Pernille Ripp

I feel like a fraud. All week I have been discussing grades with my students as we prepare to release the second trimester report card. All weeks I have been telling them they are “3’s” or “4’s” and why they are these arbitrary numbers. I have wished for ownership of their learning. I have wished for them to understand what that number means and how it looks in their work. I have wished for them to see that everything they are working towards cannot just be distilled into a number and yet we are going to try. I have had so many reflective periods in class that I am not sure they even know what they need to reflect on anymore in the hopes that they will buck the numbers. And yet, when I sat them down, one-by-one, to ask them what their goals were for the final trimester, most answered, “To get more 4’s.”

Argh.

Yet, I know the fault is my own. I have tried to humanize a report card To make it mean something to the kids. I have tried to elevate it to something of importance rather than just add it as another part of their journey. I have let it take center stage rather than just pointing it out as one more representation of their learning and then moving on.

This is not what school is about. This is not what school should be about. I have tried all year to have my students own their learning and own their journey and yet, this week, I set them back so far. I forgot how much I hate grades. I forgot how much I do not want to talk about them. I forgot about how little they truly mean in education.

Reading, students

This Is Why We Hate Reading

March 13, 2013 Pernille Ripp

“…Mommy, just one more book…’ Thea is yelling me from her bedroom after I have tucked her in, read her a book and handed her 3 more to “read.” The book lover in me shrugs …”Just one, then sleep.” I smile, we are a house of readers.

“…Mrs.Ripp, just 5 more minutes?” My students are giving me pleading eyes, they want 5 more minutes to read their books even though they know it is the end of the day and really we should be packing up. We are a class of readers,

And yet, the thought keeps nagging me. Why do kids start to hate reading? What will happen to Thea when she enters school, will she want just one more book, 5 more minutes? Or will she become like many students; reluctant to read, hesitant to dream about more books? Will my students lose their love when they go to middle school?

So I ask my students; what makes kids hate reading? Their first response fills my heart, “But we don’t hate reading, Mrs. Ripp, not this year.” So I prod and ask them why not? What do you think I could do to make you hate reading? What do you think happens in middle school where we seem to lose kids as readers. They journal about it and then ask to go back to their books.

Reading their responses, I am not surprised Kids do not want to be told what to read. They do not want books assigned. They do not want to sit in small groups and discuss a shared book. They want choice. They want freedom. But they also want a little bit of guidance. Many of my students write how it is important for teachers to read and know which books to recommend. Many of my kids realize that sometimes they will have to read things they do not want to but wonder whether it can be a short text rather than a guided book group..

One child journals about how teachers should always read the books first and then try to think how it will feel for a student to read it; to experience it the way they do. Then they bring up the time factor; give us time to read. We do sports, we want to spend time with our family and sometimes we are reading another book outside of school. Reduce our homework so that we can read. If you really believe in reading; invest in it as a class.

One student makes me smile with their answer; “Many teachers say they love reading but then their face is all gloomy when they teach it.” Yes, perhaps we as teachers love to read but forget to bring in that infectiousness to our classrooms. Bring in the passion, it’s contagious.

In the end, I was not surprised not too much anyway. We know how to make kids hate reading because it is the same things that make us hate reading as adults.

So take my students’ advice
Love reading yourself
Give them time to read
Know your books
Share your passion
and give them choice

Then see what happens.

Update; My students heard I had blogged about their responses and they wanted to add these two thoughts:

Don’t do reading logs. Ever. Trust them instead to read. The logs get falsified anyway and end up being homework for parents.
Reconsider the classics. we may have thought we know all the classics and that students should read them and yes, I have a love of classics as well, but add new ones to that list. The One and Only Ivan will be a classic one day just like Charlotte’s Web so why not include that one?

grades

Another Failed Report Card

March 9, 2013 Pernille Ripp

I thought I had dealt with it right; have students grade themselves for the trimester since I have to post grades then. At least they would be coming from the students rather than just me. Since we have switched to standards based report cards, I projected and explained what each category meant on this new report card. Then we discussed what a “3” meant vs a “4” and off they went. They handed them in, I looked them over and highlighted anything I wanted to discuss.

At conferences I pulled them out and asked the students about the highlighted areas. Blank stares. I then prodded a little bit more, why would you give yourself this grade, what was your thought process? Blank stare, then cleared throats,….”I’m actually not sure what that means so I just put a number there…”

Exactly.

These kids, even after I explain what the things are I am grading them on, they have no clue what it really is. Perhaps it is due to poorly written report card language, perhaps it is due to not speaking educationalese, perhaps it is due to that what we grade them on most of the time seems to bear little resemblance to what we do in our classrooms, the discussions we have. Sure, we discuss and use the term comprehension strategies but if they are all lumped together in one box, then how will a child know if they use all of them well or just some of them. How will they know what that even means, to use them? And does it really matter? Parents don’t know what they mean either and they come armed with years of schooling and college degrees. So we think of attaching explanation sheets to the report cards just so they can have some sort of a clue as to the terms we so flippantly throw around. Now do you get it, it seems to scream.

