Many years ago as I went to college full-time I also worked at Loft. Perhaps this is where my critical eye of teacher style was honed, but it definitely helped me build my own beginning wardrobe while giving me skills I still use today. So while I don’t really do promotions on this blog, after all I want to keep it real, when Loft contacted me to do a giveaway I felt it was my time to give back.
First the details, between October 15th and October 20th any teacher who shops at Loft (and shows their teaching ID) will get 25% off full time purchases. Now for the cherry on top one lucky reader of this blog will get a $100 giftcard to shop with from Loft. So how do you get this awesome gift card? All you have to do is leave a comment detailing either your biggest teacher fashion pet peeve, your biggest fashion blunder, or tell me why you need this gift card. Now I wish I could give one to everyone that reads this blog, I am sure we could all use it, but I do only have one. You have until Sunday evening at 8 PM CST to leave your comments. Have fun shopping!
Update: The contest has closed, however the promotion starts tomorrow. Happy shopping!
Being in a more formal reader’s workshop format this year has meant that I have needed a better method of keeping track of all of the one-on-one and small group conferences I am having constantly. So as always, I thought why not share what I have created with the world. Mind you that I tweak these as I use them so if you really love a form you may want to keep a copy of it before I change it.
We do a modified 40 book challenge for the year. Here is the sheet explaining the rules and also keep track of their books.
How Am I as a Reader. I started out the year by asking students how they were as readers, these were the base for our first conference.
Reading Parent Survey (borrowed from Colby Sharp). A few weeks into school i ask the students to fill this out with their parents.
Calendar of one-on-one conferences: This idea is adapted from the The 2 Sisters, I also have a pensive where I keep all of this. Now I can see at a glance who I have met with. by putting the conference date in the small check boxes.
Reading Log. I have been asked for students to keep a reading log so this is our modified, in room use only, reading log that the students fill out every day after they have read independently.
Small Group Conference Calendar sheet. I pull a lot of small groups to quick hit on skills with them but I needed a separate way to keep track of when I did it. This sheet is helping me keep track of them.
Small Group Conference Sheet. This is a conference sheet specifically for a child in a small group setting, I needed the distinction between one-on-one and small group so I created this.
Monthly Reading Reflection Sheet. I have students do shorter weekly reflections about their progress and goal but at the end of the month I have them do a longer reflection more centered on reading. Here is September’s.
I hope this useful to you, I know it is helping me stay sane and on top of all of my diverse readers and their passion.
I am a passionate (female) 5th grade teacher in Wisconsin, USA, 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 Classroom Back to Our Students Starting Today” will be released this fall from PLPress. Follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.
As I sit in the stillness of my house I cannot help but reflect on the students I have and all the little things I have noticed in the past few weeks. So while I should have been planning my reading lesson, I instead took some time to write each of them a post-it that all started with, “I have noticed…”
On Monday, as they grab their morning work, I hope they will each get a little glimmer of how proud I am of them, how much I do notice how hard they are trying, and how thankful I am to be their teacher.
Sometimes the smallest moments have the biggest impact.
PS: If you wonder how the students reacted to the post-its, this may answer your question: As I walked into my classroom late this morning after a hospital appointment, this note was stuck to my computer…
I am a passionate (female) 5th grade teacher in Wisconsin, USA, 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 Classroom Back to Our Students Starting Today” will be released this fall from PLPress. Follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.
October is connected educator month and while I find it amusing that we get a specific month to point out what we do all year, I thought rather than herald the importance of being a connected educator, I would rather just share why I am a connected educator and how it helps me in my readers workshop. Those who follow me know that reading is a BIG deal in my classroom, something to be discussed passionately and reflected upon, something to be protected. So I always feel so fortunate when I get to borrow ideas from others to make it even better for all of my students.
As I try to sow the seeds for deeper reading, here are some of the things I do:
Students have thoughtful log that they use while we read and after, however, lately, it has also become a read aloud notebook, thanks to this great post from Choice Literacy. I have had students doodle in the past while I read aloud, but this year with the start of the Global Read Aloud, students now sketch, envision and jot down thoughts as we travel through Melody’s life.
I always struggle with who to group and pull for a small mini-lesson, so the idea of having them turn in their best post-it from the mini-lesson we just did as a tool for evaluation was a useful one from Teachers College. Now I can quick see who got the gist of the lesson or who needs re-teaching.
I have had students reflect on their blogs for years but I needed something more concrete and honest as we push ourselves as readers. So I created this beginning of the year readers survey with the help of various internet resources and have loved the discussions that ensued. I now also have a baseline to compare to from their weekly reflection sheets, which change according to need and curiosity.
The parent reading survey was a great idea borrowed from Colby Sharp, a passionate teacher I really admire. I loved having parents reflect on what reading looks like at home and how it is helping or hindering their child progress as a reader.
