Category: new year

being a teacher, new year, reflection, Student-centered, students

I Know What Students Want So Why Do I Forget It?

Pernille Ripp
image from etsy

The new year anxiety and excitement is creeping in.  The days are ticking down.  I am awake more often with dreams of schools and ideas trailing around my mind.  Can I do this?  haunts me in my thoughts  Do I know what I am doing? keeps me awake.

Then I remember.  I know what students want.  Not my new students, those I have yet to uncover, but year upon year when I have asked my students what they need from school and teachers their answers have been the same.

We need someone who cares.

We need someone who listens.

We need someone that believes in us.  Notices when we are not there.  We need someone who likes what they are doing.

They need us to be kind.  To be honest.  To be present.

They need us to have open minds, open hearts, and open arms.

They need a safe place to try.

But it is not just what they need that I remember.  It is also what they want.

They want to be respected.

They want to be pushed.

They want us to see that having in fun in school does not mean learning has stopped.

They want to have a voice, to have choice, to know that their opinion matters and so do their ideas.

They want to know that what they are doing is relevant and not just because.  They want to know we trust them,

They want to feel loved.  To feel important.

They want what so many of us want; a place where they belong.

So why do we forget this every year?  Why do we allow the curriculum to push us into a frenzy, forgetting about these most basic things?

Children don’t remember the tests, the homework, not even always that crazy, cool project you did.  They don’t remember the posters, the seating, or even the rewards necessarily.

But they do remember how they felt, and that we can control.  They do remember if our rooms felt like home, and whether they mattered.  Don’t forget that as our year gets busy.  We know what to do, just do it.

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.

Be the change, being a teacher, being me, new year

What We Can Choose

Pernille Ripp
image from etsy

We get so caught up in our big things.  The units we have to teach.  The conferences we need to do.  The to-do list that always grows with our next big project.  We lie awake at night wondering about our direction, whether students are invested?  Whether what we do matters?  And yet, the big things are not always the things that matter the most.  We may think they do, but really, the little things have a lot of power.  There are choices we make every day that seem so small, yet make such a big difference.

We can choose to look at a child when they speak to us.  That matters.

We can choose to withhold judgment as an answer is given.  That matters.

We can choose to do something we promised we would, even if it is so small we think the other person may forget about it.  This matters.

We can choose to smile when someone greets us.

We can choose to stop by, say hello, even if we are busy.

We can choose to be interested, to slough away our tiredness, and instead remember why we do this job.

That matters.

We can choose to remember names.  To ask about a weekend.  To find a book.  To lend a pencil.  We can choose to take time for talking.

We may be busy.  We may always have the next big thing waiting for us, pressing down on us, urging us to move faster and further.  Yet.

We can choose to slow down in small moments.

We can choose to savor the time.

We can choose to tell a story.  To laugh out loud.  To show our humanness.  We can choose to share our mistakes.

We can choose to unveil our dreams, our fears, and in turn create a community.  This matters.

We may dream big, but we should think small.  Everything matters, especially the things we think matter very little.

That’s what we can choose.

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.

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

May I Speak to You Privately?

Pernille Ripp
image from icanread

“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.

 

Be the change, being me, classroom setup, new year, Student-centered

Your Classroom Does Not Have to Be Pinterest Worthy to Be Effective

Pernille Ripp
image from icanread

The night before I met my first group of students, I was at school in a panic.  Not because I was about to actually be a teacher.  Not because I felt like I had no idea what I was doing.  All true, however, my panic was from the feeling that my classroom didn’t look cute.  It didn’t look lived in.  It didn’t look inviting.  So at 9 PM, the night before school started, I was in the hallway ripping down my welcome bulletin board, furiously folding party hats to create a new 3-d one that would live up to what I thought everybody was expecting.  By 11 PM I went home, exhausted (did I mention I was pregnant with my first child) and still feeling completely inadequate.  My room would never live up to all the other cute rooms I saw around my school.  And I felt like I was doomed to fail as a teacher from the beginning.

