student voice – Page 14

assumptions, attention, being a teacher, being me, student voice

All Hail the Kids

March 6, 2015 Pernille Ripp

I never thought I would be the parent of a child who couldn’t pay attention. Who had a million ideas in her head except for the one she should be focusing on. Who tries so hard to look you in the eye yet can only last for a few seconds because that thought she just had is just so amazing and she has to tell it you right now. Even though you are talking. Even though now is not the time to interrupt. I never thought my child would struggle with reading. I never thought my child would struggle with sitting still. I never thought she would be like this. After all, I did what good parents do.

Yet, here she is, in a school that embraces her wholeheartedly and yet those amazing qualities she has; her imagination, her need for movement, her sense of righteousness and independence don’t seem to always fit in a school day’s work. She doesn’t really fit the system’s definition of what good girls do. Because good girls pay attention when asked. Good girls look you in the eye. Good girls are friends with everybody. Good girls know how to do school. Good girls are teacher-pleasers, peacekeepers, and direction followers. Not wild girls with crazy hair, incredible ideas, and a need to go go go. Thank goodness her teacher loves her.

My child doesn’t fit the mold of what a girl should be and yet she amazes me. The stories she tells are far-fetched and fantastic. The way she carries her emotions and feels others’ pain. How angry she gets when she feels the world is against her. How she declares everyone her best friend. She doesn’t know what good girls are supposed to be like, and I hope she never does. Because in her I have found an independence I never knew a child could have. In her I have found the realization that not all girls will act like girls, but they will still be good. And also not all boys will act like boys are supposed to but they will still be good boys.

All hail the girls that break the mold. The boys who dare to defy. The kids who make us worry and yet continue to captivate us when we wonder what they will do next. There has to be room in our schools for them. Not just the kids that are easy to teach. Not just the kids that do as we ask. All hail the kids who are themselves in a world that tries to define them.

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, student voice

Treated As One – A Poem by A Student

February 27, 2015 Pernille Ripp

I tell my students to speak boldly, and they do. Thank you Corinne for letting me share your poem.

Treated As One

1.5, 2.9, 3.4, 4.0

Grade point averages

They define who we are.

People walk around school saying

“I got an A”-4.0

“I have a learning disability”-1.5

“I don’t understand”-2.9

“I’m not good enough”-3.4

People always say “Everyone is different”

Well if everyone is different why do we ALL

have to take the same test?

Why do we have one grading system

for six schools with hundreds of kids.

I know life isn’t always fair but school should be.

Because school is where you practice

It’s where you practice what you’ll later need.

Why is a group of different people

taught in one way?

A way where half of the kids don’t understand,

and then the teachers have to say to their parents

“They don’t put in enough effort”

When maybe they think in a different way

I speak for my dyslexic sister

who has to get tutored two times a week

She has told me many times

“I don’t understand”

It’s such a sad thing to see a brilliant mind get

shut away because of what the other kids will say

She once had a teacher that said

she used the word dyslexic as an excuse

to get out of reading

When she hadn’t even read the papers that diagnose her.

My sister is one out of thousands

who don’t get treated fair,

We all just have to live with being

treated as one

All though we are more.

aha moment, being a teacher, education reform, student choice, student voice

Not All Students Want To Change the World

February 27, 2015February 27, 2015 Pernille Ripp

“But I don’t want a voice to the world…” he stands with a determined look on his face, expecting me to challenge his decision. “They don’t need to see what I write or what I have to say,” he continues, “It’s none of their business…” And with that, my students have once again challenged my assumptions and I need to change the way I teach. Again.

So what else have my students proved me wrong in, well quite a bit, but here are the biggest.

Not all students want a voice. From 4th to 7th grade I always have students that don’t want their private thoughts, work, or writing published to the world. Never assume that every child wants their work published or shared, ask first, we would expect the same thing if it were us.

Not all students want to make. I thought when I started doing more hands-on learning that all students would jump for joy, and while some certainly do, there are also students who go into absolute terrified mode when presented with anything abstract. Those kids need to fit into our innovative classrooms as well, so offer choices in how they learn, don’t just assume they want to create something from nothing or do their own version.