I have some phenomenal readers this year and those readers were typically the ones I did not know what to do with, after all, they already seemed to have all of the tools they needed. Not so according to Mary Ehrenworth, who I was lucky enough to see at Teacher’s College. She gave us great ideas for how to support our strongest readers, ideas which when I presented to one of my students was met with , “Wow, I can’t wait to to think about that!”
Showcasing what I read on my door. My school is very focused on promoting an overall love of reading and I participate in that by always having a sign up with what I am currently reading and also what I have read this year. This idea is courtesy of Jillian Heise and I love it so much due to the great conversations that it sparks with my students and other students around the school. in fact, last night at the school dance many of my former students came back and had to look at my door to see what I had been reading.
The 40 Book Challenge. I decided that I would give my students the luxury of reading whatever they want this year, however, I also wanted to push them as readers and try to get them to read more, so create that sense of urgency when we read. The 40 book challenge is a wonderful idea from Donalyn Miller and I adapted it to fit our needs. Students are in competition with me to read the most books in a year, they choose what they read and magazines, graphic novels, and picture books also count. Students get to report their books through blog posts, Skype book recommendations, speed book dating, posters in the classroom, or any other way they can think of.
A better conferring sheet. I have tried every which way to keep notes when I confer and also had ample cheat sheets to use as I speak to students. This year I finally like what I have with ideas borrowed from The 2 Sisters and Teachers College. In my pensieve on students I use this conferring sheet to help me keep track of their goals and their progress.
One book to connect the world. One of my proudest accomplishments will always be the Global Read Aloud. This little idea has this year connected more than 130,000 students globally as they listen to a great book being read aloud and then use technology to connect and discuss the book. This idea was inspired by my husband, Brandon, who does so much to inspire me to be a better teacher and puts up with my obsession with teaching.
To all those who have shared their ideas with me, thank you, this is why we share.
I am a passionate (female) 5th grade teacher in Wisconsin, USA, 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 Classroom Back to Our Students Starting Today” will be released this fall from PLPress. Follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.
I got home today with a feeling of just sheer contentment. Sometimes I feel like the luckiest woman in the world and not just because of what I get to come home to, but what I get to leave my home for every day. When I saw my class list and then saw it grow, when I kept thinking through all of the things I wanted to do with these 27 students, when I thought about all the things I hoped they would accomplish, I just didn’t know if we could do it all.
As anyone who has taught bigger rooms with big personalities can attest to, it is a completely different challenge. Not only are you pushing the kids to try and to sometimes work through failure, but you are also dealing with sheer numbers. And with high numbers can come such a broad gamut of needs and wants that it sometimes just overwhelms you. Kids that range from needing a person to support them through most things to kids that are so ready to set off and soar, all they need is a push. You have students who want to try and students who are afraid to try. You have students that already find school pretty boring and students that still love learning. With 27 students it seems like you have them all, the whole gamut of personalities. and so I just didn’t know how we would work together and strive together.
But these kids. With their crazy ideas, their enthusiasm for my ideas, and their support of each other as they each try every day, is blowing me away. These kids with their stories, their dreams, and their hang ups, who share them with me every day, trusting me to get to know them, trusting me to push them in the right direction, these kids are proving me wrong.
I should not have doubted for one single moment that we could do all of our 5th grade challenges. I should not have doubted for a single moment that even though there were so many of us, we would still build a community. These kids with their loud voices, their big personalities, and their eagerness to just prove me wrong every single day, those kids are making this year one of those years I can’t wait to tell others about.
I am a passionate (female) 5th grade teacher in Wisconsin, USA, 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 Classroom Back to Our Students Starting Today” will be released this fall from PLPress. Follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.
Giving the classroom back to students has been my main mission for the past three years. This year I got to write a how-to book with ideas for how others can change the way they teach in small and big ways and bring the passion back into our classrooms. While my book has not come out yet, I am so excited to finally get to present some of my ideas (old and new) to the incredible people who attend the 2013 Reform Symposium. So on Saturday, October 12th at 5PM CST join me and others worldwide as I try to help you and remind myself of what I strive for every day; giving the classroom back to my students.
What is the Reform Symposium?
In two weeks, thousands of educators from various different countries are expected to attend a free 3 day virtual conference, The Reform Symposium, #RSCON4. RSCON will be held October 11th to 13th in conjunction with Connected Educator Month. The entire conference will be held online using the Blackboard Collaborate webinar platform. Participants can attend this online conference from the comfort of their homes or anywhere that has Internet access. This amazing conference provides educators new or currently active on social networks the opportunity to connect with educators and professionals in the field of education worldwide.
Useful links (click on any item for more information):
Opening plenary- Sugata Mitra, 2013 Ted prize winner and instigator of the Hole-in-the-Wall experiment, will speak about The Future of Learning.
Pernille Ripp 