Pernille Ripp

Those who know me may know how long I have been mulling over this post. How long these thoughts have been percolating, simply based on how many times I have brought it up in conversation. You see, it’s been bugging me for a while, yet I know so many amazing principals that call themselves “Lead learner” that I have been afraid to say anything because I am not here to hurt, nor here to make others feel bad. But the whole lead learner title, can we discuss it for a moment? And perhaps rethink the use of it?

Before people get upset or chalk it up to me not understanding, hear me out. I know what the title “lead learner” is supposed to signify, I have had many conversations with people who have explained their intent, and for that I am grateful, because those conversations have helped me understand the title more. What I have found is that most who use the title use it to show that they are role models of learning within their community. They use the title to show staff that they are still learning, that their job is to lead the learning, that the learning doesn’t stop just because someone becomes a principal. They call themselves the lead learner so that others can see how serious they take the position and the enormous task it is to be an incredible principal. There, though, lies my problem.

You see when we give ourselves titles, and let’s be honest, the title of “lead learner” is usually bestowed upon a person by themselves, we shut others out. When we say that we are in the lead, whether it be in learning or other ventures, then others can never lead for more than a short period of time When we say that we are the ones that lead the learning, then we have fully cemented the power structure within a school; the principal is completely in the lead and everyone else follows behind. Teachers will never be leaders within their learning, because that position has already been taken. Yet that power structure is what so many of us are hoping to change so that we can have empowered schools; learning community where everyone’s voice matters and it doesn’t matter what title someone holds, their words still hold power.

So when someone calls themselves a lead learner that message of wanting an empowered staff gets muddled, and I don’t think that is the intent. In fact, I would ask anyone who uses this title to ask their staff and anyone else what that title signifies to them. I asked my husband tonight, who is not in education, and his response was eye opening; a lead learner is someone who makes the final decision and brings the learning back for others to then pursue. His interpretation is not what I think most principals want to be viewed as. So although, I may know why someone has chosen to call themselves the “Lead learner” I wonder if others that haven’t asked the meaning behind it do? I don’t see an asterisk next to the title nor an explanation every time it is used. So those deeper intentions of a symbolic title do not come across as meaningful, they seem to come across as limiting or in the very least unnecessary, which I know is not the intention.

As always though, don’t take my word for it. I am, after all, just one teacher with one opinion. Ask your staff; ask them how they feel about the title. Ask them what it means to them that you are the lead learner. I told you what it means to me, but I may be wrong, that has happened many times before. Know though, that when an email signature states someone as the lead learner within a school, a Twitter profile, or whichever public platform being used, that it may say things about that person that are not intentional and not always for the better. We live within a society that thrives on titles and their meanings, so when we give ourselves titles that cannot be shared with others, then we are in fact creating ranks within our schools and telling the world about it.

While I don’t have a better title that would symbolize what it means to be a principal, I am not so sure we even need one. I think that title “principal”, within itself, holds so many connotations of what it means to be a great leader that I don’t think more are needed. Or perhaps just drop the “lead,” just be a learner, just like the rest of us. Doesn’t being a learner mean that you know when to take the lead and when to let others? What do you think?

I am a passionate teacher in Oregon, Wisconsin, USA, 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. First book “Passionate Learners – Giving Our Classrooms Back to Our Students” can be purchased now. Second book“Empowered Schools, Empowered Students – Creating Connected and Invested Learners” is out now from Corwin Press. Follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.

advice, being me, education, new year

Be Careful – My Words for the New Year

January 4, 2015 Pernille Ripp

I seem to have guiding statements every so often that come into my life and shape my future. Shape the way I teach, shape the way I speak, shape the way I act. In the past I have been brave. I have been passionate. I have been happy and I have been fearless. But this year I feel my life taking a different turn, and while I continue to tell myself and others to be brave, to be happy, to be passionate, to be fearless, I also want to say be careful.

Be careful with your words, because what we say matters.

Be careful with your risks, take them and own them and don’t be ashamed. Share them with the world, share them with your students, share them with people who care, you don’t have to keep wasting your time on people who don’t.

Be careful with your dreams and that you don’t extinguish them yourself out of fear. The future may be unknown but you set the path to follow.