It turns out my experience was not unique, nor dated.  7 years later, I get contacted a lot asking what to do with these feelings of inadequacy. What to do when we feel our room does not live up to what the supposed expectation of elementary classrooms is.  But it is not the pressure from seeing our colleagues rooms anymore that drives us into panic.  It is Pinterest, the internet, blogs that shows decorated classrooms that I will never be able to replicate.  And so these new teachers ask for validation, ask whether their rooms are enough.  They fear posting pictures of their room because they don’t feel they are ready.   They wonder if they can be effective teachers without a “pretty” room.  Our fear of inadequacy spurred on by an internet movement of cute.

I advocate for giving the room back to students.  This does not work well with having a completed room on the first day of school.  My walls are not very decorated.  There are no chevron stripes (I do love chevron though), no fancy displays, no motivational posters.  The walls are bare, the chairs and tables in pods, the room is functional but probably not super inviting.  I do the inviting on the first day by placing myself in the hallway, big smile on my face, and then I ask students to become a part of the room.  To move the tables.  To create displays.  To set the rules, to tell me what works and what doesn’t.  And so then it becomes our room, but I cannot achieve that before the first day of school.

Why is this so important to me?  Because for too long we have invited students into our rooms.  We have let them visit.  And yes, I know that our rooms are our home away from home.  That we need to feel comfortable in them as well.  That our personality should show through.  But I feel like it sometimes goes too far,  That we overdecorate, we overdo, and it leaves no rooms for students to be a part of it.  They continue on as visitors in our beautiful rooms and their engagement shows it.

Now, this is not to say that having a nice looking room is a bad thing.  I think there is a balance between decorating your classroom and focusing too much on it.  I see some pictures and I cringe because although they look beautiful, there is no room to make a mess.  There is no room to be creative because all decisions have already been made.  And as the mother of a boy, I wonder how welcome he would feel in a room full of polka dots and pinks?

So I am here to say to all you new teachers, or old ones like me that need to hear it too; your classroom does not have to be Pinterest worthy to be effective.  It does not have to have everything figured out, everything in its permanent place.  It does not have to have all of those things we see in other classrooms, because  we are not other people.  We do not have the same stuff they do, we do not have the same personalities.  Make your classroom work for you, allow yourself to not get hung up on how cute it is, how inviting it is.  Focus on creating a community that invites all children to be stakeholders.  Don’t feel you need to spend so much money decorating, find a balance, allow yourself to stop.  If we really want to build a community with our students, nothing says “I trust you” in the beginning than giving the room back to them.  And you can’t do that if every decorating decision has already been made.  You cannot say “this is your room too” if you are clearly in charge of everything.

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.

 

Be the change, being a teacher, new year, reflection, Student-centered, students

Just Fine is Not Enough

Pernille Ripp

Today, my baby twins turn two.Hard to think they were ever small enough to fit in my body when they stand in front of me demanding another waffle, another kiss, another story.  And yet, two years is a long time, a lot has changed.  Not only have they changed, but we have changed. The world has changed in ways we could never imagine.  Sometimes on purpose, other times out of necessity.  Change, as they say, is a constant.

I think of how we change in the classroom and how we often change based on what we need.  We are after all the ones who wield most of the power.  We are the ones who plan the lessons.  Who chart the course.  Who have to act in charge, even if we don’t feel it.  We change when things don’t work for us, when things don’t fit into our framework of what our classrooms should look like.  We change when the little voice inside tells us we need to.  And sometimes we change because the kids ask us to. Then we get happy, we stay, we think our change is enough and the years start to tick by, and we forget that we ever needed the change because what we are doing seems to work just fine.

“Just fine…”something I hear so often when I ask people to whether they can change.  We hold up our files of success, our pictures of kids engaged, we find the proof we need that things are working and kids are learning, that our change that happened so long ago was enough for now.  Yet those kids are not the same, I see that in my own four kids.  The twins are nothing like Theadora when she was two, the world has changed a lot since then.  And when Augustine turns two, the world will have changed again, and so will the kids in it.

So be proud of your change, but check it too.  You may have found it works “just fine” but is it time to change again?  To fine-tune?  To adapt?  To throw it all out?  Is it time to listen to the kids that are coming to you now, not those that you taught a few years ago.  The ones who are excited to have you be their teacher this year.  Is there change that needs to be done for them? I know there is for me.

