critics we can find ways to grow.

I choose to not be the pebble, but let positivity run my days and smile, laugh and work to make this world a better place rather than one discarded.

What do you choose?
Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta
being a teacher, choices, Student-centered, trust

5 + 1 Things I Learned This Year

Pernille Ripp
I was recently asked what would be my top 5 things I have learned this past year in my journey to radically change my classroom.  So after some deep pondering and gut checks, here are the lessons I have learned, or the top 5 + 1.

  1. Give them choice (and a voice).  The number one thing my students said they loved was the fact that they had a choice and a voice.  As teachers we are taught that we are the only experts but this is so far from the truth.  My students have a lot of background knowledge and a lot of enthusiasm so letting them choose the type of project they wanted to create or how they wanted to learn something meant there was buy in.   No longer was learning mandated, there was actual buy-in from everyone.
  2. Trust your students.  I was not sure that my students could handle all of the responsibility I was giving them but throughout the year I was proven wrong again and again.  In fact, my students could probably have handled even more.  Trust also means that if they tell you something not so nice, you should celebrate it, not get upset.  The fact that my students trusted me enough to tell me something was boring is something that I relish and then learned from.  
  3. Trust yourself.  I knew I had to make big changes in my room and yet I questioned myself throughout the year.  was not giving them a letter grade really benefitting them?  Was not having punishment in my classroom better for all of us?  Were we accomplishing as much as we should have?  My gut told me I was doing the right thing and yet doubt snuck in sometimes, in the end, do what you believe in and then stand behind it.  There is a reason your common sense is telling you something is amiss and needs to be fixed, so fix it to suit you.
  4. Ask yourself the tough questions.  I asked myself whether I would be a student in my own classroom.  Before this year, the answer would have been a resounding no.  Now that answer has changed.  In fact, I love being in my classroom as much as my students do.  School should be about learning, yes, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be engaging and enticing at the same time.
  5. Give yourself a break.  There were days were I sucked as a teacher.   Days were I pined for inane punishment just to make them behave or were I raised my voice.  There were days were I didn’t feel like giving feedback or having lengthy conversations about projects.  Some days I just wanted to lecture and be done with it.  Thankfully my students snapped me out of that really quickly.  You are not perfect, you never will be, and that is ok.  Trust the direction you are taking and make adjustments as you see fit.  
  6. Be Quiet!  Teaching should not be about teachers pouring information into the heads of students, but rather teachers as a guide letting students explore, create, and make connections.  When we let the students own the classroom and the discussion they also take ownership of the learning, and that is a beautiful thing indeed.  So get off the stage but set it up for them to learn and then stop talking.  Much like we ask our parents to not help with homework, we should also ask ourselves to not take away the pleasure of learning.  

So there they are; my biggest lessons this year.  I am already excitedly planning for my transition to 5th grade next year and reevaluating what worked, what sucked, and what will I definitely do differently.  A new year brings new challenges and for that I am thankful.

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta
being a teacher, choices, life choices, Passion, students

Today I Choose to be Happy

Pernille Ripp
Image from I Can Read

This morning as I woke up. I chose to be happy.  It was not a hard decision, the temperature has finally reached above 60, the birds were chirping, my husband was there.  And yet, I made a choice to be that way.  When I get to my classroom this morning, I will also choose to greet my students with a smile, give them a run-down of our day and end it with a “I am so excited for today.”  I do this every day and my students crack up, after all, how can one teacher be so excited about every single day?

The attitude we bring into our classrooms is a choice, and a very important one.  There has certainly been days where I have chosen to be in an awful mood, stress will do that to you, but when those kids walk in our door, then I choose differently.  I don’t believe in putting on a show for the kids but I do believe in giving them my best, after all, they choose to come to school excited as well.  So together we get excited, sometimes we choose to be mellow and snuggle in with books in our special reading spots, other times we meditate on the floor, whatever we do, we choose it together.

