Category: student voice

aha moment, Be the change, behavior, being me, classroom management, control, punishment, student voice

The Story of A Poster – How Hanging a Consequence Poster Changed the Way I Taught

Pernille Ripp

I remember the poster well,  I had spent more than an hour on it, I had really taken my time to make sure each letter was meticulously printed, outlined, and filled in with sharpie.  In fact, I had started over several times when the result was not quite as eye catching as I wanted it to be.  I remember sending the poster through the laminator holding my breath a bit, after all, sometimes that pesky laminator ate all of my hard work.  Not this time though; this poster made it through and now graced the best location on my wall; right above the sink so that every single time a student washed their hands or threw something out, this poster would catch their eye.   In fact, it hung in the one spot that you could see all the way from the hallway; any person who walked by the classroom would know what mattered most to us.  What was this magical poster that I was so proud of, you may ask?  My consequences for breaking the rules.

Yup, my first two years of teaching the one thing I was most proud off was the poster that stated what would happen if you misbehaved in my classroom.  I loved it.  I thought it sent a clear message to the students about the type of classroom they were in, who held the power, and just what the expectations would be every single day.  I loved that it was the first thing people noticed, after all, that must have meant that others knew how serious I was about classroom management.  That although I was a new teacher, I knew how to control these 4th graders.

I loved the message it sent because it certainly sent one loud and clear; every day my students knew that they could be punished.  That if they screwed up there would be consequences.  That the whole class would know if they had done something wrong, because the very first consequence was to write your name on the board.  If you broke the rules again a check mark got added, and if you broke the rules one more time then it was an automatic phone call home, in front of the class.  Infractions included talking during class, leaving the class without permission, and any kind of rude behavior.  If you were a kid who had trouble sitting still, your name was almost always on the board by the end of the day.  The poster ruled the day.

After two years, when I changed the way I taught, I pulled down that poster.  Terrified of the future and breaking the rules, yet I knew there had to be a better way to handle misbehaviors than what the poster said.  That check-marks and names on the board was not a way to build community, but instead splintered it every single day.  My students didn’t need the constant reminder, they already knew that there were behavior expectations.  They already knew who the teacher was.  They already knew how to behave in school.  What they needed to know instead was that there was also flexibility.  That I saw them as a whole person and not as a person to be controlled or punished into behaving.

When I first hung the consequence poster on my wall, I thought it signaled strength, management, and someone who was on top of their teaching game.  What I didn’t realize was all of the other things it signaled as well.  That this was my classroom, my rules, and that they didn’t have a say in how situations would be handled because the rules were clear.  It told them that every situation, no matter the back-story, would be given the same consequences no matter what.    By hanging that poser on the wall, I could never make my students believe that this was our classroom because the poster would always signal otherwise. It made a liar out of me.

Five years without a consequence poster on my wall and I have no regrets.  My students have shown me that they know who the teacher is, what the expectations are, and that this is a community of learners.   They know if they make poor decisions there will be consequences, but more than likely those consequences will be figured out with them, not thrust upon them without hesitation.  They know that the rest of the class no longer needs to know who is in trouble, because it is a private matter.  I pulled down a poster so that my students would finally believe that within these four walls, we share the control.  Are you able to pull down yours?

I am a passionate teacher in Oregon, Wisconsin, USA but originally from Denmark,  who has taught 4th, 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.  The second edition of my first book “Passionate Learners – Giving Our Classrooms Back to Our Students” will be published by Routledge in the fall.   Second book“Empowered Schools, Empowered Students – Creating Connected and Invested Learners” is out now from Corwin Press.  Join our Passionate Learners community on Facebook and follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.

Be the change, student voice

How I Want to Be Remembered – My Students Tell the World

Pernille Ripp

I asked my students how they wanted to be remembered by the end of 7th grade.  What did they wish that everyone knew, what everyone would think of when their name was spoken.  I asked them to reflect and then write a speech.  Just a minute.  No pressure.  No judgment.  Just their own beliefs about themselves.  I thought it would be easy.  A quick little assignment as we kicked off our quarter long exploration of public speaking.  I was wrong.

The past two days my students have bared their souls.  Put their strengths and challenges out for the world to see.  Looked at their classmates with a leveled head and asked them to take care of what they had to say.  To not judge.  To not snicker.  To not comment, but just embrace.  To see them how they want to be seen and I have been amazed.