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, new year, Reading, writing

Some New (and Old) Ideas for Reading and Writing

Pernille Ripp

My head is spinning, the thoughts are creeping in, ideas seem to be coming from everywhere and it is reaching that critical time…How in the world am I really going to teach reading and writing to my incoming 7th graders?  Not the curriculum, that has been taken care of for me, but how am I going to work with it?  How am I going to get them excited about it?  How am I going to welcome them, get their attention, and then keep it for a whole year of our adventure?  How will I bridge the gap between my elementary mindset and their middle school mindset?

So while, I don’t have it all figured out, after all, who really does before the kids show up, I do have some ideas of what we will do to create a great writing/reading experience.

  • I brought my library with me.  There may not be many other middle school teachers that have this sort of library in my new district, but my books are who I am.  Along with it, I brought my rocking chair, my carpet squares, and all of those picture books that mean so much to me.  Together we will dive into the library and make it our own.  I cannot wait for students to explore it.

    our library corner
  • We will start with a picture book.  Picture books are the vessels with which so much knowledge can be dispersed.  They lure us in with their colorful pages and seemingly easy words, but leave us with deep thoughts and inspiration to write.  So we will start with students choosing which book to read aloud.  Current contenders include Pete & Pickles, Journey, Sparky!, My Teacher is a Monster, Mr. Tiger Goes Wild, Chu’s Day, The Story of Fish and Snail, Chalk, It’s a Book, and Unicorn Thinks He is Pretty Great.  I hope each class chooses a different one.

    picture books to grab their attention
  • We will discuss the good and the bad.  Last year’s lesson on why reading sucks taught me so much about my students and I hope to replicate it in some way this year.  While I want to highlight how incredible it is to read and write, I need to acknowledge all of the kids that don’t feel that way.  We need to have an honest discussion and we need to put all of our reading and writing demons out there.  We cannot move on if we are not honest.
  • We will use reflection.  I learn so much when the students allow me into their heads so this year we will start with a reading and writing reflection.  I may be crazy to think I can do the workshop format with all of my students, but I am going to try.  This reflection will serve as our starting point.   There has to be a way to get these kids reading, writing, reflecting, and talking.  This is how we grow, this is how we learn.
  • There will be comics.  I have always had some comics in the classroom, but this year I brought more out.  I know that some of my students are very reluctant readers and I need to catch them with something.  So comics, graphic novels, and books that I may not have thought would fit for 7th grade has been brought along, and they will be pointed out and placed into the hands of students.  Whatever it takes to get these kids reading.
  • Books read will still be displayed.  However, this time it will be on a bulletin board rather than on the door.  I really want the focus to be on students’ reading and not mine when people walk by, so it will be our favorite book covers gracing our door rather than just what I have read.

    my old book door display
    my old book door display
  • There will be voice.  We start with short stories and I was reminded of the art of story telling by a friend.  I need to see where students are as writers before we can set goals and short stories lends itself perfectly to this.  Students will be encouraged to create one of their own, using a medium they are comfortable with.  We will focus on telling their story rather than all of the heavy editing, that will come a little bit later as we start to grow, set goals, and become mindful writers.
  • We will be global readers.  We will be reading “One for the Murphy’s” as part of this year’s Global Read Aloud. I cannot wait to see the students connect with others as they think about this book and its powerful theme of redemtion, love, and finding one’s place within the world.
  • I will share my reading and writing life.  I will continue to prominently display what I am reading, but new this year, I will also display what I am writing.  I think it is easier for us to show off our reading because kids expect us to read, but do they know us as writers?  I think it will be powerful for the students to see that I write all the time and for a variety of reasons.  Hopefully, this will spark discussion as well.

    writing sign for the door
    writing sign for the door
  • Non-fiction will have a home.  John T. Spencer inspired me when he discussed how we as adults forget that we read non-fiction all the time, yet it seems to warp itself into a textbook centered beast in our classroom.  So this year I will embrace non-fiction even more.  Not to forgo the wonders of fiction, but to help students understand how much non-fiction text they are already surrounded by and to realize that this counts as reading as well.

    nonfiction gets it's own shelf
    nonfiction gets it’s own shelf

Of course, this is not it.  There will be more as my thoughts settle and I get into the classroom and see what else I can do.  But it’s a start and I am excited, and that to me means more than anything right now.  What ideas can you not wait to implement?

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.