Be careful with your students, we get one chance to show them that we care about them, don’t waste it on minor problems.

Be careful with the way you spend your time, there is truly only so much you can do in a day.

Be careful with your small conversations, those moments in the hallways, those moments at lunch, those moments in passing, because those are the ones most people remember so make them worthwhile.

Be careful with your public statements, we jump to conclusions and social media only allows us too much of a platform. Use it for good. Use it to lift others up. Use it to debate, but use it to debate kindly.

Be careful with your choices, make sure your heart is in it, don’t just say yes because you should, but say yes when you mean it and then really mean it.

Be careful with your passion. Yes, change is great, your ideas matter, and yes, there are probably other ways something can be done, but others have passion too. Don’t diminish theirs to highlight your own. Build a bridge, compromise, and listen to each other. Believe in yourself but spend just as much time believing in others.

Be careful with yourself. Stop belittling and battling yourself. Take care of you so that others may have the chance to care as well. Be proud of who you are and allow yourself to change. Allow yourself to try. Allow yourself to pull back and heal when needed.

Be careful but don’t be so careful that you do not change. That is my wish for 2015.

being a teacher, education, ideas, MIEExpert15, Passion, writing

5 + 1 Simple Ideas to Make Writing Fun Again

January 2, 2015January 2, 2015 Pernille Ripp

Over and over their comments come.

“…I hate writing…”

“…Please don’t make me write…”

“…Writing is soooo boring…”

And with each comment, I am grateful for my 7th graders honesty and also very, very challenged. How do you make writing fun again when all of the joy has disappeared for some? How do you make writing something students want to do, or at the very least don’t hate, when you have a curriculum to get through? How do we continue to inspire students to become writers, even when facing so many old writing demons? Two weeks off have given me some time to think, so here is what I have realized.

Writing cannot be for me. Writing has to be personal and for an audience. Not a made up one, although they can come in handy, but an actual real live audience that will give feedback on the writing. Whether it is for a class across the hallway, the local paper, or any connection you can make; establish a purpose and then have that audience give feedback. My students’ writing grew immensely when they knew they were writing for “real” kindergarten and first grade classrooms. This also is why we blog, they know people are reading their writing.
It is okay if they don’t write. I forget that I only write when I am inspired and how hard writing is when it is “on demand.” Yet, on demand writing is what we ask students to do every single day and we expect it to be great writing! Sometimes, we just need time to think, to ponder, to reflect, to doodle, to stare into nothing. Not every day, because yes there are still things to cover, but we seem to have forgotten that a lot of writing happens in our head before anything is even written down. So allow students to think, help them along if they are stuck, allow them conversations and to look outside of themselves for inspiration. Yes, this takes time away from covering curriculum but writing needs to be less forced and more organic.
Know when to publish, rather than revise. We get to so caught up in having students continually revise that sometimes we forget to just let a piece go. Even if it is not perfect. Even if it is not finished. Too often we force students to revise, edit, and revise some more so that we can see their best writing for every single piece, yet writers don’t do that. They pursue their best piece, abandon others, and sometimes circle back. We have to offer students an opportunity to decide when something is finished and then let it stand by itself. Even if that means publishing a blog that is not their best writing, even if it means showing me unfinished work.
Allow for 5 minutes of free write. I plan on incorporating 5 minutes of free write into my tight 45 minute schedule. Just as I devote 10 minutes to read independently, I have to devote time for them to just create, think, and possibly write something. Whether it is a story, a journal, a doodle, a poem, whatever it is, they need the time to get into writing mode. This will not be graded, nor will it be read by me most days.
Enough with the grades. I am not a fan of letter grades or even scores when it comes to all writing. Yes, there is a place for teaching writing through final feedback, but we tend to get so grade heavy that students can’t see any of the progress they have made, nor the feedback they are receiving. As one of my colleagues told me regarding her writing experience in high school, “…There was so much red pen on my papers when I got them back, I just threw them away without reading any of it.” That’s what an overabundance of grades and feedback can do. Instead, have students pick a piece they want graded and have them explain why this represents them as a writer. Our lens should be on providing specific and short feedback that can boost their writing skills, not continually grading their practice writing.

