Category: classroom expectations

being a teacher, classroom expectations, inspiration, our classroom, students

The Perfect Classroom

Pernille Ripp

Did you see those students? How focused and engaged they were? Did you see that quiet classroom, that looks to be the perfect classroom. My insides cringe. Quiet = learning, since when?

I used to be a believer in quiet. After all, if the students were not quiet how could they listen to all of my wisdom? After all, I was the one with the degree, the answers, the path, the years, and mostly the responsibility for any and all learning. I was a trained professional and they were just students, empty vessels ready to be filled.

And then I thought about all that energy put into saying “shhh….” into asking for silence, not to speak with partners, face me, me, me, me. But it wasn’t about me and it never should have been. It is about the students and them finding their voice, the knowledge, the confidence to believe in themselves and their brains.

So my perfect classroom now: a little messy, (after all learning is kind if messy), student-owned, pods, choices and that wonderful noise of learning. There are still guidelines, we are not crazy, but there is life, excitement and joy. So if you walk by my room and think we are a little bit loud, hey, that just shows there is learning going on.

being a teacher, classroom expectations, communication, inspiration

Give the Gift of Now

Pernille Ripp

Being a teacher means being there in the moment at all times. Yet often this simple truth is misplaced, pushed aside or simply forgotten. So even though we may be thinking about the next lesson, the paper’s that need to be looked at, or whatever else may be happening in our world; being there is the most important thing.

So keep this in mind on Monday when those kids need you again. What is most important; what has happened already, what will happen, or what is happening right now? So listen to them, look at them and be in the now. The now is, after all, a wonderful gift. Give it to them.

aha moment, being a teacher, believe, classroom expectations, communication, get out of the way, honesty, hopes, inhibitions, inspiration, kids, learning

When Learning Fails – We Blame the Students

Pernille Ripp

Being a 3rd year teacher in my district means writing a PDP or Professional Development Plan, in which we are to continually reflect upon our learning and our focus for our professional development.  I am therefore constantly reflecting with other students both face to face and through the internet on that most important question of all; why did I become a teacher? Well, I became a teacher because I believe in children and in their potential.

 Over the summer, I went through one of the most transformative periods of my life, developing a PLN and going through my chosen curriculum asking myself, “Why, why, why?” Why do I choose to teach the things I teach, besides the obvious state and district standards? Why is it that I force students to do book reports when I find them boring and unproductive? Why do I do packet work when it does not ensure learning? Why do I talk all the time, is it for control, for learning or because I am that in love with myself? Why do I fail 4th grade students? Why do I assign at least 40 minutes a homework a night? All of these were massive questions that were daunting and breathtakingly hard to be honest about, but I did it, I survived and for that I am a better teacher.

I realized over the summer that when teachers stop to question themselves is when the curriculum becomes stagnant. I know that we all get in our comfort zones and we feel that something works, so it becomes hard to give it up. But how many times have we stood in a situation where a particular cherished lesson or approach did not work and we end up blaming the students, rather than the teaching method? I had to realize that if something was not a success than I was to blame, not the make up of the students, or the particular day of the week, just me and my delivery. I therefore also knew that if I was going to rethink my teaching process than I had to fully believe and be passionate about what I teach. So this year my classroom is all about the students, or as I like to call it; it is the student-centered room. You will still find me teaching the students some of the time, but you are also more than likely going to find me walking around or sitting down and discussing curriculum. The students are learning to take control of the classroom, however, they are frightened at times, not quite sure what they are doing and yet I urge them to speak, to think, and to listen to one another. This system is not perfect, it is work in progress, but as my students grow, so do I.

So as I continue my conversations with fellow teachers, and we constantly re-evaluate ourselves, often being our own harshest critics, I am honored when others feel secure enough to tell me of the overwhelmedness or exhaustion.  I know that I have been in that same place but that this year I won’t be. Sure there may be things that do not work out, and learning that does not quite happen as well as I would like it. However, when I glance around my room and see the confidence level of my students and also the excitement that is building in regard to our learning, I know that I am to something. I am back and I am staying.

building community, classroom expectations, community, new year

A Teacher’s Biggest Fear

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?
classroom expectations, reflection, students

Stand Up if You are Average…Anyone?