Their courage to say who they believe they are.

Their audacity to tell us that they don’t care about school or what others think.

Their purpose of enlightening others who think they may be a freak, a weirdo, someone who doesn’t care, who doesn’t pay attention.

What my students have done takes guts.  They sat poised with their secrets written down and delivered them with a calm face.  Delivered them sometimes with shaky voices and other times with steely gazes.  They did it, because I asked them to, and boy did I learn a lot in the process.

Below, a few of my students have graciously agreed to share their truths.  I have removed their names to protect their privacy.

One student writes:

 When I walk out of OMS on the last day of my eighth grade year I want to be known as a good student not “that one girl with ADHD”. My ADHD shouldn’t define who I am.  I am the only person, thing or disorder that can do that.  One day I told my class a story about how when I was in first grade that’s when the doctors figured out that I had ADHD.  After that class two boys came up to me and one of them said to me “I didn’t know that you have ADHD” I nodded with a light laugh. The other boy had said to me “Yeah, I didn’t know that you were ADHD either.” I looked at him confused and said “I’m not.” That boy then continued to ask questions such as “But that’s what you just said” I smiled again and said to him with a straight face “I said that I have ADHD.  I am a human being not a disorder”.  I have ADHD but I am ADHD . Living with ADHD does have some challenges.  But my ADHD shall not define me. I will not let it. It is just something that I live with daily.   On the last day of my eighth year at OMS when I walk out of the doors i want to be known as a good student not ‘ that one girl with ADHD’.

Another writes:

I want to be remembered as the girl who is everyone’s friend.  If I leave, I want people to remember me as not just another student that went to OMS, but as a human who existed as a joyful child.  I want to be known as not an average kid with school always on my mind but as a Muslim who had different thoughts, religion, dreams, and even feelings.  I want my remembrance to not just be a memory of name but a memory of feelings.  I am the only Muslim in this school, with love in my mind and bravery in my heart.  I don’t want to be labeled as normal.  I am proud of who I am and not afraid to meet new people.  A girl who has opinions but still respected the presence of other human beings.  A girl who cared what people told her and put meaning into the words said to her every day.  To end off, I want my memory to have meaning of where I stood today telling people how important a human life can actually be.

And finally:

I don’t want to be remembered, because being in 7th grade is a small portion of life and when I move away 7th grade wont matter.  I don’t want to be remembered by the little pieces that get you where you are.  Those help but they are just like a speck of paint on a large canvas.  personally, I really don’t care about 7th grade, it’s just another school year to do better than the next and that’s how live our lives, doing the same thing every day.  I think there are bigger things in life to be remembered by.  I don’t see a point of having a legacy in 7th grade, because I like to move on and don’t talk to any of my old teachers from that year.  I think going out of your way to be remembered is not what I want to do.  Honestly, I have o give a craps left for a 7th grade legacy.  Also, I don’t care what my teachers think.  Some of them can’t even teach well.  That’s why I don’t care if I have a legacy in 7th grade.

We think we know our students through the relationships we build.  We think through our careful observations we can discuss the strengths and weaknesses of a child and then help them grow.  We ask the students to describe themselves at the beginning of the year but then often forget to re-ask the question.  How are they now?  How have they grown?  How do they worry?  What do they care about?

We think we know so we forget to ask, but I am telling you; ask them how they want to be remembered.  Have them speak their truths and open your mind to their reality.  My students once again amazed me, and I am not even sure they know.  In their honesty, I found new hope for how my students will change the world.

PS: Hat-tip to Josh Stumpenhorst for the prompt

I am a passionate teacher in Oregon, Wisconsin, USA but originally from Denmark,  who has taught 4th, 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.  The second edition of my first book “Passionate Learners – Giving Our Classrooms Back to Our Students” will be published by Routledge in the fall.   Second book“Empowered Schools, Empowered Students – Creating Connected and Invested Learners” is out now from Corwin Press.  Join our Passionate Learners community on Facebook and follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.

aha moment, choices, inspiration, lessons learned, student voice

Teaching Students How to Speak Well – A Unit to Explore

Pernille Ripp

It had never occurred to me that I haven’t taught my students how to speak well.  After all, for the past 7+ years my students have spoken in front of their peers.  I have told them to stand up straight, to speak clear and loud and to establish eye contact.  That should be enough, right?  Except for the last 7+ years I have also sat through one terrible presentation after another.  Yes, most have spoken loudly, yes, most have had some stilted eye contact, and yes, most have stood up fairly straight.  Yet, most have also been terrible presenters.  No passion, no enthusiasm, no special something that have made them enjoyable to listen to. I figured it was because I taught elementary school and perhaps better speaking skills would develop naturally.