And yes, as always there is a plus one…

6. Use different types of writing tools. This idea is stolen right form Kindergarten, still has merit with our older students. Why not have them write on post-its, big posters, or anything else that can take some writing? Why not bring out the markers? The sparkly pen? The paints? We get so confined in what constitutes writing that we forget to have fun with it, and while this is a superficial fix that will lose its luster, it can still inject the beginning push for writing to be viewed as fun again.

On Monday, I plan on having students critique my ideas. They are, after all, for their educational benefit. I will share what they say but in the mean time, I would love to hear from you; what has brought back life in your writing with students?

being me, new year, Passion

The Posts that Spoke the Loudest Part 2

December 31, 2014December 29, 2014 Pernille Ripp

This is it. Final day of an incredible year and also the birthday of my oldest amazing daughter, Theadora. So as I stated yesterday, here are the final posts of the years that I wanted to highlight as I move on to a brand new year. So per tradition, here are the ones that came the straightest from the heart and weren’t always easy to publish. (In no particular order)

To My Daughter on the Eve Before Kindergarten

…I hope you stay you. That you continue to find the magic in small things. That you continue to be proud of what you accomplish and not because someone told you too, but because you believe that what you did was worth pride. I hope your skin gets tougher, that every perceived slight will not make scars, that you will figure out when something is worth your tears and when it is not. That you will find your place with friends, not toss your heart so overwhelmingly at every new person you meet, and yet don’t forget to keep putting it out there, giving everybody a chance.

We Teachers, We Make Mistakes Too

…I am here to tell you to not give up on school, not that I think you would anyway. You see, we teachers, we say a lot of things, and we sometimes don’t know how our words are taken. I wish we always said the right thing or even did the right thing. But we are human too, and sometimes words come out of our mouths before we have thought them through. Maybe that teacher who told you not to read picture books just hasn’t found the right one yet? Or maybe that teacher doesn’t know you yet. Doesn’t know how great of a reader you are, how you love to read a variety of books. How you love handing books to your teachers to have them read them so that you can share your favorite moments. Maybe that teacher didn’t mean it the way it sounded.

The Downside to Being a Connected Educator

…I have written a lot about all that being a connected educator has done for me. I have written a lot about how I would not trade it for anything and that I hope others will choose to become connected as well. I have written about how being a connected educator has enabled me to have connected students, which has radically changed the way I teach. And yet, I have not talked about the downfall of being connected much. Not like this, not in this way.

A Letter to My Daughter’s Kindergarten Teacher

…Thea got off the bus today and asked if we could go back to school now. She had not even taken off her backpack, nor had she told me about her day. Not hello mom, not how are you, but can we go now? Please? When I told her we would have to wait until 5:30, when open house started, she got mad. “But I want to go now mom, I have to go see my teacher.”

And my eyes got watery and I had to swallow for a second so she couldn’t see how I felt.

Take One and Pass It On

…In the staff bathroom at my school something like this hung on the wall. I should have taken a picture but I was too caught up in it to think that far ahead. It kind of looked like this except a couple of strips had already been ripped off. So I followed the direction, ripped it off, and passed it on. Perhaps these should be plastered all over our schools

When You Feel Misplaced

…It dawned on me today as I picked my heart up off the floor; I miss my 5th grade. I miss teaching so many different subjects. I miss the hugs. I miss the stories. I miss the parents randomly stopping by with a forgotten lunch or just because. I miss my old team, even though my new team is incredible. I miss knowing the kids in that way you know them when you have them all day. I miss snack time and read aloud. Our first grade buddies. The excitement that comes with being a 5th grader and being on the cusp of middle school, not knowing what to expect. And did I mention, I miss the hugs?

And here are the most viewed posts, some do overlap which is nice.