We move toward better report cards so that we hope to better tell parents what their child has mastered or not, but in the end, when we create report cards that bear little resemblance to the conversation that happens within the classroom, what does it really matter? Should I once again change the way I teach to make sure I use terms that will appear on a reportcard, even though those terms do not always fit what we are teaching or even within the understanding of my students? Should I barge on, use the terms, just so students may know what they mean when they get their grades? Or should we ask the students what the report card should look like so that they could take ownership of their learning journey?

I dont have the answers, do you?

reflection

In Which I Get Schooled By A Kid

March 6, 2013 Pernille Ripp

This post is not to garner pity, or poor you kind of comments. It is not to embarrass or to make myself look terrible. It is to speak the truth of how teachers are merely humans and although we would like to be infallible, we are far from it. Although we would like to think we always know best, we don’t.

Chalk it up to sleep deprivation going on for about 10 days. That’s what happens when everyone in your household has the flu and you are the only one healthy enough to be caretaker. Chalk it up to being distracted; too many things going on, both in school, and outside. Chalk it up to forgetting who I am, if even for a minute, and going back to those old ways. Chalk it up to whatever you want but today I got schooled by a kid, and I deserved every bit of it. I called this kid out infront of the class and made him so angry. Instead of backing off and thinking about it, I kept at it, letting him get more angry, until a break was needed. I wanted to be right so bad, that I forgot for a moment that this was a kid in front of me. Perhaps I was a little bit right, but nowhere near the amount needed for that type of confrontation.

I went home, reflected, admitted to myself that that was poorly handled and that I had to reach out tomorrow. Once again, this kid beat me to it. This kid, this so angry kid, sent me the most eloquent email telling me exactly what was going on. Telling me exactly why he got so very angry and exactly what I did to push him there. He wrote to apologize but also wanted to make sure I heard his side, and hear it I did. Not like I had heard it today in the classroom, but really hear it, no filter, no holding back.

Instead of getting angry, I saw what this email really was; a way in, a gift really, a way to repair a relationship that otherwise may have been fractured for the rest of the year. This kid gave me a chance again. This kid gave me a chance to redeem myself, to become a better teacher, to remember that I teach someone’s child. Thank you. I am sorry.

students, technology

My Students Are Not Digital Natives

March 3, 2013July 24, 2013 Pernille Ripp

My students are not digital natives. There I said it. They are digital consumers, much like the rest of us, but natives, not so much. I used to believe in the whole digital native myth and that if I just gave them a device they would be able to make it work and adapt it to their needs. Make it work; sure, adapt it; not really. Push themselves beyond their comfort level; very rarely unless they have an interest in all things technology. Yes, most of them are afraid of technology just like many adults. Most of them don’t want to just figure things out even when I encourage them to, they would rather just be told how to use it and then use it for that specific purpose only. So even though I tell them to just figure it out, my 5th graders would laugh if anyone called them digital natives, and then they would ask what that term even meant. So why do we persist with the pushing of the digital native persona?

Tonight I asked that question on Twitter, or rather I made a statement:

As always Twitter did not disappoint…

So what are our students? Do we really need to label them? I like to think of my students as kids who like technology a lot, but I have never called them that. Should I? Should anyone?

principals, reflection

Can We Have Courageous Conversations With Our Principals?

February 26, 2013 Pernille Ripp

I am always struck by passion of the principals I meet in my travels and this weekend, at EdCamp MadWI, was no different. I was in many frank conversations with principals who had questions for me or just had really amazing ideas. Their passion for their staff and the betterment of their school poured out of them. As I returned to school today, I wondered; where are those conversations between teachers and principals in our buildings? What holds us back as teachers in starting frank and honest discussions with our very own principals on a regular basis? Fear? Apprehension of misunderstanding? Past poor experiences? Or is it simply time and a strictness of protocol? Do our home schools have a power hierarchy that we cannot bridge in the same way we do at EdCamps? Do we walk around our schools afraid of having courageous conversations with those closest to us?

I think it is time we start those courageous conversations with our administrators. It is time for us to realize and acknowledge that our principals were teachers once as well, and that they too functioned under a principal, with every self doubt that implies. It is time for us to not be afraid and to speak to our principals and administrators the way they deserve to be spoken to; as human beings rather than just our bosses.

I know I fall victim to stereotypes myself; assuming that someone in a principal job does not want feedback, does not want ideas, does not want honest discussion. I am not sure where this idea started from but it seems to permeate many schools. Perhaps the very role of principal means there is a glass wall between us. Perhaps it is their sheer busyness that creates a natural distance. I am not sure but we must discuss, we must reflect, and we must have conversations that push the boundaries much like we would with our colleagues because even though principals are in leadership positions they are still our colleagues as well.

While I know many principals tread water all day, floating from one fire to another, there are still many moments for us to discuss and reflect together. I think we need to bridge that unspoken gap that exists between teachers and principals and somehow find a way to grow together, rather than the more typical path of us versus them. We must approach our every day as we would an edcamp; there to learn, there to think, there to connect. It is time we give our principals a fair chance.

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