inspiration – Page 5 – Pernille Ripp

being a teacher, boring, inspiration, Lesson Planning, lessons learned

Today I was Boring

February 15, 2011 Pernille Ripp

I love Mondays. They are loud, a little bit crazy, and always exciting. My students are tapping their feet, their are sharpening their pencils and asking a million questions about what we are doing this week and when are we going to get to do this really cool thing? The noise can be kind of intimidating to cut through but then you realize that it is excitement, not just chatter, and it becomes a different beast to maneuver altogether.

Today, I was boring, though. I had my lessons planned, even with discussion questions, extra surprises and movie clips. And yet, I fell flat. During social studies, where I was teaching the writing of the Constitution, I yawned. And you know if the teacher is bored, then imagine what the students feel. So I stopped. I put the book down that I was reading aloud and then asked them what questions they had. A little bit of perking up. Then I asked them to write on the board everything they knew about the office of the president, some motion and activity. Then I started to drone on again – moment lost.

I don’t know what it was today. I had a long night with my daughter with croup, my mind is heavy with the scary legislation vote looming over us, and I didn’t take the time to think this morning. I have a pretty set morning routine where I get in 1 hour and 15 min early, turn on my music, jam to that while I clean, pull out, discuss, give hugs to colleagues and just focus. Today I had no music, ran around, got visited by students early, stopped by a great Valentines Day breakfast and just spoke a lot of politics By the time the bell rang, I was ready physically not mentally.

And what a difference that makes! All day I played catch up, tried to find my brain – it must be around somewhere – and just made it through. That is not what teaching is supposed to be like; surviving. So I wonder; what do others do when the lesson isn’t working? Do you throw it out? Stop and do something else entirely or just lumber through it? I felt I robbed a great moment in history from my students today, something that I cannot get back. So when your brain disappears and the day just seems to happen to you, what do you do to put it back on track?

I, for one, am going to bed early, charging my Ipod, getting my red shirt ready (all union workers are wearing red to show unity this week) and packing chocolate in my lunch tomorrow. I will not let my students down like this again.

aha moment, behavior, being a teacher, inspiration, Student-centered

Teach To Fit Your Students, Not You

February 2, 2011 Pernille Ripp

Monday was a chatty day. One of those days where no matter what you do, the kids just cannot settle down and focus. One of those days where I would have moved a lot of sticks and gotten a lot of points. Except this day, I didn’t. There are no sticks to move, names to write or points to take in my room, and sometimes that is hard. You see, when you can punish students for a behavior they often change their demeanor for a short time. Punishment leads to submission and the day can keep moving. However, punishment also means that nothing corrective takes place or valuable for that student. So I don’t punish anymore.

And yet the kids, who are usually so on track, just had a hard time. Whether it was because of the impending blizzard, being tired, or one child starting the talk wave, I don’t know. But teaching proved difficult. In earlier years, I would have ended the day lamenting about how the students didn’t work hard or had problems focusing. Instead, this year I turned my glance inward and thought about how I could accommodate their jitteriness, their talkativeness, their seeming inability to it still too long. How could I change my teaching to make it a great day?

So Tuesday, I came prepared. We had decks of cards as manipulatives for math and the kids did most of the talking as we figured out probability. My planned lesson for literacy for our author study was switched to one about choral reading where the students had to create and perform their first ever choral read poem. We stayed focused on the day through small talk breaks discussiing the probability of a snow day. We spoke about our fifth grade friends in Egypt, we checked in on the live feed to an eagles nest, we took small body breaks stretching and then worked hard. That afternoon, we were able to feed our crayfish, clean their tanks and then have a small study hall with multitudes of choices. We ended with an exciting math game with our first grade reading buddies.

