Category: new year

Be the change, classroom setup, new year

It Is Time To Renew, Reorganize, and Reevalute

Pernille Ripp
image from icanread

Something magical beckons us on the cusp of a new year; one full of promise to change, a clean slate as if for once we can get it all right, or at the very least figure out what we need to change, ahh, January 1st and all of its promises.  It is no different in the classroom; the new year is an opportune time to not just conjure up  resolutions but also renew and reevaluate your setup hopefully leaving you saner and more organized.

I used to think of things I needed to change after the 1st of the year but quickly got worn out thinking of all of these changes.  After all, as a newish teacher, I have enough things I am already trying to reflect upon and implement so I am not sure we need more things to do.  So now I have scaled it back, I look at my room through a different lens, that of reevaluation.  May my thoughts help guide you as well.

  • Study your workspace configuration.  Are students able to move, spread out, work at different places than their assigned work spaces?  Can they get away when they need to or are they always squished together?  Often this aspect of our room is completely out of our hands as it depends on classroom size but even cramped rooms can have getaway corners, places where students can find some sort of solitude, or places where they can work together as a large group.

  • Study your “dusty” areas.  Are there parts of your classroom that are hardly ever used?  Places where the students cannot get to or where an arrangement of furniture seems cramped or forced?  I recently realized that my large conference table was squeezed into a corner meaning I never used it and neither did my students.  In two moves of furniture it is now front and centre and used every single day with students.  Easy to do once you know what isn’t working.

  • Study where the piles are.  I used to force myself into several organization systems that just didn’t work.  What resulted were various piles of papers, books, and miscellaneous teacher items that never got put away.  I had too many places to place things and often these spots were also in the wrong area so I would drop off stuff and then leave it to gather dust, in the end forgetting that I had put it there in the first place.  Now I pay attention to where I place things, create gathering places where they feel natural (think: where you place things anyway) there and follow the 1 minute rule; if you can do it in 1 minute – do it right away.

  • Ask your students.  I often take the time to ask my students what is working for them, where their favorite places are, or what they are missing.  Conversations such as these have resulted in their own area for office supplies, more small tables, and choices of whether to lie down or sit in a chair whenever we do writing and reading workshop.  Students are the biggest components and inhabitants of the classroom; they should have a say in what is working or not.

  • Recreate your area.  I start out the year with my favorite things close by; a great stapler, hand lotion, my favorite picture, and billions of colorful pens that brighten my day.  As silly as these things sound, it feels nice to have what I need close by when I am planning.  As the year progresses, though, my things seem to move or vanish altogether.  Take this time of renewal to renew your area, think about what would make you happy every day in a small way and bring it into your immediate vicinity.  It may not seem like a big thing, which is why it is perfect to do now.

  • Start to think of next year.  Call me crazy but January is when I start to think of the next school year.  I clean up papers as I go through them, make extra copies for the following year if it something I will have to use like a math test, and throw out/recycle anything I don’t need.  Too often we leave these tasks for the end of the year but it is easier to just stay on top of it throughout the year.  Start to think of what you need to change for next year with your lessons and tweak them now, because next time you teach it, chances are you will not remember the changes you needed to make.

While there are many things you can do to reorganize your classroom as you prepare for the second half of the year, think small at first.  Change the easy things, give yourself time to think about what needs to happen, and then do it.  Recruit your students to help, reflect on what is working and what isn’t, and then decide what needs to change now for you to be happy.  Change never has to be big to be effective. It does not have to be grandiose or expensive; find something small to make you feel renewed even if it just includes the happiness that brand new pens can bring you.

 

being me, new year, reflection, students

May I Gush a Little Bit?

Pernille Ripp
image from icanread

I got home today with a feeling of just sheer contentment.  Sometimes I feel like the luckiest woman in the world and not just because of what I get to come home to, but what I get to leave my home for every day.  When I saw my class list and then saw it grow, when I kept thinking through all of the things I wanted to do with these 27 students, when I thought about all the things I hoped they would accomplish, I just didn’t know if we could do it all.

As anyone who has taught bigger rooms with big personalities can attest to, it is a completely different challenge.  Not only are you pushing the kids to try and to sometimes work through failure, but you are also dealing with sheer numbers.  And with high numbers can come such a broad gamut of needs and wants that it sometimes just overwhelms you.  Kids that range from needing a person to support them through most things to kids that are so ready to set off and soar, all they need is a push.    You have students who want to try and students who are afraid to try.  You have students that already find school pretty boring and students that still love learning.  With 27 students it seems like you have them all, the whole gamut of personalities.  and so I just didn’t know how we would work together and strive together.

