Category: Student-centered

being a teacher, education reform, Student-centered, students

Let’s Set the Record Straight

Pernille Ripp

Today was a great day for quiet excitement; I was thrilled to see that the archive from my presentation at The New Teacher Reform Symposium had been released. So it was with much anticipation, thrill, and dread that I sent the link to my biggest fan and critic; my husband, Brandon. Certainly he would have something for me to work on, I was not disappointed. After some wonderful compliments he wondered whether people now think that my students run around chaotically in the classroom, just exploring wildly without any direction.

Hmm, I thought, I better set the record straight.

My classroom is a bit loud, that I will admit. And not necessarily because I like loudness, I don’t, in fact I like it to be silent when I write, but what I do like is learning. So because I have spent too many minutes shh’ing kids for the wrong reasons, there is more chatter and movement in my room then there used to be. There is also a great deal more choice, as in, I chose the direction in which we are headed but the kids help me figure out how we get there. While some label this student-centered learning, I am not sure that is what I do; I just figured out something needed to change and that something turned out to be me.

So while I have as much curriculum and standards to race through as other districts, assessments that must be done and certain assignments that belong in fourth grade, I also have a lot of freedom in how I get there. Sure we have a set math and science program, but even under those constraints I find a great deal of autonomy. If there wasn’t, I do believe, it would be stifling. This also happens to be a strength of my building and my district; while certain things are mandated, others are not, so we can be ourselves, the types of teachers we want to be without others wagging their fingers at us.

So to set the record straight; my classroom is not an explosion of exploration (most days), but what it is is an environment created to offer choice in learning style and rigor. I find that happens best for me when I point the direction and then let the students steer with me. The direction I am headed this year; I could never go back.

normal day, Student-centered

A Day in the Life of…

Pernille Ripp

I was asked by Kim to describe a typical day in my classroom to show how I fit it all in, so here I go.

First bell is at 8:15 and my students start to trickle in then, and by trickle, yes, it takes a while for all of them to get there.  They know they have 15 minutes until math starts so in those 15 minutes they have to sign in, read the morning message, work on geography and spelling for the week, help correct grammar on the board, and hand anything in.  Most students have extra time so they end up chatting with friends, filling water bottles, or reading.  1 or 2 minutes  prior to my math timer going off I will run through the day with the kids so that they know what to expect.  I also showcase any special events in my morning message to diminish questions.

At 8:30 math begins, we have a routine every day for the first 5 minutes which include a fact test based on the given day and a hypothetical test questions where they have to come up with 3 wrong answers and one right one.  After that I start my lesson by explaining the goal to them, asking for previous knowledge, and then we start.  I try to limit my talking so often they share in their groups or show me solutions to examples o white boards etc.  By 9:00 I better be done with the lesson so that students can work on their math work and I can work with kids that need extra help or even an extra lesson in something.  We have all the way until 9:45 for math, which is such a huge help.

15 minutes for recess and students come in for 70 minutes of literacy.  The first 10 minutes is snack time so we will often correct the two grammar sentences from the morning and then discuss the lessons goal and check in with student progress.  Every Monday we then do a 20 minute exercise called weekend web, Tuesdays we take 20 minutes to infer meaning behind a selected poem or song (often we sing the song as well), Wednesday and Thursday are dedicated to whichever writing project we have going, and Friday we do 15 minutes of writing Op. Ed.  The remaining time is dedicated to at least 20 minutes of read to self or someone, in which I meet with my daily book club or single students that need an extra conference, and beyond that we work on our writing projects.  It is quite amazing how much we get done in those 70 minutes!

Social studies or science are taught in 45 minute blocks, again we discuss the goal of the lesson (2 minutes max), relate to previous lessons and then are off.  My students rarely need a lot of instruction, in fact, they beg me to not talk at them too much because they would rather just get to work.  I think it helps that at the introduction of any kind of new project we discuss goals, expectations and timeline for it so the kids are keenly aware of the direction we are headed and the purpose of it.

So as you can see, there is nothing magical in my room, just a sense of urgency because we have a lot of fun things to do and learn about and the kids dig that.  We are never in a rush though, just rolling along at a good pace.

education reform, school staff, Student-centered

If Kids Ran the School

Pernille Ripp

Last week I asked my students to blog about what they would change if they had invented school.  While some may think their answers predictable, I think they offer valid suggestions as we move forward in our educational reform.