At the end of the day, I was unstressed. We had accomplished what we set out to do and we had also had a good day. The students had worked with their distractedness and made it a strength rather than, well, a distraction. I had realized that it is not my job to force my student into the learning, but instead shape my learning to accommodate my students. It is indeed not about me, but about them, and that is the most mportant thing to remember.

being a teacher, believe, inspiration, self, students

Adding Up the Weight of Words

January 26, 2011 Pernille Ripp

I used to think I was a good dancer. Not the “So You Think You Can Dance” kind but not horribly ungifted either. I could shake it without care, busting a move with the best of them, and carefree live my life. I used to think I could dance until I met my husband. Brandon is a natural, he moves, he shakes, he glides. Why he knows how to twirl around a dance floor I do not know, but next to him, I acquired two huge left feet.

At first, we laughed about how I was clumsy. Being tall, skinny, and with two large feet didn’t help me either. And yet, as we laughed and joked about it, I really did get worse at dancing. For every negative comment I started to believe a little more that perhaps, just perhaps, there was something to it. Perhaps I really was bad at dancing, perhaps those jokes and comments were truth and not just fun to be had. Now, I barely ever dance, mostly just around my house with my daughter, but I am no longer the first one on the floor and I definitely always looking around seeing if anyone notices just how uncoordinated I am.

I think of my students, of the little comments we make throughout our day. Of snappy lines other students make, often in jest, but oft repeated. I wonder how many of those lines, those comments, dig themselves in and burrow down deep until they latch themselves into their psyche rendering them useless at something. How often do they start out laughing along until they realize that it is just not that funny?

We must always carry a sense of humor about ourselves, but when does that humor become destructive rather than funny?

So those little words, those small actions, add up to more than we can ever know. And not just the negative ones, but the positive ones as well. How about laughing about how talented someone is rather than how inadequate? Perhaps if I had joked about how incredible of a dancer I was, I would believe it now. I know that words have power, but often I forget about the small words and how much power they gain when I add them up. It is time for me to give weight to the positive ones.

assumptions, being a teacher, inspiration, no homework, students

We Are Not the Most Important Piece of Life

January 22, 2011 Pernille Ripp

I used to think student vacations meant lots of projects for them to do, but then again, I used to think a lot of things. This year with the advent of limited homework and more in-school learning, I stopped that practice. First I felt guilty; after all, wasn’t I supposed to assign lots of work for students to be engaged in when they were not in school? if I didn’t assign work, would they remember what it means to be in school, to work hard, to learn? And yet, I knew that it had to be done. Students were asked to read, maybe blog if they felt like it, which some did, and otherwise just be with their family.

The result; happy students who came back eager to learn and share all of their experiences.

As one of my students struggles through the sudden loss of her beloved grandfather, I am strengthened in my resolve to not encroach. To not impose too much on the outside life, to let my students breathe, reflect, and in this case, mourn, without the pressure of school hanging over them. For me, it is time I embrace a radical notion; an education may be important but it is NOT the most important thing. Life is the most important, and the chance to live it fully, remember it, and grow as a person will always beat the things we do at school. We are important pieces, but we are not the biggest piece of a person, and nor should we be.

assumptions, hopes, inspiration, personality, students, teaching, vision

Which Lens Do You View the World With?

January 4, 2011 Pernille Ripp

We choose how we view the world, a line taken from an excellent post recounting a mother whose daughter has autism speaking to a group of MIT professors. Think about it for a moment, it is a quite deep sentence, we choose how we view to world…

Now flip that to your classroom, your school, your community; we also choose how we view these. Do we come to school with dark colored lenses where no matter what our students do, it is simply not good enough? Are our lenses wonky where we end up treating our students unequally? Is one eye closed to the world so we only see one side of the story? Or do we wear rose-colored lenses so that the world always seems bright and cheerful?

My lenses are clear, therein lies no fog. I view the world every day with a slight rosy tint to it but clear nonetheless. And more importantly, my lenses work both ways; they view the world and they view myself. I am always checking, readjusting and cleaning off my lens, so that whomever I encounter gets a clear view and not one tinted by perception. Is it time you clean your lenses?