So today I choose to be happy and just a little bit goofy.  The school year is winding down, my students are having  harder time focusing, so together we will not just get through the day, we will experience it.  Every moment is a choice we make, whether we acknowledge it or not.  What do you choose?

being a teacher, blogging, choices

Don’t Look at Me – Why Blogging is Not for Self Promotion

Pernille Ripp
Perceptions abound when you come out as a blogger.  Particularly if you happen to blog about education like I do.   Some people embrace what you do and find it fascinating, while others shy away from you afraid that they somehow will end up in your blog.  Others just condemn, perhaps not to your face, but in conversations or comments, either way, perceptions about blogging and the people who do it are plenty.

Today, Lyn Hilt wrote an amazing piece regarding why she blogs as a principal.  If you haven’t read it you should, in fact, it is much better than this piece.  A comment in it though started my wheels spinning, Dwight Carter wrote,  “Excellent post and a wonderful defense of blogging as a reflective practice.”  That statement really struck me, “defense” indeed, how often do we defend the act of blogging itself, as if you are not supposed to reflect, or at the very least not in public?  This perception then of bloggers taking something private, the inner-workings of a classroom, and publicizing it can therefore not always be understood by others who do not blog.  In fact, often, it is viewed as a sheer act of self promotion.  And yet, I find that hard to believe being a blogger myself.  I don’t do it to promote what I do, in fact, if I had taken my mother’s advice I would have still made the changes in my classroom but kept my mouth shut about it.  Instead I chose to reflect openly and honestly abut my decision, my journey, my mistakes and my successes.   Put it all out there for others to judge, to inquire, and perhaps to inspire.

So I think it is time we stop tearing down others for decisions that they make that perhaps we do not understand.  I think it is time we view blogging as another way to reflect upon educational practices and not see it as a tool to get attention, or even a tool used for condemnation.  The bloggers I follow don’t set out to divide educators but rather start a conversation about what is happening in classrooms across the world.  Why this is not only viewed as an asset is hard to fathom.

So I guess I am done defending my blogging, instead I want to celebrate all that it has provided me with in the last year.   And I am also done negatively viewing those that don’t blog.  I know many exceptional teachers that reflect in other ways than blogging, who would never think to put their thoughts into cyberspace.  This does not make them bad teachers, perhaps just more private.  I also know some teachers who blog whose teaching style scares me a little, yet I applaud their effort in bringing it all out there.

So once again, we can be the change we want to see:  Blogging shouldn’t be the thing that divides educators, it should be viewed as yet another way educators work and reflect.  What makes one person stronger will in the end strengthen us all.  Isn’t that what we want; a strong group of educators?

attention, being a teacher, choices, power

A Thought on Shutting Doors

Pernille Ripp

When that door shuts, I come alive, not because I am afraid to show my true colors with an open door, or because I am worried what strangers might think, but instead because then I can truly focus on what is the most important; the here, the now, the kids. So when I lose my focus and worry too much about what others think it shows up in my teaching, sneaks right in and settles in the back of my mind. I must forget to take my own advice at times; choose who you give your attention to. Choose who you give power to. Choose who you let lift you up or bring you down. Because those choices also influence your students, those choices we seemingly make separately from our classrooms are never quite separate. We carry it all with us, whether we want to or not. Or at least I do.

So I choose happiness. I choose to focus on everything that is astounding in my life. The incredible deep love from my husband, the unmistakable faith from my mother, and my daughter’s incredible joy for life. The student who finally gets it, or cracks me up with a new joke. The coworker that shares yet another success in their teaching or brings up a new idea. I choose to focus on my own mistakes and weaknesses because those I can do something about. And I choose my own words more carefully so to not bring others down.

So now when I shut that door I also make a conscious effort to make myself open it again. To let the world back in, to show those kids that I am there wholeheartedly no matter what passes by our door. To remind myself that my choices are their choices, and that’s the way it should be.