being me, students

It’s Time to Appreciate the Teacher

Pernille Ripp
Next week marks a curious phenomena in America; Teacher Appreciation Week.  The one week where we are are supposed to sit back and bask in all of the adulation and admiration that the word appreciation entails.  And yet, I can’t help but think, why the need for a holiday?  Shouldn’t we be appreciating teachers all of the time?  And while many will simply say, “…But of course,” think about how teachers have been portrayed as of late in the media and in general conversations.  Our every move is scrutinized, our student test scores are used as measures to assess us, we are told we are overpaid, and should consider ourselves lucky to even have a job.  Gulp.  Not much appreciation there.

And yet, when I turn to look at my classroom, I see the appreciation.  The kind gestures from parents who support all of the ideas we have.  The students who so eagerly jump into projects and just in general are unafraid to try something new.  Administration that gives us enough leeway to try something new, knowing that it will probably benefit our kids, and husbands that are willing to listen to every single inane idea I have and flesh out the meat from them.  Yes, I am appreciated.

So while the extra attention next week certainly will be appreciated, I don’t know if it is even necessary.  I feel appreciated every single day by those kids that come into our room and hand over their hopes their fears, and dreams.  By those kids that entrust me with their secrets, with their inner most thoughts, and that even share some of them on our blog.  By those kids that believe in what we have built, in what we have yet to accomplish, and in what they can be, who have let me be a part of their journey.  Those kids appreciate me and they show it every day, perhaps it is time we have a student appreciation week?

Related articles

kidblog, student blogging, writing

What’s A Student Blogging Challenge?

Pernille Ripp
After publishing a list of ideas for student blogging challenges, I was asked to describe them in more detail, so here goes.

What Are They?
The concept is very simple; every week, usually on Friday I post a new challenge for my students to blog about.  This can be related to the academics in our classroom or thoughts on various education topics.  I use this challenge for feedback, for ideas, and for them to become more involved in our classroom. 

Timeline?
The students almost always have 9 days to finish the challenge; Friday to the following Sunday, so challenge postings do overlap active challenges. While this is considered homework or extra work, students are given opportunities to finish them in class and do not have to find the time at home if they do not want to.

What Is the Topic?
I try to keep the challenges short and to the point, such as, “Should education be fun?” and then wait for students to think and respond.  We discuss perimeters for the posts at the beginning of the year and the students know to put their best foot forward, i.e. check spelling, capitalization as well as formatting.

Grading?
I never grade their posts, since I do not grade in general, but use their writing to assess their growth as writers and also to figure out goals for them and give them feedback.  Comments from me are sometimes private or public depending on the feedback given.  Students love to read each others posts and we often end up discussing the week’s challenge in class because it made the students’ think.  I also tweet out their posts and use the hashtag #comments4kids to get other classes to comment.

Students’ Reaction
Students love the blogging challenges (mostly) and it keeps me on my toes as far as pushing their thinking.  Students also get a chance to offer ideas for blogging challenges which I often use, thus providing another way for them to take ownership of our blogging.

What Else?
Well, these are not the only things my students blog about but it is a main component.  They often take to our blogs to create new challenges for others, to share stories, or vacations.  They write to express themselves and they challenge me.  I love how they take forum of blogging and make it their own, creating those global connections that we all strive to make.

blogging, challenge, kidblog, writing

Student Blogging Challenges – A List of Ideas

Pernille Ripp
One of the things that my students love the most on our KidBlog are our weekly blog challenges.  And while these challenges are in sense homework, they always have the opportunity to do them at school, and get enough time to do it without being a hassle.  Over the past two years we have had quite a lot of fun with these, so why not share for all you blogging with your students.  Feel free to borrow or change to suit your kids.

I have broken these into categories for easier reading.

All About You

  • Imagine you have been given $100 to donate to someone or something like a charity or even to start a charitable business.   The challenge is to make your money grow whether through product or some other form.  So you need to blog about what you will do with the money, how it will grow and how much you can make it grow even more.  Your money will have 3 months to grow.
  • If you could go anywhere in time once round-trip, where would you go and why?  What would you see there?  What would you do?  Would you bring anything back or try to change the past?
  • If you could go anywhere in time once round-trip, where would you go and why?  What would you see there?  What would you do?  Would you bring anything back or try to change the past? 
  • If you could eat only one meal the next year, what would it be? 
  • If you could do one good thing this Holiday season to make others happy, what would it be?
  •  Tell me about the great traditions you have in your family. 
  •  What makes you the happiest in your life and even better how do you show how thankful you are? 
  • This week I would like to challenge you to write about about a place, from the past or the present, where you would like to live or go for a holiday or vacation.

