Category: reflection

reflection, students

So What is Your Assumption?

Pernille Ripp
We do it all the time, assume…  We assume people are a certain way, or they like certain things, or that they will answer in a certain way, just because we know better.   I do it on a daily basis, whether I like it or not.  This weekend was no different as I attended a pageant for the first time to watch a dear friend’s daughter pass her crown on.  I sat through talent and all i did was assume; that girl looks like she is easy, that girl has no chance of winning, that girl was obviously told she is a good singer but my lord someone needs to tell her the truth.  And I felt good about my assumptions, after all, I am always right.

Well, as I went back to hotel room I thought more about these assumption and just how closed off they make me.  And even more so, how these assumptions hurt me more in the long run than anyone else.   It also made me realize how on a daily basis in my classroom I assume many things.

Home Life:
All the time, we assume that students have a certain type of home life depending on their socioeconomic status, their skin color, their language, their homework completion etc.  Often these assumptions lead to how we “deal” with the students in terms of giving another chance to do homework or extended time on a test.  Even more often we don’t have the time or chance to find out what really is going on in their home life and in turn affecting them greatly at school.  How many times do you assume that the smart student who is always happy is actually experiencing her parents fighting all the time? We are good at assuming that our poor students come from broken homes and good at assuming that our white kids have both mom and a dad.  It is time we stopped thinking we know “those kids” and really get to know our students.


Cooperation:
We always know which child will be the difficult one after orientation day, you can just see it on them, right?  Wrong.  That child may have a bad case of the nerves, I know I do, or just wake up super grumpy; guilty of that as well.  I will not believe anyone that says they can judge a person within the first 5 minutes.  If you think you can, maybe you should look at how often you were wrong.  I can tell you countless times those first day perceptions were dead wrong.


Intelligence:
This is something we all partake in whether we are willing to admit it or not.  We base our misconceptions on things such as hair color, height, weight, skin color, accent or dialect, clothing and the list goes on.  How many times have you heard someone describe someone’s intelligence level with a knowing look and a hint to where they come from, because that explains it all?   Well, it doesn’t.  Being both blond and foreign I have two things stacked against me.  People either assume I am Swedish or stupid, I disagree with both when needed and get offended when I have to. 

Basic Knowledge:
As a teacher, I hope that all of my students have learned all of the curriculum they are supposed to have learned by the time they get to my room.  I certainly know that my co-workers do their very best in teaching them.  And yet, how many times have I been proven wrong when I think I know exactly what my students know or don’t know?.  That kid that struggles in math might be really good at math facts, or that kid that writes 3 grade levels below might be a strong reader.  And it even goes the other way; strong readers may be terrible writers.  Just because we think we know does not mean we really know it all. 

    So, I am not a saint; I will go on assuming as I always do.  And yet, I do promise to try to assume less or at least check out my assumptions after I have made them.  I feel that we assume because it provides us with a sense of security; when we can label a person then we know how to handle them.  I wish I could tell you that at the beauty pageant I had many “hallelujah moments” where I was shamed out of my assumptions; I didn’t.  However, it wasn’t because my assumptions were right, I just thought it was much more fun to think I knew everything instead of being proven wrong.  I am after all just a human being.

reflection, student blogging

Writing versus Blogging

Pernille Ripp
            Writing has always felt like a solitary process.  Of course, the outcome is shared and sometimes even the process is debated and fine tuned, but really once the piece has been written, it is done.  When you blog about something, rather than just write about it, the written piece is merely a “midpoint” a place to rest on the path, but not the destination.  This is important to understand as I think of how to sell the idea of the usefulness of a blog to my parents.  I don’t need to sell the idea to my students for even last year, when I had just a classroom blog, they begged to be allowed to share on it.  I foolishly didn’t let them.  Now, however, we are going out into official blog territory and so I need the  parents to come along and support this journey.  It is therefore vital that they understand that the blog is not just a way to put writing up on the Internet but rather is a whole different way of writing.
            The main point for me in considering a student created blog is because they need to write for an actual audience.  Not just their classmates who hardly ever given them honest or even constructive feedback.  I am sick of the days of, “That’s really great.”  It is not that I want to feed my students to the wolves through their writing but rather that their writing needs to become an ever-shifting process, something they revisit and reflect upon, thus deepening their connection to it.   By adding the potential for the voice of others; other students, parents, other classrooms, my voice as the teacher becomes just one of many and that is a wonderful thing as well.  They are not writing for me anymore but for themselves to produce something that they can be proud of to share with the world.  I do not determine how long it must be, as long as the effort is there.  However, how do you define, or even worse, asses effort?  Through a blog you can see the effort put in when students choose to partake in the dialogue that has risen from their writing.  No longer static, but an ever-changing idea, molded perhaps by many and owned by even more.  That is the difference between writing and blogging for me.

