Be the change, Reading, reflection

What the #Nerdybookclub Taught Me About Reading

Pernille Ripp

I have always been slightly nerdy, ask my oldest friends and they will tell you stories of eye rolls whenever I discussed the latest sci fi flick I couldn’t wait to see.  Or get me started on a favorite author and watch.  I haven’t ever been a geek, I would have to be really good at math for that, but a nerd, that I could embrace.  My adulthood didn’t change my nerdy ways but only sophisticated them.  I could now pass ubernerdy things of as cool and stand behind them tall.  And when being a nerd became kind of cool, I was so nerdy, that even my husband still laughed a little bit at me when i got too out there.

So when I fell into the Nerdy Book Club I knew I was at home.  All of these book lovers in one group, oh and the hashtag and the chats; I was home.  And yet even I could not have realized how much the Nerdy Book Club would change me and the way I teach.

So The Nerdy Book Club taught me that

  • It is okay to get really, really excited about a book and want to give it to everyone I meet.  I am thinking of you “The One and Only Ivan.”
  • It is ok to want to talk books with friends, even if those friends are 20 years younger than you.
  • It is ok to bring in my books to school and perhaps sneak a chapter or two during recess.
  • It is ok to weed out my library and finally get rid of the books that no one has touched, no one will touch, and to give them to others who might.
  • It is ok to not do book talks.
  • It is ok to not do whole group books unless it is so deep and so rich that the whole class will actually stay engaged.
  • It is ok to tweet out pictures of new books you have received because you are so gosh darn excited about reading them.
  • It is ok to tweet authors and hope they will respond to you.
  • It is ok to have your class tweet authors and hope even harder that they will respond to them.
  • It is ok to have a pile of books beside your bed that never quite seems to diminish and yet entices you to sit down and read every time you pass by it.
  • It is ok to change from a clothes shopaholic to a bookaholic as long as you don’t go broke.
  • It is ok to watch your home library start to bleed into your classroom library because some of your kids are ready for a bigger challenge.
  • It is ok to do book challenges as long as they do not suck.
  • It is ok to not love a book and tell students that.
  • It is ok to make book trailers rather than book projects.
  • It is ok to think books, breathe books, talk books even if no one is listening or cares.
  • It is ok to have the reading taste of a 5th grade boy.
  • It is ok to think that reading and loving books is the most important thing we can ever model for our students and our own children.

Thank you Nerdy Book Club

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Not All Students Care About Their Test Results So Do We Make Them?

Pernille Ripp
image from icanread

As the testing machine continues to churn in our public schools we seem to have forgotten that not all students actually care to do well on them.  Not all students do their best.  Not all students try their hardest.  Yet we operate under the assumption that of course they must care whatever the test result will be because it has an impact on their life, right?

Coming from a 5th grade grade perspective this is a reoccurring theme in class.  Some students want to do well because they want to please me, some students want to do well because they like taking tests, and some students, well, they just don’t really care.  And I don’t want to get them to care.  I tried, once, by having them know their previous time for taking the test and encouraged them to slow down and really think about it, take their time and be meticulous.  What happened?  Most of them were so riddled with anxiety since I had ow placed so much importance on the test that they did worse than if I had kept my mouth shut.  Lesson learned.

Yet, those same test scores will in the future be part of my educator effectiveness score thanks to our governor   Those tests that most of my students whiz through not because they are mastering them but because they don’t really give a hoot, will directly determine whether I have a job or not.  And yes, the computer tries to slow them down and even gives me an error rate which no one then cares about because they are only looking at the final score.  So I face a dilemma; do I try to make them care or do I close my eyes and wish for the best?  We joke around about sabotaging the first test of the year so that students automatically will show growth  and yet, I could never do that to my students.  What kind of lunacy would I be feeding into then?  I would be placing importance on an arbitrary test that I don’t find important at all.

Standardized test operate under this false assumption that all students will try their best thus leading to an accurate view of their knowledge level, thus leading to how effective I have been as a teacher and how smart they are as students.  How anyone can follow that logic and agree astounds me.  It fails to take into consideration motivation, outside factors, and general attitude in classroom, and yet, all the “experts” say that it is fair.  Fair to whom? The people who wrote the test and sold them?  The kids who have to pretend to care what a computer tells them they can or cannot do?  Fair to a teacher who works their tail off to make school engaging and relevant, everything the tests are not? I don’t know.  But something is rotten in the testing machine.

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My Blog Goes to Facebook

Pernille Ripp
I am still not sure where I am headed with this, but I am trying it anyway.  I felt that this blog, “Blogging Through the Fourth Dimension” needed another dimension, one in which people can interact more and express their opinions. I also wanted a place to showcase some of the incredible stuff I see and read on a day-to-day basis, somewhere to collect my thoughts other than Twitter with its fast pace.

So I have a Facebook page now for the blog, nothing too fancy, nothing too much, just a simple page where I hope others will share their thoughts on the thoughts I share.  Where I hope others will post things that make them think.  Join me there for another dimension than just this one.

Join this blog on Facebook. 

achievement, students

Just Practice It Again and Again and Again

Pernille Ripp
“You’re going to practice it again and again and again and again. . . so there’s a chance you can finally do that level of work.”

Words taken directly from the video “From the Page to the Classroom: Implementing the Common Core State Standards – English Language Arts and Literacy” Words that chill me to my bones.  If you ever want a child to tune out of their education, you ask them to practice the same skill again and again in the same way.  Not reading a lot, but reading one book over and over until it is mastered.  Doing the same math problem over and over.  We know that it is not just repetition that fosters understanding, but relevance, interest, and engagement as well.  Students stay engaged when they are faced with problems that they can successfully master or can access different ways of getting through them.  Students become successful when their curiosity is piqued.  How does repetition of the same thing pique anyone’s curiosity?