As a 7th grade teacher, now I can see that they don’t.  My 7th graders still present fairly poorly and I realized, with the help of Erik Palmer, that we need to teach how to speak well.  Not just assume that students will figure it out over the years.  We need to teach it early, we need to teach it often, and we need to teach it every year.  So I have snagged ideas from Erik’s article and adapted them to fit our purpose.  Feel free to use and make your own and check out his other resources as well, it has been easy and fun to use.

The main idea I have borrowed from Erik is his 6 points of what a great speaker does.  These have been the framework for this week and as we go forward.  It has been essential for my students to have common language and a framework to develop them as speakers and this is what Erik discusses quite well.

These have been the guiding points for our lessons and have also been the base points of our rubric.

While we will be doing speeches all quarter, our first assignment was given on the very first day of the quarter to give the students a goal to work toward.  Assignment:  Create a one minute speech answering “How do you want to be remembered at the end of 7th grade?” (Thank you Josh Stumpenhorst for the inspiration).  To see the entire assignment, see here.

I have tweaked their first speak to be given in a circle format.  Our school uses counseling circles/restorative justice circles throughout the year and every Tuesday all of our students do circles with their homeroom teacher.  This format for delivering a speech means that my students are automatically more comfortable, which is a huge barrier in 7th grade.  They are so worried about what their peers are thinking about them.  And that is something I have faced head on when I have been teaching them how to speak.  My biggest tool has been my own enthusiasm and tendency to screw up and laugh about it.  I have no problem making mistakes in front of them to take the pressure off of them.

So what have we been doing?  Note: these lessons are about 10 minutes long, maybe 15 depending on the discussions.

Big talking points every single day:

  • What have they been taught in the past and why they need to learn better skills.
  • The need to trust others when we speak or at the very least assume that others mean us well when they watch.
  • The need to step a little out of their comfort zone.
  • That speaking well is a life skill, something that will help them be more successful in life.

Poise

Student definition:  Your swag, or how you use your body to match your message.

  • Discuss what is poise, have the students get up and move showing you poise.  They started off very hesitantly, which is ok, I have been taking baby steps.
  • Every student gets a Shell Silverstein poem and are told to practice speaking it aloud.  I then fishbowl the next activity – perform the poem just worrying about poise, none of the other things, and have their mirror (partner) critique them kindly.
  • I then partnered them up randomly and had them perform the poems in front of just their partner.  I helped them coach each other and we talked about how to give kind criticism that allows others to grow.

Voice

Student definition:  Controlling how you speak to match the message.

  • Discuss what is voice, why it is important to take control of your voice and how it is not just all about being loud and clear at all times.
  • Video clips of powerful speakers.  After giving them background knowledge about Hitler and his powers of persuasion, I showed them a one minute clip with no subtitles just so they could see how he used his speaking skills to incite people.  This really caused a reaction in my students because they saw how powerful being a great speaker can be and how that power can be used for good or evil.
  • I then juxtaposed that with clips of Gandhi and Nelson Mandela who used their voices in much different manners and yet still had people follow them.
  • The students then worked on what type of voice would be needed for their speech assignment.

Life

Student definition:  The passion you bring to your speech has to match your message.