expectations, reflection, students

The Hidden Rules of a Classroom

Pernille Ripp
Today I lost my temper, yes, it is a rare occurrence, but it happened on the phone with a credit report company who claimed that I had signed up for their monthly services.  I had not and had to cancel my debit card because of this.  The Indian woman I spoke to kept telling me that the fee was right in the terms and conditions section of the site and that I therefore had signed up for it.  No matter what I told her she was relentless in her explanation.  I finally lost it and yelled that i would like to speak to someone in charge and who could help me since I had never seen their terms and conditions, let alone signed up for them.

This incident made me think about the hidden rules of our classrooms.  Sure ,we post rules and expectations, short and to the point, on our walls and expect our students to agree to follow them.  What we don’t post though, are our hidden rules and expectation, the terms and conditions if you will, for being in our classroom.  And those tend to be the most important rules.

I have pet peeves I call them, they include sharpening your pencil while someone is talking (me), waving your hand in someone’s (my) face to get attention, interrupting someone (me), not cleaning up after yourself, and not taking responsibility for missed/late work.  I try to divulge these in the first few days of school and yet there are always some that I miss.  Every year, I end up being internally disappointed by the actions of a student who really had no way of knowing that taking off their shoes really bothers me (it is unsanitary).

So, at the end of this year I asked my students to write about what they wish they had known at the beginning of the year.  Much to my surprise, Mrs. Ripp’s pet peeves came out on top.  Wow!  I had no idea that this was something important in the eyes of my students.  So this year, I am going to be honest.  Yes, I hate when you sharpen your pencil (switching away from electric pencil sharpeners because of this), I hate when you spin your ruler on your pencil (don’t poke your eye out), when you put your head down on your desk (are you sleeping?), and when you don’t tell me you haven’t done your homework and I have to find out.  But no one knows that unelss I tell them and then they can sign up to learn in my classroom knowing all the terms and conditions, not just the ones in bold on the first page.   

Be the change, reflection, students

The One I Couldn’t Save

Pernille Ripp
I am new educator, only 2 1/2 years under my belt and so I am an idealist. I still believe that I can save the world; one child at a time. Sure, some teachers share that belief but wiser or more grounded teachers may shake their heads. It is a belief I hold in high regards for how I approach my classroom and yet this year taught me a little too soon that sometimes, no matter what you do, and who you reach out to; you cannot save them all.

An irritated mother approached me on orientation day with a nice looking boy in tow; she introduced herself and then the child, who was to be one of my students, let’s call him Peter. We chatted for as bit and I tried to share my hopes for the coming 4th grade year, mom quickly shook her head and told me, “Good luck with this one, he doesn’t care about anything.” The boy’s smile quickly faded and I was dumbstruck. Wow – usually parents share their concerns privately, never in front of the child we are trying to teach. I shrugged it off, vowing that the parent’s obvious frustration with her child would not leach into my relationship with him.
Once school started, it was clear that Peter was very depressed, riddled with anxiety, and so defiant that even tasks he had looked forward to were greeted with an immediate refusal when asked to participate. As I watched him slip further into the grips of depression; strange behaviors cropped up and finally suicidal thoughts were spoken of. Medications were changed, counselors were called, conference upon conference with the parents were had. I tried to engage Peter in all of our discussions; after all it was his life we were debating. And yet, when asked what he would prefer the answer was a shrug and an “I don’t know.” However, I was not going to give up, after all this is what I am born to do – change lives.
What do you do when the life you are trying to change does not want to be changed? I tried all the tricks I could think of; we praised, we had behavior charts, we took away homework, we stressed therapy, and constantly met with my team to discuss new options. Nothing worked. He participated less and less and became a massive distraction to the rest of the class. Toward the end of the year he was often in the office, were he had asked to be put so that he did not have to be in the classroom. On the last day of school he was suspended at 11 AM for inappropriate internet behavior and his dad came and picked him up; the disappointment showing like a banner held high.
School has now been out almost 2 weeks and yet he is the one I keep coming back to in my thoughts. How did I fail him as well, just as those who had come before me? Why was I not able to reach him? And most importantly, what happens now? How will this affect me in the coming years? There are students we never forget, no matter whether we want to or not. I will not forget Peter, sure the worry about his well-being will ease over time, but the wondering will not…I still believe that I can save the world one child at a time but maybe that is just an illusion.