But these kids.  With their crazy ideas, their enthusiasm for my ideas, and their support of each other as they each try every day, is blowing me away.  These kids with their stories, their dreams, and their hang ups, who share them with me every day, trusting me to get to know them, trusting me to push them in the right direction, these kids are proving me wrong.

I should not have doubted for one single moment that we could do all of our 5th grade challenges.  I should not have doubted for a single moment that even though there were so many of us, we would still build a community.  These kids with their loud voices, their big personalities, and their eagerness to just prove me wrong every single day, those kids are making this year one of those years I can’t wait to tell others about.

 

I am a passionate (female) 5th grade teacher in Wisconsin, USA, 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 Classroom Back to Our Students Starting Today” will be released this fall from PLPress.   Follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.

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new year, Reading, Student-centered

A Reading Survey – Why Not?

Pernille Ripp

photo (5)

I love that my students know that I am passionate about reading already.  Even though we have only been in each others’ learning lives for 4 days they can tell you how much I love books.  They also know about my never-ending reading stack, my penchant for anything sci fi or fantasy, how I sneak reading in when I sit at stop lights, and how buying books is my most guilty pleasure.   I am thrilled that they know me as a reader, but the problem is with 27 students I don’t know them yet.  Sure, I can start to see which books they gravitate too, some have started telling me about the best book they ever read, and others have even asked to take books home.  Yet, I have only conferenced with 2 and have had little time for those amazing reading conversations that I love.  So why not do a reading survey?  While in no means a replacement for the reading conversations I want to have, it gives me a glimpse into them as readers and will provide me with background information that I can use.

I ask for their honesty here because I want to know how they label themselves.  I think it is important for me, vital even to know if a child considers themselves a poor reader, I need to know what their labels are so that I can help them break out of those or strengthen them.   So as always as I created this survey with a little bit of inspiration from many other reading surveys, I knew I would share, I may even make it a Google form.  Please feel free to make a copy and make it your own.

How Are You As a Reader Survey

And here it is as a Google Form courtesy of Michelle Krzmarzick

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Be the change, new year

Change Becomes Habit

Pernille Ripp
image from icanread

I used to think I was crazy changing all of the things I had traditionally been doing.  I am sure I was not the only one.    I used to think that I would grow out of it, get so frustrated I would quit, realize that the traditional ways were here for a reason and that’s why I should go back to them.  Go back to hours of homework, go back to percentages and letter grades, punish some  students while rewarding others, test them at every chance, and definitely be the boss of them all.  I used to think change was hard.

Then a day passed, months, and finally years.  Now as I get ready for my 6th year in the classroom and my 4th year of giving the classroom back to my students, I realize how natural it is.  I have replaced my old toxic habits with these new ones and they no longer seem radical or even hard to implement.  They are who I am as a teacher and it is just the way I know how to teach.  It doesn’t mean it is perfect or that some people still don’t think I am crazy, but it does mean that I feel a sense of power in what I am doing and I have the results of student engagement to back it all up.

Changing how one teaches is terrifying, I know.  Sticking to the change is frustrating, hard work, and sometimes so unappreciated that it leads to tears or angry words.  But changes stop being changes after awhile and become habits instead.  And habits just aren’t so scary to most.  Habits become second nature and one day you realize that you are teaching the way you wanted to from the beginning.  That you would be a student in your own classroom.  That anyone can change, all it takes is the first step.  Even if people think you are crazy.

I am a passionate 5th grade teacher in Wisconsin, USA, 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 Classroom Back to Our Students Starting Today” will be released this fall from PLPress.   Follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.

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

I’m Not Ready Yet

Pernille Ripp

photo (3)

I wipe the last table off, position the pencil cup, shut off the lights and close the door.  Supposedly my room is ready for the 26 brand new students that will bounce in Tuesday morning.  Supposedly I am ready to meet their needs once discovered.  Supposedly I don’t have to go in these next few days, I will keep my door closed, and my room ready.

But I am not ready yet.  A hole exists.  A need that has not been met so my room feels unfinished.  As I drive home it finally dawns on me what it is: my students.  My room will always be unfinished without them.  My room will never feel ready without them.

I can set up, prepare, write plans, make copies, create welcome back bulletin boards, but in the end, my room will never be quite done.  My room will never look ready.  My room will always seem empty until they come.  And what a wonderful feeling that is.  My students are what make us a classroom.  Not the tables, the books, the bulletin boards or all of the supplies.  The kids.  They are the ones that matter.  I cannot wait to finish my room.