  • More Recess – while easily dismissed as impossible, I think that this being the top response shows that students need more breaks during instruction.  I do sometimes provide an extra recess if the weather is nice, but often there simply is not time for a full recess experience.  What I can do on a regular basis, though, is to give them partner talk time, free choice for a couple of minutes or even just shift activities more often.  Anything  to offer them some chance for movement and resetting of their brains.
  • 4 Day School Week – It was not that students wanted less time in school, in fact, they suggested longer school days so that they could have 3 days off to be with their family.  I have discussed how much I value family time myself so I can understand the time to just be a kid and to let all of the new information sink in.
  • Allow electronics.  After a recent lunch with my students I was not surprised to hear that most of them had received an Ipod Touch or something similar for Christmas.  I believe, as many do, that the way of the future will be students supplying personal electronic devices alongside schools.  What a great way to incorporate known tools into our learning environment.
  • More choices.  Whether it be choosing your teacher, your room, your learning partner, or just the project, students were begging for more choices in their day.  While I feel my school allows students many choices, this was a great reminder to constantly challenge myself to offer more choices than I perhaps have felt comfortable doing in the past.
  • More fun.  Students wanted to play more math games, chew bubble gum, have lunch with their teachers, play more in the room and just be more creative overall.  

What do you think your students would make their priority?  Is there a way to incorporate ideas from this into your room?  I am certainly trying to.   If you would like to see their full responses, visit our kidblog and leave them a comment or two.

being a teacher, hopes, Student-centered

Must We Grin and Bear It?

Pernille Ripp

Yesterday I shared a blog post regarding my journey from a complicated discipline system to throwing it all out and insetad running a classroom based on respect and communication.  A comment poster by an educator whom I admire, Jeremy MacDonald (@MrMacnology) immediately sparked my interest ( take a moment to read the whole comment). 

He writes,”My daughter has “cards” in her Kinder class. She is absolutely terrified of “pulling a card.” I’ve been to her class to visit her and she is a robot. She’s not my little girl….I know her teacher. How do you approach another teacher, who is in direct contact with your child each day, and tell her that her management is depriving my daughter of enjoying kindergarten; enjoying school?”

What an incredible discussion to start!  Do we, as educators and parents, that perhaps are on a different teaching journey than some teachers, have a way of discussing this with our child’s teacher?  Is there a gentle way that one can help “enlighten” others or must we grin and bear whatever happens in their classroom?

I know that my teaching methods have changed greatly because of interactions with other teachers, however, these have not been parents of mine, but rather colleagues.  How would I feel if a parent came to me and told me how to teach or how I should change something?  I know there has to be a way to initiate this type of conversation, but how?

So let us open up the discussion!  Do you approach the teacher, do you anonymously send them education books, or do you just let it be hoping for a different approach the following year?  Can you start the dialogue or is it not worth it?

classroom expectations, classroom management, our classroom, punishment, rewards, Student-centered

Put Your Name on the Board – a Tale of Why I Gave Up Classroom Discipline Systems

Pernille Ripp
Image from here

Put your name on the board! Those words spoken in a very stern voice accompanied by a teacher look was enough to whip the toughest student into shape. Except when it didn’t which for me was enough times to make me wonder. Could my discipline systems really be thrown out and replaced with nothing? Would chaos then reign supreme?

If you had come by my room last year you would have seen them. Those sticks in the cups or the names on the boards with checks, sometimes double checks and plenty of stern looks to go around. I was doing exactly what I had been taught in school, exerting my control as the main authority figure and if students misbehaved, well, then there was some form of punishment. Oh don’t worry; there were plenty of rewards as well. If students didn’t move their stick or get their name on the board for a week then their name got entered into drawing for pizza with me. At the end of the month if they didn’t have their name in my book for not doing their homework, they could also enter their name, and then I would finally draw names and five lucky students would have pizza with me. Confused? I was! I could hardly keep check Of all those names, checks, and punishments.

However, last year I realized something after reading Alfie Kohn; I knew I had to change. By perpetually focusing negative energy on the same students, who, lets face it, are most often the ones having their name singled out somehow already, I was indeed just adding more to their self doubt. While I believe in discipline for all students, I also believe in compassion and that philosophy simply was not fitting in with my chosen system. So I did as many teachers may do; I threw it all out. However, instead of hunting for a new system, I decided to detox myself, start this year with no system for reward and punishment and instead strive to create a classroom community where students just know what the expectation is.

