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

January 30, 2012 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.

To Register, please click here

being me, power

I Am the Job Creator

January 29, 2012 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

January 27, 2012 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?

January 26, 2012 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.

being a teacher, role model, Student, technology

You Don’t Have to Be A Technology Whiz But You Do Need to Be Fearless

January 22, 2012July 24, 2013 Pernille Ripp

Image from here

As we find ourselves surrounded by more and more technology in our profession as teachers, we see teachers react in strong ways. You have the embracers, the ones that think any tech tool will enhance their teaching whether it really will or not. You have those who are open but sceptic, who look for tools that will create deeper meanings and not just be another flashy gadget. You have the hesitaters, the ones that will not request but will use the tool when they get it. You have the hand-holders, those who stare at something and do not use it until someone else walks them through the entire process, multiple times. Then you have the skeptics, the ones that do not think any tech will enrichen their teaching because they don’t believe in gadgets. Finally you have the resisters, those who resist pretty much any change, whether technology related or not. All of these types of teachers have their reasons for being who they are, all of them base their perceptions on assumptions and on past experience.

So for all of them I offer some advice.

Don’t blame the tool. Often we hate the tool before we have even tried it, it is like a gut reaction to change in education that one develops. “Oh, here they come again with their fancy new ideas while the old ideas work just fine.” And while there is some truth in that, it is not the tool’s fault it was placed in your room, so the least one can do is explore it. Otherwise it leads to…
Judge first, condemn early. How many teachers have gotten upset over new initiatives or things being introduced before they have even tried it? Sometimes it is easier to get upset rather than just wait and see; many words have been eaten this way.
You don’t have to love it but do try it. I don’t love every piece of tech in my room (SmartBoard I am thinking of you) but I do use it. After all it is there so I might as well. I may just prefer to teach in other ways and use different tools.
Mess with it. Too many times teachers are afraid to even turn something on, let alone push several buttons. This approach can no longer be accepted. We should be guided by many of our students’ approach to tech; turn it on and mess with it. You never know what you can discover on your own.
Give it more than one try. Even with my SmartBoard I continue to explore it, hoping I will have that aha moment where I embrace it. It hasn’t happened yet, but I will not give up on it. It is there to stay and so am I.
Ask questions, but don’t gripe. Yes, satisfaction can be reached through commiseration over the latest tool but will that really push us any further toward figuring it out? Start a conversation, reach out to others, but leave it productive. You will feel better when you walk away.
Get help. Sometimes teachers are too proud to ask others for help but not me. I ask my students to help me figure stuff out, I ask other teachers whether globally or in my school. Somebody else is bound to have run into the same problem at some point so why not solve it together? Team approach works best with technology.
Be fearless. Technology is not the master of us and it never was intended to be, and yet, how many teachers are deathly afraid of it all? Yes, you may break something but so what? At least you attempted to use it. Again look to our students for how we should embrace technology; try it, use it, make it work for you.

Being a 21th century teacher means we have to equip our students with the know-how of technology, there simply is no excuse to not fulfill our job. Our students learn from us, even the way we react to change, so think of your approach as the newest thing is shown to you. Will you model how to be fearless?