being a teacher, classroom expectations, classroom setup, Student-centered

5 Steps to Letting Go and Learning More

Pernille Ripp
Yesterday I had the wonderful privilege to give a webinar for SimpleK12 on the topic of student centered learning.  I am not an expert on this topic, far from it, but I am someone who has done it by following her own instincts and now can marvel at the classroom I get to be a part of.  The webinar was very short and we had a lot of questions, the biggest one being, “How do I get started?”  So here are the first 5 steps I took to give my students more control:

  1. Search your heart.  Before you let go of certain aspects of the classroom you have to figure out what you can live with.  Can you live with more noise?  More movement?  More conversation?  Someone asked me if it was a lot more work to teach in a student-centered classroom to which I answered no, it is the same amount of work as I put in before but now I do it in school rather than outside of it.  If you cannot handle more noise you may want to dig a little deeper and try to figure out why, it may be that you fear students will goof off or get off task, which yes that still happens but much less frequently.  If they are engaged they will work.
  2. Tell the kids why.  Too often we make decisions and never tell students what led us to those decisions.  Every year I start out with a discussion of why our classroom is the way it is and how I envision it to run.  I set high expectations for my students who are always surprised at the environment and I let them ask questions.  One thing that inevitably comes up is whether they can earn rewards (nope) so I politely discuss why they should not expect that from me.  That also includes limited homework (if they work hard in school I don’t need to take up their time outside of school), no letter grades except for on report cards (we have conversations and feedback instead), and no punishment (no lost recesses here most of the time).
  3. Then let them talk. I tell the students this is our room and that they need to decide what type of learning environment they want to be a part of.  This conversation is totally student-run, they brainstorm in small groups and then share their results.  They do not post a list of rules or even vote.  We discuss, decide and then move on to bigger things.  Throughout the year we re-visit our expectations and tweak them if we have to.  The level of responsibility and buy-in to the classroom immediately increases without me having to beg for it.
  4. I challenge them.  Every year, I have some sort of team challenge right after they have set the rules to see whether they can figure out how to work together.  This year it was the amazing Bloxes challenge that brought my students together and got them excited.  Throughout the year we do mini-challenges to continue working on teamwork and expectations for the classroom. Different students step up as leaders, again without my direction, and they share the success of the challenge together.  And challenges doesn’t have to be anything crazy, it can be to give them an extra science lesson to explore whatever they want.  Teachers think there is no time for this sort of thing but there is, because our engagement level is higher we get through our curriculum quicker which gives us time to explore.  The biggest time waster in a classroom is usually the teacher talking at the students – how much do you really need to talk?
  5. I ask the kids.  No single thing is more important in our classroom than the voice of the students.  How do they want to learn something, how can we improve, what are we missing?   All of these questions pop up on a regular basis and they add so much to our curriculum.  I know what the goals of learning need to be but the students can certainly work on how we will get there.  Even at an elementary level these kids have incredible ideas and methods for covering curriculum thus getting natural buy-in (no carrot and stick needed) and increasing their enthusiasm for school.
This is how I get started in my classroom every year.  I didn’t read a book that told me to do these things, instead I asked, “Would I want to be a student in my own classroom?”  That answer is now a resounding yes!  We do a lot of hands-on learning, student-led exploration, and try to keep school fun no matter what we are doing.  I love coming to school, I love my students, and I am proud of what they accomplish every day.  

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being a teacher, future, technology

Do High-tech Gadgets Improve Learning – What a Dumb Question

Pernille Ripp
I love Time For Kids; this magazine invokes deep discussion in my classroom, it lets the kid explore career opportunities and it delivers news to us every week.  This week’s blaring headline was “Technology Takeover…Schools Nationwide Are Using Technology to Teach Lessons.  But Do High-Tech Gadgets Improve Learning?”  At which I immediately scribbled on a post-it – what a dumb question!

Dumb because the gadget has nothing to do with the learning.  Dumb because any new thing introduced to a classroom could be considered a “gadget” which makes it sound not quite serious, not quite ready to be used by students properly.  Dumb because it has nothing to do with the access to a new tool but rather how you use it.  In fact, you could change this headline to truly show its idiocy thus “Do Paper and Pencils Improve Learning?”  Well no, not really, but how you use them do!  We have all witnessed classrooms where paper and pencils do nothing to enhance the out-dated instruction being lectured.  Many of us have rebelled against the stale classroom by bringing in technology tools to connect our students with the world, to give them the tools they need to succeed, while still using paper and pencils.  So no high-tech gadgets do not improve learning but how you use them can.