I was petrified that first month. I run a tough classroom in my expectations for my students and I know that if you do not set the tone those first weeks, it can be detrimental to the rest of the year. And yet I held strong in my conviction that even the more unruly students would eventually figure this out through repeated conversations and respect. And boy, did we talk. We talked about expectations, rules, how to speak to one another, and what to do when something goes wrong. A lot of the time, I just listened to these amazing students come up with solutions to problems, listened to them explain how they envisioned our classroom, how they wanted fourth grade to be. And I was in awe; these kids knew how to behave without me telling them over and over. And they certainly would figure it out without me alternating punishment and rewards.

So after the first month I started to breathe again. I let our new system flex itself and watched the students help keep the classroom stabile. Sure, there are times when I think ooh if I just had a way to “punish” it would fix this and this and then I realize that perhaps I just need to find some time to speak to that particular student. Now instead of an exasperated tone and a system to keep them in check, we discuss, we try to fix, and we reevaluate. I don’t run the classroom with a complicated system of checks and balances, rewards and punishments, but rather with an atmosphere of community, of belonging. Is it perfect? No, but neither am I, nor my students. I am just glad I believed in my own skills enough to realize that perhaps, just perhaps, my students would know how to behave without me rewarding them for it. Once again, they blew away all of my expectations.

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being a teacher, education reform, Student-centered, students

Let Them Speak – Notes from my RSCON#11 Presentation

Pernille Ripp

Just a disclaimer with these; they were written late one night as I was brainstorming what i would present on.  They are not polished but just free thoughts as I went through my slides.

Hi, my name is Pernille Ripp and I am not an expert.  I am a 4th grade teacher in a school with around 450 students and I am on a journey.  A journey into questioning everything I was taught in school, a journey that has led me here today opening up about why my classroom is changing, and hoping to inspire others to question their classroom as well.

Many articles have been written about student centered classrooms, there are many people that know more than me, use them, connect with them on twitter or through the internet.  I am only here to tell you my story, so let’s begin.

Last year I had fantastic students, I felt more confident,  and I had a great team, and yet at the end of the year I was deflated.  I was spent.  I questioned what I was doing as a teacher, why did I teach the way I did and why did the method I had been taught just not seem to work? I shared this with my husband and he asked me, “What can you change?”

So I joined Twitter and started thinking about who I was as a person and how I wanted to be as a teacher.  I also started blogging and doing most of my thinking aloud.  I knew a big problem for me was the amount of control I had in the classroom, it seemed to be a dictatorship at times, and yet, I didn’t know how to change it or whether I could do it at all.

Control – a huge word in education.  In college we are taught tricks on how to control our classroom, or classroom management strategies.  But the control doesn’t stop there, we not only have to control the room, but also the learning.  There are many books written on how to control the learning in your room and we eagerly read them as new teachers, desperate and afraid of not having it.  So if you walk by most traditional classroom settings what you will see is the teacher at the front of the room, talking at the students that are sitting in neat rows all facing the teacher, or at least that was my room. Questions are answered when students raise their hand, or not at all.   It is evident who is in charge.

Some people think the opposite of control must be assumed chaos.  Because if there is not a clear power structure in the room then no one will know how to act, behave or learn.

This was almost my classroom last year, I had pods but still it was all about me.  I was always in control,  carefully planning out every lesson, every step.  There is a beginning point, a middle, a finished  product that then gets graded and handed back.  Once it is handed back to the students that journey is finished.  Students are participants in the stalest form of the word.  They are participating in what the teacher allows them to participate in.  There is no shared control.

So what happens when we give up that control to the students and create a student centered classroom?  Well, most people assume that chaos reigns supreme.  I was one of those people.  I was petrified of the little things, of noise, of clutter, of not being in control at all times.  I thought my classroom would be wild and crazy filled with screaming kids that refused to work.  Instead this is what happened, this is from a regular day doing writing in my classroom.

Student  centered means putting the focus on the students rather than the teacher.  Think of how powerful that statement is.  We think as teachers that that is what we do at all times, but is is not true.  It is often a show put on by the teacher where the students get to watch and do some work, but every step of the way has been predetermined.  The path has been chosen and we are in a hurry to get to our destination.  So when the focus is shifted back to the students we have to ask ourselves how will my students learn this?  How will they explore and get to our goal?  The how becomes just as important as the what.


The first step is to realize that you as the teacher no longer is the only authority on learning.  Students are given control as well and you step back from your big brother role.  To do this you have to realize first what you can let go of and what you cannot.  I knew there were certain things such as interrupting others that I would never be ok with, but many other things such as sitting in desks, rubrics, grades, homework, I could let go of.

So in the truest sense of the words, it is elementary.  We must unlearn some of the lessons from college and our experience and stop hogging the limelight.  And this is much easier than it sounds.