Not all students want choice. Some kids just want to be told what to do, not always, not on everything, but some kids need more structure or support through some things. If we only cater to the creative child who relishes freedom then we are not teaching all of the students in front of us.

Not all students want to change the world. While we may shout about empowered students and how they are going to change the world, not every child wants to change the world, they just want to be kids.

I have learned that while I may love to change the way education is done in classrooms around the world, I need to make sure I don’t disenfranchise students more by assuming they all want to learn like I do. So make room for all of the learners in your world, support them all as they grow, and don’t judge. Push them forward but be gentle in your approach and ask the students first.

assessment, assumptions, Be the change, being a teacher, education reform, No grades, student voice

What My Students Told Me – Students Take on Grades

February 26, 2015April 24, 2015 Pernille Ripp

I thought teaching 7th graders would mean that they had a cool distance to school. That they knew that the grades we give reflect the work they do. That a report card is not meant as a slap in the face, but rather a tool to be used as they grow toward their goal. I thought that moving from letter grades to standards based meant students would get it better, would embrace the chance to see what they needed to focus on and then work harder to master their deficits. Yet again what I thought has proven to not be so, so when I asked my students their thoughts on grades so that I could add their voice to the re-publication of Passionate Learners, I had to take a moment to digest what they told me. It wasn’t what they said about whether teachers should grade or not, it was how they reacted to the grades they were given.

Once again, I am the mouthpiece for my students, they asked that I please share this with the world in the hope that it will inspire change. In the hope that it will inspire discussion, that we will take their thoughts and use them to push our own. So what my students wish teachers knew about grades is simple, yet significant. I hope it makes you think.

That they feel they have little to no control over what grade they get. Even in a standards-based grading district, where I ask them to show me mastery with deconstructed standards using rubrics we have created together, they still feel that they have little control over how they are assessed, and more importantly what that assessment means to them. Now imagine how students feel when they haven’t created the rubric, self-assessed, or deconstructed the standards. They don’t understand the rubrics we give, they don’t understand at times what they should know to be labeled proficient. They don’t understand the number they are given. They crave feedback and conversation, rather than a number or letter. They crave classrooms that relish growth, failure, and attempts at learning.

That grades means they are done. The minute we grade something, they are done with it. It is the signal they need to move on, no matter that I teach in a district that allows and encourages re-takes for everything. If we want them to continue working on something then we should give feedback but no scores.

That grades sometimes become the one thing that their parents look at, nothing else. The minute a grade is placed on something that is all their parents can focus on. Their parents don’t always care about the effort, they don’t always care about the growth, just what the final result is. The conversations then centers around reaching the “3” or the “4,” to get that A, rather than what they learned, how they liked it, and what they are working on next.

That a grade tells them whether they are smart or not. We may say that grades are in their control and that they don’t reflect how smart they are, but they are not listening. If you get good grades, you must be smart, if you don’t well then you are dumb. Grades are leading them to a fixed mindset, rather than the growth mindset we are all hoping for.

That publishing honor rolls or GPA’s mean that their private learning is now public. We may see releasing these names as a way to celebrate their learning, but many of my students says it just creates a divide. And it’s not the students who are not on honor roll that said this to me, no, over and over it was the students that made it. They didn’t see their accomplishments as anyone else’s business.

That grades are for the future, not for the now. So many of my students reported that grades mattered because they want to go to college, and while at first I found this to be great (they care about the future!) I soon realized that this is so far from the purpose of what school should be. Students should keep an eye on the future, yes, but they should also keep an e eye on the now. They should be focused on the learning journey they are currently on and be excited to see their own growth and how it will help them right now, not 6 years from now.

Once again, my students are pushing me to change the way I asses in the classroom. While I strive to give them meaningful feedback, I have slipped from my ways. That’s what happens when you teach more than 100 students. Yet, the numbers I am so carefully doling out are not helping them grow, so I am not doing my job as their teacher. My students are making me a better teacher, imagine if we asked all of our students what grades means to them?

aha moment, Be the change, being a teacher, being me, Passion, Personalized Learning, student voice

What Story Are You Telling?