Yet this question keeps popping up in media and school conversations.  Can tech gadgets really improve learning or is it all a rueful ploy orchestrated by Apple and its minions to get us to spend more money on it?  Should we be getting rid of textbooks in favor of iPads, will students ever use paper and pencils again, what will becomes of this generation?  Magazines discuss these topics as if technology means a farewell to everything else we hold dear, to everything else we know and trust.  But it doesn’t.  Technology adds (if used properly!), technology deepens, and it can enhance.  That can lead to improved learning but only if the facilitator uses it right.  Like with anything else we bring into a classroom, we determine whether it is worth it, or whether it should be forgotten.  We must embrace the future but that the tools of it will be the magic pill.  A poor instructor remains a poor instructor with or without the technology.

presentation, Student-centered

Giving the Classroom Back to the Students

Pernille Ripp
I am super excited to be giving my third webinar for the awesome blue bunnies group; SimpleK12 this Saturday during another one of their Days of Learning.  This time I will be presenting on something incredibly near and dear to me; student-centered learning and teaching in this type of a classroom.  I have done other webinars for SimpleK12 and they are a wonderful creative way to get PD for free!  So consider joining me Saturday at 1 PM ESt/2 PM CST for this webinar.  See how to register below.

Giving the Classroom Back to the Students: Letting Go and Learning More
Would you like for your students to connect at a deeper level with the curriculum, to really love school and learning? Then this session is for you – a beginning guide to student-centered learning.
being me, power

I Am the Job Creator

Pernille Ripp
As the rhetoric fills the airwaves, I keep hearing two words over and over… job creators.  The job creators need tax breaks, the job creators have the right to be heard, we must focus on the job creators.  Well I am here to tell you something…

I drop my child off at daycare every day with a wonderful woman that teaches her how to be a member of this society – I am a job creator

I drive my car to work and sometimes stop for diesel at the local gas station, I am a job creator

I go to school and teach students the skills they need to be successful, I am a job creator

I shop for groceries to feed my family and try to stay local as much as possible, I am a job creator

I spend my extra money at the mall chasing the American dream, I am a job creator

When the economy dries up, my paycheck gets cut so that I can feel the pain of the real world.  Well I have felt the pain all along working a job that pays me little in money but much in love.  So don’t tell me I am not a job creator, because I am the one the spends the money that keeps the economy going.  I am the one that keeps it local, buys American made, and worries about how my actions in my community affects those who held the jobs.  I am the job creator with everything I do.

Be the change, being a teacher, mistakes, reflecting

We Need More Courageous Conversations

Pernille Ripp
I am wrong.  I made a mistake.  It didn’t work.  These are all words I have had to say frequently in all of the years of my teaching career.  They are not easy to say, nor easy to swallow, and yet those words are what have made me the educator I am today; someone who reflects, someone who realizes they are human, someone who admits fault.

In education we often put ourselves on pedestals, assuming no wrong.  We have all of the answers because that is what we need to have.  We have the solutions, the right ways.  We are trained professionals after all.  Except we don’t always have those answers, or the right way to do something.  Things may not always work and the students do not always get the best education.

We must learn to admit when we are wrong.  We must learn to reflect upon our mistakes and make ourselves better.  We must realize we are not perfect and that others don’t expect us to be.  We must have these courageous conversations about our own teaching, our grade levels, our classroom, and our schools.  We must reflect, we must discuss, and we must learn.  If we all fall under the illusion of perfection we will never change the way we do teaching.  We will never change to be better.  Our students will never learn from s that mistakes are glorious occasions that move us forward.  Start the conversation with yourself and then spread it.  All it takes is one courageous person to set the example.

And right after I sent this out Chad Lehman reminded me that we need courageous actions.  He is so right; take your courageous conversations and turn them into action.

Be the change, education reform, Student-centered, voice

When Students Speak Do We Even Really Listen?

Pernille Ripp
Get us out of our seats.  Less homework.  Not so many tests.  More projects, more hands-on, more fun.  All things students will tell you if you ask them how school should be.  All things we have heard for years and yet many of us have yet to react to them.  We chalk their statements up to students being lazy; they don’t want to work, that is why they want less homework.  They don’t know their curriculum so they don’t want to be tested on it.  I have too much to cover so they have to listen and stay in their seats while I lecture.  We have a plan, a program, and students are just another piece to plan for and to fit into everything we need to cover.  They are obstacles to be conquered, to be molded and shaped until they fit perfectly into our round holes whether they started out square or triangular.

So as the education debate rages and more and more voices join the discussion, I wonder why we don’t listen to the one that should carry the most weight; the student.  Where are the children at these meetings.  Where are the future generations?  Not even invited.  And I don’t mean just the high school students but the young ones, the ones that have just started school that still like to come, that still like to be excited, the ones that haven’t been burned by a system that progresses whether they are with it or not.   Those students should have a seat at the table and when they speak we should really listen.  We should stop with our excuses and our assumptions of why they say these things and want these changes.  We should listen to their message and then actually believe it.  Let them speak, let them be heard, and let us change.

It is possible to make school fun through projects and student choice.  It is possible to cut out homework and still cover everything you need to cover.  It is possible to not test and still know where your students are academically.  It is possible to stop talking and let them be the leaders, the guides, the teachers.  It is possible…if you believe in it.