So baby steps becomes the way to first do it.  Many students are not prepared for student centered learning.  Their voice has been hushed or diminished for so many years that we first have to help them find it again.  This can be accomplished through activities already in the first week.  Some things I did was have them create classroom rules, and also have them help me set up the room.  This way they already started taking ownership of our learning environment.  

I also spoke to them about my choices and the why’s behind my decision to get rid of grades and most homework.  For more information on that you can see my blog.  I also kept quiet a lot of the time.  Now I am a talker, but they needed to see that it wasn’t all about me from the very first day.  This is huge.  Set the tone from the very first moment you meet them.  Explain to them the journey you are going on and how you will be challenging them, it was incredible to see the kids get excited about all of my crazy ideas and it was a great way to field any questions right away both from students and parents.

Then began the actual learning and the real challenge begins.  We are so used to being the bringers of learning that we forget what it means to let students explore.  This was and is my biggest challenge.  I still have to stop myself from just talking at students.  So instead, for everything I continuously ask myself what is the goal of this lesson?  If I know the goal, then I can backtrack from there.  An example could be a unit on crayfish, I have a set curriculum I am supposed to guide the students through.  I chose to instead ask the students what they wanted to learn and do with these animals.  I knew the overall goal of the unit was to teach them respect for life and animals.  Well, you can certainly get there in many ways.  By giving the students ownership of the unit, they became much more invested.

so ask yourself what the goal is of your lesson.  Can it be accomplished through an exploration rather than a teacher led discussion?  Most of the time it can.  Another huge lesson for me was to actually inform the students of our goal.  How many of you teach without telling the students what the goal of the lesson is?  I used to until I realized it is like putting someone in a car every day without telling them their destination or purpose of the trip.  It doesn’t make any sense.  Once students know the destination or goal you will be surprised at their methods for getting there.  In fact, students are usually way more creative than I will ever be in coming up with project ideas.

It doesn’t always go perfect though, so then what do you do?  Well, you ask the students what went wrong.  In a recent exploration of Native Americans, my students asked to pick their own research projects and choose their own finished products.  I was scared and excited since this would prove to be my biggest letting go of the year.  I did meet with the kids to hear their project ideas and help them if needed.  It was amazing to watch kids do their thing.  Almost all of the kids were deeply engaged and very, very excited about the project.  When it came time to present their finished project one pair of boys came up and told me they were not done.  In fact, for two weeks there weren’t quite sure what they were really supposed to be doing.  Instead of asking me for help they just made it look like they were busy and when I walked by they were always working on something, or so it seemed.  So what did we learn?  Well all of us learned to ask more questions!  Also for me to tune in even more.  While most kids were ready to do this free of a project, some were not.

This is a major point of student-centered learning; not all students are ready for the same level of freedom.  Some benefit from working with a teacher as facilitator and others can do it on their own.  It also completely depends on the project and can change all of the time.  My students whom others may consider to be struggling did really well in this project.  So make yourself available to all of the students and don’t  be surprised by who asks for help.

Another important aspect of  this type of learning is to really give students an outlet for their voice.  I accomplished this through student  blogging.  I use kidblog.org, which is a free blogging websites particularly for teachers and students.  Greta Sandler did an incredible presentation on the how and why of student blogging, which I have linked in my presentation.  Every week my students have a blogging challenge where I get to either reinforce something we have discussed in class such as protagonist and antagonist, or I pick their brains.  I ask my students questions about the classroom, about me as a teacher, about what they would change, what they like or dislike.  And they are honest!  If you give kids a chance to tell you they will.  We worked hard on how to comment and blog and now it has become one of our biggest tools for communicating.  Never mind all of the people we have connected with throughout the world.  Now when my students talk about projects they try to bring the world in rather than just focusing on their own little world.  This shift in perception could not have been done without student blogging.

So what all of this means to me is really just focusing on the students.  My goal is to make sure that these kids still love going to school when they are done with fourth grade and student-centered learning helps me do that.
ask yourself, what can you let go of?  What do you not need to be in control of?  When can you be quiet?  And continue to question yourself!  I certainly do not have all of the answers and yes some times I have to talk to the students and be the  bringer of knowledge but if you balance that with student led explorations, you will see it becomes less and less you and more them.  And ask the students what and how they want to learn something, they bring quite a bit of knowledge in as well.  As teachers we cannot be the only people with the knowledge, we have to give that power back to the students.  Student-centered learning is the tool to do that.

I thought I would end with letting my students speak for me, because in the end, it is truly all about them.