  • We faced our demons head on this day as we discussed why most 7th graders have a hard time speaking in front of people.  This was excellent because the kids offered very honest answers about their fear of being judged by others or screwing up.
  • I then told them about major screw ups I have had as a teacher such as substituting words in read alouds for the wrong very bad words, clean underwear falling out of my pant leg while teaching thanks to static, and other fun things that happen when you are a teacher.
  • I read aloud Pigeon Wants a Puppy by Mo Willems and did the emotions and voices.  I actually made them laugh out loud because I went there, something that is hard to get 7th graders to do.  This was important because they needed to see me let down my barriers.  Then we talked about allowing us to be silly when we need to be such as when we read picture books aloud and I promised them that I would be the craziest person that day.
  • We discussed why it can be extra hard to read aloud in front of others because we worry about screwing up the words.
  • They then each got one line or two from Jabberwocky, a phenomenal nonsense poem by Lewis Carroll.  Why this poem?  Because students can’t mess up the pronunciation of the words, who knows how they are supposed to be pronounced?  They got one minute to practice how they were going to perform their line with as much life in their voice as they could.
  • I lined them up in order and each student performed their line.  Some classes we did it twice to allow the kids to build up their courage.
  • This was awesome, the kids laughed – laughed!  And not at each other but with each other.  This was a huge break through for my kids.

Eye Contact

Student definition:  How we look at our audience and how they look at us

  • We did different things in different classes based on their unique mix of personalities:
    • Most classes I did an eye contact experiment: Two students sat in front of the class while two other students came up.  The two seated students shut their eyes and then had to report whether the other two students were looking at them or not.  Most of the time they were wrong.  We did it a few times.  Mission: To prove that not everyone is looking when we think they are.
    • I had note-cards with different emotions on and we used them in different ways.  Some classes stood in a circle and acted out the emotions.  Others found a partner to do it.
    • Some classes I did an emotion charade scavenger hunt competition.  All students got an emotion but was not allowed to say it or tell others about it.  Four kids each got the same emotion (anger, sadness, excitement etc) and when I said go the students had to try to find their group partners without talking and gesturing, they could only use their emotion charades.  First team to correctly assemble got a prize.
    • All of these things may not seem like they have a lot to do with eye contact but they do; students had to pay attention and use their facial expressions to express their feelings.  This is all part of doing eye contact well and definitely helped students push themselves out of their comfort zone a little.

Gestures

Student definition:  How our hand/body movements tell our message.

  • I have note-cards with different statements on them (“Yes, we won!, No….., What happened?” and such) and students will be acting them out using gestures, with no voice.
  • We also acted out different versions of the same words, such as “no, ok, and I’m sorry…”
  • Students will have to give directions of how to do something to their partner using only gestures, such as how to tie a shoe, how to mail a letter, how to make spaghetti.  Their partner will have to try to guess what they are doing.
  • We will also try to make emotions with our hands, so what do our hands do if we are sad, if we are confused, if we are happy and such.  The key is building awareness of our own bodies so we can control them when we speak.

Speed

Student definition:  How fast or slow we speak.

  • We will watch clips of “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” Speech paying attention to the way Martin Luther King Jr. changes his pacing to emphasize his message.   I also have various other clips of speakers to show up, just snippets so they can see speakers speak well.  It is important that students get a sense of many types of speakers; male and female, present and past.
  • Each student will decide which picture book to act out by themselves or with a partner, I have grabbed a stack of Mo Willems and Dr. Seuss for them to work on all of the elements.  They will work on all elements that we have been working on.
  • They will not perform in front of the class but instead in small groups and then kindly critique each other.

And that’s how we are starting.

As we move forward this quarter, I am excited to give them continued opportunities to speak and speak well.  Next year, this will be starting off the year.  Not only are we becoming better communicators, we are also building community.  The students are slightly kinder, slightly more relaxed, and having a bit more fun in English because they are all acting a little bit silly, getting into something a little bit more, and yet developing essential skills at the same time.  I am sad that I hadn’t taught this before but at least I can correct my ways starting now.  All students deserve to have the opportunity to become great speakers and their practice starts with us.

I am a passionate teacher in Oregon, Wisconsin, USA but originally from Denmark,  who has taught 4th, 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.  The second edition of my first book “Passionate Learners – Giving Our Classrooms Back to Our Students” will be published by Routledge in the fall.   Second book“Empowered Schools, Empowered Students – Creating Connected and Invested Learners” is out now from Corwin Press.  Join our Passionate Learners community on Facebook and follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.