I was awful at math in gymnasium, and yet I had chosen it as my line of study.  I asked my teacher for help again and again, and over and over she showed me the same way to do the same problem, failing to understand that us being stuck in this track of help led us nowhere.  I needed a new approach, someone else to explain it to me and so do our students; if a book is not helping them, then we must search for something else.  If the approach that I take to explain something is not helpful then another way must be found.  

Now I now some people will say that repetition is how we learn anything, and yes, thoughtful repetition does help us learn.  Repetition in the type of problem we encounter, but not the actual problem itself.  So forcing a child to read the same text whether it is accesible to them or not hoping that they will catch up to their peers is ludicrous to begin with and then having them re-read it over and over in the hopes that it will all of a sudden click, well that is just insanity.

So when we now all rush to implement the common core, will we be the ones telling our students to just do it again and again and again?  Or will we be the ones that find a way to work with the standards, ensuring that our students’ curiosity for learning is protected?  And has anyone stopped to ask the students how they want to learn?  Or do their opinions not matter?

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Be the change, change, students

Where Did the Year Go? It Is Not Too Late to Make Changes

Pernille Ripp
Today we go on spring break and as I keep telling my new teacher colleague, after spring break the yesar seems to speed up and disappear before our eyes.  All of a sudden even the most experienced teacher starts to feel like they are not doing enough, have not gotten where they though they would, and we intensify our desire to teach more, do more, push more.  Yet, the last few months of the year is not the time to get stuck in routines or expectations, for me it has always been the time to really explore, push my students, and create.

So it is not too late to

  • Start blogging with your students.  Even 3 months of blogging is an incredible experience.  This year with my maternity leave we didn’t start until mid-November and yet my students have taken our blogging to a new level amassing more than 1,600 comments.  Look at my friend Rob Hunt’s class, they just started a few weeks ago and are already master bloggers.  If you need help on why and how please see this page.  
  • Get a class Twitter account.  I admit it, I was a skeptic   Even though I love Twitter, I didn’t see much point in my students as a class being on there as well.  Perhaps it just seemed like too much.  On a whim, I went against my own senses and did create them one @MrsRippsClass and it has been amazing to see what they have used it for.  They have tweeted authors  and received replies (!!!), They have asked for book recommendations, recommended great videos, and shared their live learning   I am already excited about what else we can think to use Twitter for.
  • Do something hands-on.  I know we tend to pull the reins tighter as students get more squirrly but I have found that if I give them even more autonomy  choice, and freedom in our classroom they live up to the challenge.  Now is the time to really push them.
  • Put it all together.  I really start to focus more on themes in our learning and bridging it all during these last few months.  One example is their dream city project currently happening; a fantastic exploration of scale, area, and models combining math, art, and science.  The best part?  The students don’t even know how much work their brains are doing.
  • Give them authentic responsibility.  We love doing Mystery Skypes and have become pretty good at them, yet sometimes they just fall apart on us.  The students have taken on the roles as discussion facilitators and teachers and have changed our process quite a bit.  They are living up to the responsibility I am offering up to them and see the results directly in their work.  I step out of the picture.
  • Start planning for Innovation Day.  My students know this won’t happen until May but their wheels are already turning.  They cannot wait to do this day of intense student-driven passion-led exploration day and I cannot wait to see what they will come up.
  • Incorporate Genius Hour.  20% Projects, Genius Hour, Hour of Power, whatever you choose to call it but look for opportunities within your curriculum to have students self-explore topics.  The concept is simple; research, create, and deliver all within an hour of the week.  We will be doing this in social studies after break.
  • Get involved globally.  Whether through quad blogging, signing up for the Global Read Aloud (which won’t actually happen until October), or doing Projects by Jen; do something global.  My students are currently working on a video introduction of our classroom for a 12th grade in Singapore, contact facilitated through Twitter.  They love figuring out how to showcase our room in a positive manner and it is all student-led.
Now is the time to push your students, have a ton of fun, and let them be independent learners.  Trust me you will not regret it.
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Let’s Celebrate Those Kids

Pernille Ripp
Ask my husband and he will tell you, I seem to have been in a funk lately.  Nothing serious but just the feeling of a cloud hanging over my head.  Today, during our staff meeting, as we discussed gains in test scores, I couldn’t help but feel a little more down.  Yes, gains in test scores are something to acknowledge but there are so many other things I would rather celebrate.

How about we celebrate the kid who 2 months ago couldn’t go a day without telling me how much he hated writing, who today told me his story was done but that perhaps he needed more details.

How about we celebrate the kid who asked if they could blog just one more time because they really had something they needed to say to the world.

Let’s celebrate the kid who told me they couldn’t wait for Wednesday where they would get to build their model in science.

Or the groups of kids who told me not to worry about a sub tomorrow because they know exactly what to do and could probably run the day without the teacher.  We promise we will make you proud, Mrs. Ripp.

Let’s celebrate the kid who volunteers, even for the boring stuff, just because they want to help.

Or the kid who always has a compliment to whomever seems to need it the most.

Let’s celebrate the child that remembered the formula for a triangle and then was able to teach the rest of the class.

Let’s celebrate the kids that know they are onto something but just not quite sure how to get there.

Let’s celebrate the kid who told me they were starting over because this was no good and they knew it and there had to be a better way.

Let’s celebrate the kids who try, try, try and then tell others about how they are trying.

The kids who aren’t afraid to put their faith in me every day hoping that the adventure we are about to go on is something worth there time.

Let’s celebrate those kids and their accomplishments.

Not always their test scores.

Not always their data.

But them, those kids.  Let’s celebrate them.

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