Pernille Ripp
We just finished a fantastic #edchat on the topic of whether students in the “middle” get enough attention.  Once again, this #edchat really started some thoughts for me, mainly, as asked by @web20classroom if there are even students in the middle?

We label students to make it easier for us to teach them.  Administration likes the labels because they can show how we improve, newspapers like labels because it shows people what their tax dollar is spent on.  Unfortunately, we assume a lot of the time that if a student is “low” in math then that carries over to other subjects as well.  (See my previous post on how I feel about assumptions).  So just as we place kids in the high group, we also place kids as average learners.  Think about the implication of that though; by labeling someone average, which has practically become a swear word, we are closing off our view of them as a learner.  No longer allowed to evolve, that child is just average.  Imagine saying that in a parent-teacher conference.

And yet, our students amaze us.  The biggest hallelujah moments I have had have been when those “low” or “average” learners all of a sudden understood complicated concepts or excelled at a task.  I don’t have those same hallelujah moments when my “high” learners figure something out, after all, they are supposed to figure it out.  Have you ever seen gifted students struggle?  It is the same struggle that all students go through and yet we tend to gloss over it because we have more confidence in them as learners because of their label.  And yet, once we have labeled someone as gifted we don’t reevaluate that label.  Sure, Suzy may be gifted in math but does that mean she is gifted in everything else, not just subjects, but life?  No, it means she is really good at math.

So if someone is “average” we assume they are always “average” except for those few moments where they shine.  This is a debilitating view of your classroom and something I wish to combat next year.  Truth is, all of our students are low, average, and high learners.  The categories and labels change depending on the topic, the subject, the style of learning, the assignment, the day, the weather – so many factors change it.  If we are too set in our ways as educators, we will fail to notice how these labels are suffocating our students, if we do not make the labels or groupings flexible.

So promise yourself to not label your students, or at least label them for that task at that moment and then go back and revisit that label for the next task.  It may seem like a lot of work but your learning experience as a classroom will be much improved.  And you may even raise the confidence level of a couple of students in the process.

Be the change, classroom expectations, new year, reflecting

A Promise to Me

Pernille Ripp
Yes, summer has just started and yet I am already thinking ahead to the coming year, perhaps because I am unable to enter my classroom at the moment due to its newly waxed floors. So I plan and prep from home and meanwhile get more and more anxious/excited about the new year. This year is my 3rd year teaching and I am ready to shake things up so these are my promises to me.

I promise to not be bored. The last 2 years I have stuck to what my team members have taught and developed and it honestly made me complacent. The lessons are solid but not my style, so this year, I am doing it on my own; out with the old and in with the new. After all, if I am not excited about the lesson, how can I expect the students to be?

I promise to not be scared. I have many ideas screaming for attention and every year I take a cautious step with one or two of them. This year because of my PLN and its support I have 100’s of ideas that all want to be tried. So I am going to try as many as I can without freaking out about the loss of control. So what if the lesson fails, at least I tried it.

I promise to be true to myself and reveal the techy geek I am. Sure, my students know that I like technology but not just how deep that love runs. So this year, we will make technology work for us. No more using computers just to type on, I am ready to get them sucked into the world of innovation just as I have been.

I promise to be quiet and listen, well sometimes anyway. When you have a lot of ideas like I do it can be hard to not want to share them.In fact, I can be like that annoying lapdog that barks and barks until you pet it. I have learned the hard way that sometimes people don’t want to hear about new ideas, and although confounding to me, I have to accept it. So I am not going to throw my ideas in someone’s face but try to entice them to come to me instead.

I promise to have more fun. Being a new mom and a new teacher can feel like you are carrying the weight of the world. But you’re not, you just feel like it. So I promise to loosen up a bit, not get so freaked out by deadlines, and continue to joke around with my students. After all, it is your personality that might just make them listen to you.

I promise to embrace the year no matter what it brings. I love to control everything; maybe that is why I am a teacher. So this will be the year that I learn to trust my students more and let them take some of the control. This is supposed to be a learning journey that we embark on, not a down-to-the-minute planned march.