Be the change, being a teacher, being me, student choice, student voice

My Students Don’t Want to Make All the Time And I Am Okay With That

Pernille Ripp

We seem to think that all students want to just be left alone to make and create.  That if given the choice, the students would love school so much more if we just provided them with big picture goals and then let them meander along their own path to get there.  That they need time to just think and do, without too much interference from the teacher.  That if we give them enough tools and enough freedom then their inner passion will be awakened and they will discover their destiny.  That school is breaking the creative spirit of all children by not providing freedom and that we must get back to making all of the time.  Yet is this true?  Is this really what all children need?

I bring this up because it seems that in our voyage to overhaul school we seem to be going to a new extreme; one that assumes that all students want to make.  That all students are passionate artists held back by the confinement of school. I am not sure this is true though,  at least it isn’t, according to my students.

My students are telling me that they want choice all the time, but that one of the choices should always be to follow a path set forth by the teacher.

My students are telling me that they would like to create sometimes but that other times they need ideas for what they can create.

My students are asking to not be left alone at all times.  That they need guidance and vision, that they need help, because they don’t know always know where they are going or what they are trying to do. Sometimes they don’t need me right there, but sometimes they do.

My students are telling me that for most of them it is not enough to just know where they need to end, but they need to know how to get there as well.  And that is my job, their job, and why we are in a classroom.

My students are telling me that a teacher’s job is to teach and that they would like to to learn and sometimes that means sitting and listening, not doing, not inventing, not creating.  That constantly making is exhausting, and not in a great way.  That there must be balance in all of our classrooms.

That doesn’t mean that they are broken.  That doesn’t mean they will not be successful adults.  That does not mean that school somehow has robbed them of their creativity or of their voice.  It doesn’t mean that we have successfully indoctrinated all students to believe they are un-creative, it simply means that they are kids learning.  That they are kids who want to experiment but not be on their own.  That we need to ask our students and then listen to what they all say and then cater our teaching to reach all of them.  Not assume they don’t need us anymore.  Not assume that school will only be a place that holds them back unless we remove all constraints.

Once again, we must make school about the kids we teach not the kids we think we teach.  Those kids need us, all of us, all of the time.  And they may need us in ways we don’t realize, our job is to figure it out and then stop assuming they don’t mean what they say.  When they say they want a teacher to teach them that is not inherently bad, it just means they are not quite ready, and that is perfectly ok.

I am a passionate teacher in Oregon, Wisconsin, USA but originally from Denmark,  who has taught 4th, 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.  The second edition of my first book “Passionate Learners – Giving Our Classrooms Back to Our Students” will be published by Routledge in the fall.   Second book“Empowered Schools, Empowered Students – Creating Connected and Invested Learners” is out now from Corwin Press.  Join our Passionate Learners community on Facebook and follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.

aha moment, assumptions, being me, MIEExpert15, Passion, student voice

Why Do We Hold Students to Higher Expectations Than Adults?

Pernille Ripp

I told one class today that I was not there for their sheer entertainment.  I didn’t raise my voice, nor did I yell.  I simply stated it and asked them to step it up, to show engagement, to show me that what we were doing mattered to them because I could tell they were checked out and it made me unhappy.  And then we continued on with what we were doing.  Just another moment teaching 7th grade.

Yet, as it popped back into my mind, a seemingly insignificant moment from my day, I now see what a missed opportunity it was.  Not for another lecture, but instead to realize that these are kids that I am teaching.  Kids that we hold to insanely high expectations every single day.  Every single day, we expect full commitment in every subject matter.  We expect passion.  We expect interest.  We expect a willingness to try, to create, to experience   We expect them to pay attention, to shut everything out except for what’s in front of them.  We expect total compliance with all of our rules.  At.  All. Times.  No Excuse.

Yet as adults those same expectations don’t apply to us.  Go to any staff meeting or professional development opportunity and you will see adults not paying attention all of the time, not trying all of the time, not tuning in all of the time.  Not because we don’t want to.  Not because we don’t find it engaging, but because we can’t.  No one can.  Our brains need a break, and we know it. So we allow ourselves to fidget, to whisper, to slouch, to shift our attention for a moment, because we know we need it.

So why do we forget this fundamental truth when we create our learning environments?  Why do we forget that in the very place where we are trying to fire up as many brain cells as possible, that those same brain cells needs a moment to recover, to regroup, to make new connections?  That kids need a moment.  That these kids are trying.  That these kids do want to learn and most days are giving us the best they have. And yes, I get why we have to have high expectations, we are teaching them to be better humans, but at some point we also need to give them a break, because they are human beings first not just learners.

