Pernille Ripp

The Spaghetti and Marshmallow Tower Challenge

April 18, 2012 Pernille Ripp

Thanks to Bill Ferriter for sharing the idea for this wonderful science challenge here. I also garnished ideas from this PDF created by the BA.

As part of our team building and creative problem solving efforts, we have done several challenges throughout the year. This one therefore fit perfectly in with science as we were able to discuss variables, perseverance, and working as a team.

Goal:
To build the tallest marshmallow and spaghetti tower within 30 minutes. The tallest tip will be the marshmallow that is furthest off the ground

Process:

You will create or be assigned a team; 3 people to each team.
You will be given 100g of spaghetti and 50 grams of mini marshmallows.
You will have 5 minutes to plan your approach.
You will have 30 minutes of build time.
Spaghetti and marshmallows may be broken but marshmallows may not be made wet.
You may not actively seek out other groups to poach ideas but you may spot ideas from your work station.
Once time is called a full minute will be waited before teacher measures height. This is to ensure tower stability.

Learning Goals:
Students will work on

Determining variables and controlling them
Team work
Time management
Creative problem solving
Engineering for structural strength
Perseverance and idea adaptation

Here is a video showing parts of the challenge and the winning design

education, student blogging, students

The Purpose of Education According to My Students

April 17, 2012 Pernille Ripp

I know we as educators frequently discuss what we think the purpose of education is. Fancy words and creative sentences abound when this noble philosophy is discussed. We debate, digest and dissect until we feel we have reached some form of conclusion, that is, until someone new sparks a different discussion and we ponder it all over again. Yet how often do we ask our students that question? How often do we ask them what the purpose is of education and then listen to their answer?

Well, last week I unleashed the question on my fabulous 5th graders who took the time to ponder and then blog about it. And they would love to hear your thoughts! However, a couple of things struck me as a trend in their answer, so much so that Wordle even agrees with me.

– There is a purpose to education, it is not just a waste of time.
– Education somehow prepares us for life after school and without we may not be succesful (something I don’t totally agree with)
– Education is related to their life

I loved what Karina wrote;
Why is Education so important to kids and adults? This question made me really think. I have heard kids say ” Why do I have to go to school.” and their parents say ” Because you have too.” It is not the easiest question to answer but if you think about, it is actually easy. My first answer was… This man screwed up his life and does not want it to happen to anybody else. After I thought that for a little bit it came to me. It was that people way way back used writing and reading to escape from people who controlled them and didn’t treat them well. If people were educated to write and read then they had more choices in life. They could work a lot of different jobs. Education gives us choices in life.

Emphasis added by me.

No matter what we decide the noble purpose of education is, I love how my student, David, adds another dimension to the question. He finishes his post with,

“A final and really important reason for going to school is making friends. I mean, it feels good to talk to someone when you are sad, really excited, bored and just to talk! You need to know how to interact with people if your job requires it.”

So perhaps education from the eyes of a 5th grader is just to prepare them for life outside of school, to teach them to read or write, but in the end it is also about developing them as human beings, to maintain them as someone who others want to be friends with. And that is indeed a noble purpose.

questions, student driven

Why "I Don’t Know" is Powerful

April 15, 2012July 24, 2013 Pernille Ripp

Image form icanread

That first year of teaching when a child asked a questions I did not have the answer for I stalled. I hemmed, I hummed, I did a little dance and then either hoped they would forget their question, that another child would know the answer or that class would be over so that I could quickly figure out what the answer was.

I didn’t think I could say, “I don’t know…”

Go to my second year of teaching and another question from another child, again; stalling, nervous glances, some vague reply hoping to satiate curious minds, but otherwise, same approach. Glance at bell, dismiss the question, hope for a lifeline, wish that my principal or a parent wouldn’t see me in this position. Anything but to admit my own inadequacy of not being the master teacher and simply not knowing something.

I never thought to say, “I don’t know…”

Third year of teaching and I realized I wasn’t the only expert in the room. One child knew more about wars at 10 years old than I would ever be able to cram into my head. Another was an expert on poetry. The questions kept coming but my approach to them changed; I stopped being afraid of them and realized that not knowing something was powerful. Not knowing something and admitting it was a sign of strength, a learning opportunity to model how I would find out. Now instead of nervous glances at the door, hoping no one would ever discover that I didn’t have all of the answers, I asked the students for help. How would we find out, why was this a great question, did anyone else know?