February 25, 2015 Pernille Ripp

My students told me to stand proud. To make sure I made eye contact. To speak up and smile. Maybe play music and crack a joke. To do all of the things I ask them to do every time they speak. “Tell them what we tell you…we need to change school, no joke”

I stand today, privileged to speak to other educators about the way we do education, about the things we may want to change. I stand today ready to carry my students’ words out into the world. I stand today, nervous and with butterflies in my stomach, knowing that those things my students tell me day after day now have an audience to be passed on to. I don’t want to let them down.

Yet, I am not alone. All of us that write, all of us that speak, all of us that go out and discuss education whether globally or locally, we carry the words of our students with us. We carry the awesome responsibility that comes with being in classrooms or schools every day. We carry the knowledge of what may work work and what definitely doesn’t. We carry the words students give us so that they have a voice. We carry the stories of our students and what they do every day. We carry their words when they can’t.

So before we speak of THAT kid that drove us crazy. Before we speak of THAT class that just wouldn’t listen. Before we speak about THAT school that didn’t work; remember that we choose what the narrative of education is. Remember that within our words we carry all of their words, all of their thoughts, all of their hopes. We just have to decide what we share with the world. We decide what story is told about education; one of frustration or one of change. The choice is always ours.

aha moment, MIEExpert15, principals, student voice

Why I Asked My Principal to Observe My Craziest Class

February 19, 2015 Pernille Ripp

I gave up putting on a dog and pony show for my observations several years ago. I had reached the pinnacle of coaching, asking my students to please be on their best behavior as I was being observed, bribing them with treats if they would just be great when my principal walked in. After that observation, where I received nothing but accolades for my classroom management – yeah for bribing – I realized that I had to change. My attitude had to change, at least when it came to being observed.

Yesterday, I invited my phenomenal principal into my craziest class. Not as a stop by visit, but as my second official observation for the craziness that is Educator Effectiveness, or the way my teaching quality will be known here in Wisconsin. I invited her in to see how I am trying to harness the energy of these students, how I am trying to wok with their behaviors, tap into their quirks, rather than smother them by yelling. And yet, I wanted throw up before she came into the room.

Even after 7 years and some months of teaching, having a principal in my room makes me so nervous. I thought of calling in sick. I thought of changing the time of the observation so she would see that one class where all of the kids need little direction, that one class where every plan always works out. That class that makes you look like an incredible teacher even though you know that it is not really because of what you are doing but because the kids are so well-behaved. That’s the class I would have been observed in a few years ago. And I know exactly how that observation would have gone; great praise, little feedback on what to work on because everything was so wonderful, meaning no growth for me.

But I didn’t, I forced myself to follow through with my plan, hoping that things would work out alright. Hoping that my students would at least attempt what we were doing not just give up, settle in after only about 5 minutes, and perhaps even have a great discussion. I held my breath the entire time. Yet, as I sat teaching the mini-lesson, noticing how a kid that should have been writing was instead tapping his pencil playing songs, another kid had their head down, and another kid would not stop talking, inwardly cringing as I saw my principal noticing too. I realized something; all the other students were working. The 5 that sat in front me coming up with such great ideas. The 2 that sat and whispered together pointing to their paper. The kid with the pencil listening in to what I said in my mini-lesson and yelling out “Now I get it!” and then started to write. I noticed those moments too. I noticed our classroom functioning in its typical way, and I noticed that for those kids, the tapping, the whispering, the staring blankly; it works.

So the next time I am observed, I will invite once again to the class that hangs by a thread. To the class that I know pushes me the hardest. To the class that keeps me up at night. My principal is here to support me, to guide me on my journey, not to just clap her hands and tell me “Great job!” If I don’t invite her into the class where I need her ideas, then I will not grow, and growing is what we all need to do every day, every opportunity. Never will I go back to bribing a class. Never will I prep a class beforehand. Never will I ask a class to please behave because I am getting observed. I will instead teach my heart out and wait for the feedback, hoping that among the chaos, my principal sees the greatness that I see, and can help me further my teaching. Will you?

PS: I was worried my students thought they had to put on a show until a kid asked me if he could please continue to work on the science project he had been working on instead of reading. Nope! They hadn’t changed even though the principal was there.