Category: inspiration

being me, inspiration, mistakes

What My Dreams Tell Me Is Not Pretty

Pernille Ripp
Image from icanread

“Peter, Peter…”  I wait until that child, and the whole class, is staring at me…”Get to work!”  I am 10 feet from the child and he just shakes his head.  I keep on doing what I was doing, satisfied that I have set him back on his path.  Except I have done more than that, I have also pointed out to the whole class that Peter (all names changed for obvious reasons) is once again not doing what he is supposed to and now they can follow along in his progress as well.  Yikes.

“George, you didn’t blog, what are you going to do about it?”  I am once again asking George to stay in for recess, except I am clever, I am not telling him he has to, he has to come to that conclusion himself.  I know he doesn’t have the time at home and he doesn’t spend time very effectively in class, so recess it has to be, in fact, I point that out to him when his first answer is hat he will do it when he gets home.  Yikes.

“Thomas, sit up and start participating…” Once again I am on the warpath because that child has decided that math is too hard and has therefore put his head down refusing to participate.  I’ve seen it before, all they need is a stern talking to and their math confidence will come right back, right?  Yikes.

My dreams have been kind enough to point out all of the mistakes I made in the past year.  Those missed moments of communication, those missed opportunities for leaving a kid be, giving them some space and then reaching out when they are ready.    Now those moments show up at night, except they are exaggerated versions, all to show me just what I did wrong.  And I am grateful because although I cringe and get mad at myself, I see where I diverged from my road.  Where it went wrong.  My patience was stretched more, my mind was always too busy.  So as I think of next year I reclaim my focus, my inner peace and remind myself to bring it into school.  To slow down and evaluate the situation, not just shoot my mouth.  I learn from my mistakes just as I ask my students to do.

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being a teacher, inspiration

Lie to Me A Little

Pernille Ripp
Note:  This post is not because I am down!  This post is written to all of those administrators and teachers that focus on the negative instead of the positive.  I choose to focus on the positive no matter what is happening in the world.  Therefore, if someone thinks the world is awful I am hoping they can “lie to me a little” and not share their negative world view.  I hope that clears everything up.

Dear Administrators,
Yes, I know the economy is dreadful. Yes, I know that teachers are under attack. Yes, I know that we facing a crisis, whether real or perceived. But could you? Would you? Just please, lie to me a little.

You see, I just started school and I want to believe. I want to believe that I make a difference. I want to believe that what I do matters. I want to believe that I inspire, that I push, that I challenge. I want to believe that I am changing the world.

So don’t just tell me your gloom and doom. Don’t just share the policies or the changes. Inspire me. Tell me you believe that this will be the best year ever. Tell me that you believe in us as teachers. Tell me that you believe that together we can make it happen. You don’t have to believe it, but tell me nonetheless.  Because I believe and so should you.

So if you need to just lie to me a little, I will take care of the rest.

being a teacher, change, inspiration, motivation, Student-centered

Some Thoughts on Motivation

Pernille Ripp



Honestly, this post has to start with a disclaimer.  I have only been teaching for a little over 3 years in a middle-class school at an elementary level.  Because of this I have had few run-ins with highly unmotivated students, as well as older students.  And yet, unmotivated students surround us, they show up in our schools at an alarming pace and already at the elementary level we struggle to reignite the fire.  So perhaps an elementary perspective is not so awful after all.


“Mrs. Ripp, this is so boring.”  That sentiment greets me on semi-regular basis from one child.  Most days he is passionate, funny, and involved, that is, if he likes what we happen to be during.  Today is no different, he has been involved, engaged, and eager most of the day but now the fatigue has set in and the writing prompt just does not want to get done.  This is a regular occurrence throughout America, passionate students that are mostly motivated at all times but sometimes hit slumps.  This post is not about them.


Instead, this post is about those kids that put their head on their desks, that groan when we give directions, that could not care less about threats, rewards, punishment or motivating pep talks.  Those are the kids we all meet; the truly unmotivated.  Those students that do not see the relevance, the importance, or even the wisdom behind school.  Those students that feel that this is just a temporary illness, something to be waited out for real life to begin.  And yes, we have them even at the elementary level.


The other night, I shared on Twitter, “I always wonder if having unmotivated students just mean that what I am teaching is unmotivating, I think it does.”  Lo and behold a man I admire greatly, Tom Whitby, was kind enough to engage me in my train of thoughts.  As we discussed, my own thoughts became much clearer:


Motivation is linked to the teacher whether we we believe it should be or not.


If a student fails, the teacher is most often the first to be blamed before any outside factions are investigated.  


We have the most control over what happens within our classroom.


As part of this discussion, Tom Perran offered up this article discussing how teachers only have control over 10 of 16 motivating factors.  And yet as teachers we do have to own up to our part in motivation.  Last year, when I sat through another round of book report presentations I yawned often, stretched to stay awake, got droopy eyelids, and yet admonished the students for getting restless and unfocused  Hmm, that doesn’t seem right.


As teachers, part of our job is to provide engaging lessons, but it is this definition of engaging that seems to mess us up.  I used to think that by engaging it meant me lecturing for a while and then giving the students work time, as long as I kept the questions coming, the students were engaged, right?  For some reason most of the time my results were less than stellar.  I also used to think that as long as I provided some sort of choice then the students would find their motivation.  And while our more self-reliant students did because they already have a sense of duty instilled by the teacher, some students didn’t.  Enter in punishment and rewards.  If a student didn’t turn in their work then recess was taken away, and if that didn’t work then a 0 was given.  Ooh a failing grade.  They even got their name on the board and were not offered a chance to enter the weekly drawing for the monthly pizza party, confused?  So was I.