I am a passionate teacher in Oregon, Wisconsin, USA, 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. First book “Passionate Learners – Giving Our Classrooms Back to Our Students” can be purchased now from Powerful Learning Press. Second book“Empowered Schools, Empowered Students – Creating Connected and Invested Learners” is out now from Corwin Press. Follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.

being me, new year, Passion, reflection

The Posts that Spoke the Loudest Part 1

December 30, 2014December 29, 2014 Pernille Ripp

One day left of this year. This glorious, life changing year that included a new baby released from the NICU, a new house, a new job in a new district, and even 2 books being published. 4 and 14 have always been my lucky numbers but even I could not have foreseen all of the awesome that happened in this year. So while I can see which posts got the most traffic, those aren’t necessarily the ones that spoke the loudest to me even if they did to others. So per tradition, here are the ones that came the straightest from the heart and weren’t always easy to publish. (In no particular order)

What Becomes of the Lonely Teachers?

…I know I forget to, I know I get too busy trying to catch up with the ones I already have established routines with. I know I forget to include, to ask, to invite, but I try. And it is in this trying that I find my own hope, that perhaps if I try and everyone else tries, that perhaps those teachers we let slip through the cracks will be caught by someone and for once they wont be the ones shutting their door, for once they wont be the ones that no one noticed that day.

How to Unleash the Uncreative Child

…When I look back on my childhood I see that I was probably not alone. Many of my friends weren’t explosively creative either and while these days when we have uncreative children we tend to blame our school system, I think it was just the way we were. We didn’t know how to be creative so we weren’t.

To the Kid Who Walked Through My Door Last Night

…But the truth is you didn’t come to me last night for math help. You came to tell me about how you are trying your best but the teachers don’t see it. How it is hard to stay awake some times. How it is hard to not laugh when your best friend does that funny thing again. How the teachers don’t get you even though 2 weeks ago you decided to really try your best but now you think your best will never be good enough for those teachers. They already give you that look, they have already given up.

When Teachers Bully Teachers

…Today I choose to reclaim my past as I leave my old district and school and venture forward, it is time to take back the power that this situation had over me. It is time to move on and away from the past. It is time to tell the story of what can happen when teachers bully teachers.

A Letter to Those Who are New, Myself Included…

…Don’t be ashamed of being you. You may not always have the best advice. You may not always be an expert. You may not always know what you are doing, but you still have worth. Your ideas still matter. You still matter. Your excitement can spread. Your newness may be an advantage at times. Your energy and curiosity will help you. So don’t stand in your own way.

And here are the most viewed posts, some do overlap which is nice.

I am a passionate teacher in Oregon, Wisconsin, USA, 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. First book “Passionate Learners – Giving Our Classrooms Back to Our Students” can be purchased now from Powerful Learning Press. Second book“Empowered Schools, Empowered Students – Creating Connected and Invested Learners” is out now from Corwin Press. Follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.

being a teacher, classroom expectations, new year, our classroom, Passion

Why Not Treat Them Like They Want to Be In Our Classrooms?

December 29, 2014 Pernille Ripp

I bartended for many years before and after I became a teacher. Something about the hours and the people appealed to me and it is even how I met my husband; he was a bouncer and I was behind the bar. I remember seeing the same people come in weekend after weekend. Not because they had to. Not because there was anything special going on. Not because the drinks were fantastic. Instead it was because of the people who worked there. The people who made the place special. The people who knew you, who knew what you liked, who asked about your family, who made you feel cared about. They made the experience special.

Why am I bringing this up? Because in our classrooms we make the difference of whether kids want to show up or not. We already know they have to be there, but our relationship with them is what can determine whether they want to be a part of our classrooms or not. It is our attitude, how we greet them, how we treat them, that will make the difference.

So when school starts again, offer them the attention they deserve. Ask about more than homework or work habits. About more than what is happening at school. Look at them when you speak to them. Seek them out for conversation. Listen. Remember. And share yourself.

We know it is about the relationship. We know a successful education can hinge on personal relationships. Why not treat the students as if they don’t have to be there but instead want to be there? Why not treat them like we would our favorite customer? It’s amazing how much a smile and a few lines of conversation can do, don’t forget that.

I am a passionate teacher in Oregon, Wisconsin, USA, 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. First book “Passionate Learners – Giving Our Classrooms Back to Our Students” can be purchased now from Powerful Learning Press. Second book“Empowered Schools, Empowered Students – Creating Connected and Invested Learners” is out now from Corwin Press. Follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.