This year, I am fully aware that I am not the only expert, I embrace it daily. That I am not supposed to know everything. That I am not supposed to pretend I do. Instead, I am there to show what happens when we don’t know. To show that even though I did my preparations for class I couldn’t put everything into my head but I have ways to help me through any question. Now my students know to try to find the answer first using a multitude of sources instead of just asking me. Now I ask my students questions that make them say, “I don’t know…”

I now know the power of “I don’t know…”

alfie kohn, classroom management, discussion, no homework

But How Do You Really Get Rid of Homework and Still Know Where Students Are At?

April 11, 2012 Pernille Ripp

Image from here

One great thing about blogging about what happens in our classroom and to me as a teacher is that I am often asked to clarify how all of this works. So after my latest post “My Kid iS Drowning in Homework” I received an email from Mr. Feltman asking me some questions. I figured my answer back might be helpful to others as well, so with his permission here is our communication.

Mr. Feltman wrote;
If you don’t mind, I’d like to ask a few questions, that would assist us in this endeavor.

Do you have research or articles backing this up?

What percentage of tests and other activities make up the students grades? (another way to ask is when you switched to “no homework” how was your class grading scale affected?)

How do you assess their mastery of learning (especially poor test takers)?

And here is my answer (emphasis added by me);
I do have research and articles! A big push for me came from Alfie Kohn’s book “The Homework Myth” in which he collects a lot of research about it, and other sources which I have some of here
http://www.diigo.com/list/pgreens/nohomework

I did want to do my research as well so that my principal would back me.

Along with the no homework I am opposed to letter grades, however, my district is not. So the compromise I have figured out in my room is that students only get letter grades on their trimester report cards, and those are decided through discussion with me after we have decided as a class what each letter grade means. The limited homework that does go home is therefore not used to determine grades but rather to determine instruction needs. So my grading scale was affected in a positive way since students know that if they do work in class and hand it in, we discuss and dissect it and then figure out their needs from there. There is no final letter-grade assigned to it but rather a common conclusion is given and we determine the path from there.

Tests are part of my formative assessment and students are mostly given a chance to revise and rethink their answers. I do not want a snapshot of that kid at that time, I want to gauge their overall understanding. Because the pressure of letter grades (and the finality aspect of a test) has been removed, students also tend to work through assessments much more calmly because they know I am looking for their depth of understanding rather than the pressure to perform right then and there. This has provided me with a much more comprehensive view of the child’s abilities, which in turn I communicate to parents through feedback and observations.

Mastery of learning is shown in many ways. I always think of what the large goal is or the skill and through conversation or even in-class work I can figure out if they have mastered that skill. Math tends to be the only area where there is daily work (class time is given for this) but other than that most students are involved in longer projects covering a range of goals from the common core and district standards.

I know giving up homework can seem daunting but once you take the plunge it really isn’t that scary. Sure you will have some parents that do not understand it but if you communicate your intentions clearly; mine are to keep school at school as long as the students work hard, then parents seem to come on board. Getting rid of homework means I have to be much more on top of class time and what we need to get done with a focus on the larger goals rather than small worksheets where the students just regurgitate information or daily work that could be covered in a long-term project.

Thank you for the email Mr. Feltman and good luck!

being me

She Has Gone Home

April 5, 2012 Pernille Ripp

The phone call came this afternoon. As I stepped out of a meeting the message light beckoned and on there was my mother’s voice giving me the inevitable news; mormor had passed. As we mourn as a family we cry not for her but for ourselves, for we are the children left behind. She gets what she wanted; peace and to be be with her husband. We also get what we wanted; her to be in peace, with no pain, together with the man whom she loved more than anything. And yet, the sorrow has just begun to settle in.

I now go through the world without any grandparents but that doesn’t mean I don’t have a past. I will show my children the videos of these two people who showed me what dedication and love means. What perseverance and staying together looks like in our much too frantic society. We have proof that love matters most; it is our veins, it is in our heritage. It is up to us to pass it on.

Tomorrow would be the day, 66 years ago, that my grandparents met each other and fell in love. I cannot think of anything more beautiful than that my grandmother got to go be with my grandfather once again. That perhaps tomorrow she gets to meet him again, wherever they are, and now they don’t ever have to leave the other one behind. So I smile through my tears and vow to never forget and to carry them with us wherever we go. Mormor heard about the twins, how they are a boy and a girl, and I cannot help but wonder if Ida and Oskar wont get just a little bit of my grandparents soul in them. I hope so.