The problem with punishment and reward though is that it often only motivates in the short term.  A student knows that as long as they hand something in, even if it is awful, then that counts as a finished product.  As a teacher, I often lost sleep over what to do with these students.  they seemed already by 4th grade to hate school, finding it a punishment for childhood, and worst of all, they knew how to work the system.  So what to do?  Again, I realized that the problem wasn’t the students, it was the curriculum and how I taught it, so really it was me.  See, I am the biggest in school motivator there is.  While I may not be the one that decides what to teach, I most certainly am the one that decided HOW to teach it.  And if I thought that lecturing (which even put me to sleep in college) was going to capture the imaginations of 9 year olds then I was an idiot. 


So after almost a year of changing things up, this is what I have realized as far as motivation:

  • Choice matters.  When students choose not just what they will do for a project but also what they would like to learn about within a perimeter, you get buy-in.  This continues to be one of the most exciting simple realizations I have come across.
  • Motivation is contagious.  When one student gets excited and has an opportunity to share that enthusiasm, it catches.  My students get to blog about projects, we have huddles where we share and we are a bit louder than we used to be.  But guess what?  Those loud noises are usually students super excited about something.
  • Eliminate punishment and rewards.  This short-term motivator seemed more harmful than helpful to me.  This year we have class parties when we feel we want one, I have lunch with all my students several times a month because they ask me to, and no one is excluded from anything.  When homework doesn’t get done, I ask them how they plan to fix it, most students choose to do it at recess.  Fine by me, they are free to go if they choose.
  • Be excited yourself.  The fastest way for kids to lose interest is if you are bored.  I realized that I hated some of the things and taught and how I taught them (goodbye grammar packets), so something had to change.  Now my students joke about how I almost always introduce something new with “I am so excited to do this…”
  • Look at outside factors.  Some students have a lot more on their plate than we could ever realize.  Ask questions, get to know your students, and be a listening ear.  When my husband lost his job, it was hard for me to be excited about things as well because I was too busy worrying.
  • Control what you can.  We will never be able to control what our students go home to but we sure can control what happens in the room.  All the teachers I know choose to create a caring environment where all students feel safe.  This alone means students let their guards down and feel it is okay to work hard and have fun.
Loss of motivation doesn’t just happen overnight, I believe all students start out motivated and then life gets in the way.  At some point during their school years they start to hate school feeling it is stagnant and irrelevant.  I therefore do everything in my power to ensure that students leave my classroom still liking school, perhaps a small goal, but an incredible important one.  If they like to be in your room, then it is up to you to figure out how to keep them engaged.

being me, family, inspiration, role model

A Mother’s Tale

Pernille Ripp
When I was 15, I hated my mother.  In fact, I hated almost everything.  Anger, sadness and oh so loathing of myself emanated and surrounded me every day for years.  Words flew like daggers, piercing indiscriminately whomever and whatever came in my path.  I was a child who suffered in their own self-pity, one who wallowed in misery, and lost friends, alienated family and tried to make everyone else’s life as miserable as I perceived my own. And yet my mother stood by me.  She didn’t change her course, her faith in me, her utmost belief that the little girl that had been the last, would one day come back to her.

People like my mother do not appear often in one’s life.  She is selfless without being depreciatingly so.  She is witty, charming, and very very smart.  She is beautiful in a way that requires little effort.  She is strong, and she is a believer in strength for all.  She is fair, she is opinionated, and she carries a grudge, but she knows when to let go and forgive, even a child that sets out to hurt.

As a teacher, this lesson sticks with me every day.  Our students may lash out with words that are meant to destruct, destroy and hurt, and yet I stand by them, knowing that they too are momentarily lost on their path in life but one day they will return to me.

Tonight my mother was awarded the University of Wisconsin Academic Excellence in Teaching Award.  We were there to see her accept it and there to cheer.  My mother passes her lessons of love, curiosity, and inventiveness on to students every day and for once someone finally acknowledged just how incredible she is.  So thank you to the most important woman in my life, thank you to the one who taught me what it means to live with grace and to believe fervently that we make a difference.  We speak of teachers as role models, and yes, my mother is mine, but she is also many others’.  Thank you for standing by and standing up when I needed it.  Thank you for kicking in and kicking butt when it was deserved.  I am the product of a strong woman.  I hope my daughter will say the same about me.

being a teacher, choices, inspiration, life choices, students

Choose Your Message

Pernille Ripp

With the waves of uncertainty surrounding us, I remain steadfast in my commitment to my students. I remain steadfast in my commitment to my family, to myself, and to my dream of positivity. To say that life is stressful would be an understatement. Personal life-changing issues abound, as well as professional ones, yet I remain steadfast in my dedication.

We choose what we portray. We choose the message that we bring. And although life may be very hard, we choose how we deal with it. This time has tested me to the core, and yet I choose to smile. I choose to exhibit hope and positivity, fore I choose to stay above water and not get pulled down. So ask yourself, what do you choose? What do you bring in with you when you show up at work or at home? What is it people will leave your conversations feeling like?

As teachers we affect more than just our students. We affect all the staff in our schools, and we affect how the children entrusted to us, go home and in turn affect their families. We have an immense opportunity and indeed responsibility to have a positive effect on all the paths we cross. So yes, I get how tough it is right now, and no, I am not a saint. I have bad days, I have horrible days, but I cannot focus on those. I have to remember why I am here in the first place; to make a difference, and not a bad one.

We speak of peer pressure as if it is a always a bad thing. I exert my peer pressure but use my powers for good rather than evil. I choose to continue to focus on a message of positivity, of challenging oneself to not be the pebble, and hope that I can influence others to do the same. Perhaps it will be cool again to smile? Perhaps laughing will become the new “it” thing to do. Who knows? I choose to remain dedicated.