Wacky Challenges

All About School

  • Which school rule you would change, how you would change it and why?
  • How is the year going so far?  What are you excited about?  What works for you?  What doesn’t? How can we make 5th grade better?  What should I change?
  • What would you change about school so that you would love being there?
  • Tell me what was the best, the worst, the most fun, the most boring things of the trimester?  
  • So, if you could decide what we had to learn about, what would it be?  What would our goals be? How would we learn about it? And how would we pass that learning on? 
  • What does a principal do all day?  What qualities does a principal have and what do they do in the summer?
  • You are the teacher; which class would you add to school curriculum that we don’t already have?  When would the class meet, what would the students do?  What would it look like, feel like, sound like?  And what would the students produce to show their learning?

 
Your Thoughts on Education and School

  • What is the true purpose of education?  Why do you go to school?  Why do you learn what you have to learn?
  • Is teaching and learning the same thing or not?
  • Should education be fun?
  • Give me your thoughts on tests!  Do you think they help or hurt your learning?  What do you suggest to teachers about tests?

Academic Related and Story Writing

  • You need to write to other teachers and tell them about the Global Read Aloud.
  • I want you to tell the world about Innovation Day!
  • Tell everyone about the simulation in social studies 
  • Keep a science diary of our experiments and answer any questions people may leave in the comments.
  • Write a book review of the book you are currently reading.
  • Explain what the author study is, who you chose to study and why.
  • Finish the story, “The crash came from around the corner…”
  • Finish the sentences:  Being a good teacher means…. Being a good student means… 
  • What do you love when teachers do in their classrooms?  What do you wish I did as a teacher? If you were a teacher how would you run your classroom?

Challenges from Students:

  • If you were to go inside of a book, what book would you go inside of, and what would you do?
  • Create a blogging challenge for other students to do.
  • If you could create your own country, what would it be called, where would it be, and what language would the residents speak?

All About Blogging

  • Should we continue to blog or not, convince me!
  • So how has blogging helped you as a writer?  What do you like about blogging?  What do you not like?  What would you change?  Would you continue blogging next year if you could?
  • What are the rules for blogging, how do you stay safe?
  •  Now that you have tried it, what would you tell other kids and teachers about blogging?  What should they know before they start?  What should they be careful with?  How can they get people to comment?  Any advice for people who want to blog but don’t know how?
  • Pick one student from another blog and introduce yourself properly 
being a teacher, hopes

Please Don’t Become A Teacher…

Pernille Ripp
If you believe that those who can’t; teach.

Please don’t become a teacher if you think you just get to play with kids all day, leave when they leave, and just have them work from a textbook.

Don’t become a teacher because you think it will shelter you from the demands of a high paying job, or give you those summers off to pursue your real interests.

Please don’t become a teacher if it seems like an easy job where all you have to do is fill students’ minds and then test them on it afterwards.

But do become a teacher if you believe in all children, not just those with fortunate lives.

Become a teacher if you want to be part of someone’s life, good or bad.  If you see the world through challenges and things to explore.

Please do become a teacher if you have unwavering faith, love, and patience.   If you are not afraid of change, have convictions, and honestly believe that ALL children can succeed.

Then become a teacher; if your heart is in it, because it must be in it to endure all of the outside demands that we face.  Please do become a teacher if you want to grow and have a job that changes you as a person while you help change others.  Become a teacher if you have much to give, much to love, and much to believe.  But if you don’t, please don’t become a teacher.

Inspired by this sad secret on postsecret

assumptions, being a teacher, lessons learned, Student-centered

Even With Our Changed Classrooms, Have We Changed Anything At All?

Pernille Ripp
Image from icanread

It relates to school because there are calculators…

It relates to school because he uses math in counting out the tickets …

It has to do with math and that is why it has to do with school…

My students are journaling about the movie “Caine’s Arcade” and how it relates to school.  These wonderfully creative, powerfully imaginative students don’t see the deep connections between the environment that I try to create and that of Caine.  They don’t see how I try to challenge them to problemsolve, to create, to use materials in different ways.  to try, to fail and to have hope and perseverance.

Instead they see a 9-year-old boy who realized life was more than calculators and math.  That you could build something with what you have and have a little bit of hope.  They see that boy as an inspiration, his arcade as incredible, but not those things in the environment we create here, at school. 

What a lesson for me to be taught; school is still seen as its own world with set rules.  Segmented and regimented.  As something departmentalized from creativity, or at least where creativity is built into the day, scripted and called for.  School is viewed as something to be lived through so the real experimenting can happen afterwards.  I may think I do things differently, but I may be the only one.

Related articles