So tomorrow, I will remember that when my students start to slouch, when they start to whisper, when they start to drift, it’s not a reflection always on what we are doing, but more that they are in school and have been working for x amount of hours before they got to me.  It’s not always that they don’t care, it’s not always that they don’t want to learn, it’s not always that they are bored.  Sometimes they are just full and it is up to us to help them through.

I am a passionate teacher in Oregon, Wisconsin, USA but originally from Denmark,  who has taught 4th, 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.  The second edition of my first book “Passionate Learners – Giving Our Classrooms Back to Our Students” will be published by Routledge in the fall.   Second book“Empowered Schools, Empowered Students – Creating Connected and Invested Learners” is out now from Corwin Press.  Join our Passionate Learners community on Facebook and follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.

aha moment, being a teacher, Passion, student voice

Another Failed Lesson Thanks to My Students And Me

Pernille Ripp

It was meant to be easy.  It was meant to be epic.  It was meant to show off what I thought I already knew; how my students had mastered everything there was to know about theme, evidence, and how to do a great presentation.  Yet, a few presentations in on Tuesday, it was pretty clear that this was not epic but instead a massively big failure.  And I got upset.  After all, these kids have had 2 months to work on this as they have been in book clubs for that long.  All I had asked them to do was choose their book, discuss and read at their pace, and in the end create a book talk in whichever format they chose.  I gave them plenty of time and plenty of choice.  What could be so hard about that?

While some rose to the occasion, most did not.  Yet instead of assuming that I knew why this had turned so awful, I asked them what happened.  A few in each class bravely raised their hands even though they knew I was upset…

“We weren’t sure what you exactly wanted…”

“We felt overwhelmed by how long we had to do it…”

“Our group didn’t work so well together so we got distracted…”

“We didn’t put in much effort…”

“We didn’t think you would get so upset…”

“We had other things to do…”

And they waited for my reaction, expecting me to get madder.  Yet as I looked at my students, I couldn’t help but just be a little bit proud of their answers.  Sure I was upset over all of the wasted time, how they hadn’t stepped up to my expectations.  Yet here they were, class upon class, with the guts to tell me that they didn’t think it was important.  That they didn’t think I would care as much as I did.  That they pretty much dropped the ball and now had to face the consequences.  And I realized in that moment, that this lesson wasn’t about theme, opinions, or even how to be a great speaker.  It was about guts and failure; having the guts to embrace their failure, discuss it, and actually learn from it.

How often do our students actually tell us the truth when it comes to their own mistakes?  I know we talk about modeling and embracing our failure, but do our students actually pick up on it and do it as well?  Not often enough.

The next day, we watched Diana Laufenberg’s amazing TED talk on learning from failure.  Not what I had planned but it was what we needed.  My students loved her message; yes to learning from failure, yes to allowing students to fail, in fact, they got pretty passionate about it, started to argue why school doesn’t let them just fail so they can figure it out.  I chuckled a bit and then reminded them; many had failed the day before.  Here was their chance to show me everything they knew.  To not let one presentation define them.  Silence.  Then it clicked. Not for all, but for many.

While I had huge dreams of of the great content that students would have shown me on Tuesday, I am now thankful they didn’t.  They needed the freedom to fly and to fall.  They needed the freedom to to not care, to push off, to procrastinate.  Because I can preach about failure, I can preach about personal responsibility.  I can even preach about letting them try and picking themselves up when they fall.  Or they can experience it.  We say we want kids to be afraid of failing and yet still try, yet how often do we have opportunities for just that?  My students taught me again.  It is because of them I want to keep trying to be a better teacher and that includes having lessons fail in the most epic way.

I am a passionate teacher in Oregon, Wisconsin, USA but originally from Denmark,  who has taught 4th, 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.  The second edition of my first book “Passionate Learners – Giving Our Classrooms Back to Our Students” will be published by Routledge in the fall.   Second book“Empowered Schools, Empowered Students – Creating Connected and Invested Learners” is out now from Corwin Press.  Join our Passionate Learners community on Facebook and follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.