being a teacher, education reform, power

Every Day I Make a Choice

Pernille Ripp
Every morning I choose how I see the day.  I could view it through the lens of most that I will not do enough to help my students, I will not be able to get them where I need them to be because the system is against us.

I could view the students as obstacles that need to be conquered and my colleagues as people who take up too much time or none at all.  I could view my administration as the enemy, and my standards as chokeholds around my teaching.  I could blame the system for my lack of progress and I could feel good that at least I tried.  But I don’t.

I choose every morning to believe in my own abilities as a teacher and as a human being.  I choose to be positive, thinking that today will be the best day I could ever make.  Today my students will conquer mountains and guide me on new paths.  My colleagues will inspire me if I reach out, and then will support me through my journey.   My administration will hold me to high standards because they believe I will soar.  The standards are simply guides and they can be worked with much easier than worked against.  The standards do no tell me that I have to prep my students for tests, or even how I should teach, but only what our goals should be and those can be reached in many ways.  I choose to fight the system from within and change it the way I can.  I do it for my own sanity and for the curiosity of my students.

Every day I have a choice in how I will view the world, and although I wake up grumpy (just ask my husband), and bogged down by all of the forces working against me, I slip on my teacher super power suit and I stay positive.  The last thing schools need is another person bringing it down.  The world is already trying to do that.  So what do you choose?

being a teacher, conferences, Student-centered

A Student-Led Conference

Pernille Ripp
There they sit, hands clutching the paper, eyes shifting a little back and forth; the responsibility clearly weighing on them and yet…If you look a little closer, you will also notice poise, presence, and a sneaking calm.  The students are ready to state their goals, to own their learning; welcome to student-led conferences.

Most of these students have never been given the control of their conference so they are more nervous than they need to be, in fact, I think they get a little glimpse of how many teachers feel.  They want to do well, they want to be able to answer the questions, they want to offer their parents hope and positivity.  Yet they are not afraid to bare their shortcomings, they are not afraid to discuss what the path ahead looks like.  They own their education.

I leave the meetings exhilarated and proud, we shared our journey and we previewed our path.  Parents had tough questions but the students were honest in their answers.  Parents leave feeling satisfied, proud of their children, and part of the process.

As educators, we wonder how we lose the engagement of our students and then do conferences to them.  We do education to our students acting as if they have nothing at stake, pretending to be the one true expert that will fill the empty vessels.  Even if we do student-centered learning, we then forget to shape our conferences on the same model; less me, more them.  I could never go back to the old conferences.

being a teacher, being me, future, student driven, Student-centered

Why I Make My Life Harder

Pernille Ripp
Sometimes I wonder why I make my life so hard?  Why do I let the students explore rather than just dictate what they are supposed to learn?  Why do I fight for them not to be graded at every turn when just writing that percentage or that letter would free up so much of my time?

Why do I insist that we work things out rather than just punish them without a conversation?  Why do I force myself to get the learning done in school rather than sending it home as homework?

Why do I fight for the creative spirit of these kids?  Why do I challenge myself to change and grow when really I know that I am a decent teacher, isn’t that enough?  Do they really deserve the best of me so that my family only gets the rest of me?

I make my life hard because our future is at stake.  We are modeling the future of the world and I want it to be a beautiful one.  I want it to be one where children believe in themselves as learners, where their creativity shines, and they are unafraid to fail.  I want the world to be one in which I do not fear sending my own child to school, afraid that our system will kill her curiosity.  I do this for my daughter and for all of the other children.

Student-centered

And Then They Were Challenged

Pernille Ripp
Cross posted on Inquire Within 

Today something amazing happened; I didn’t have to teach.  Or at least I didn’t have to follow the lesson plan to stay on track because all of this week we have been doing our state tests.  But today we were done and we had 90 minutes of time just for math so where some may have done review or front-loading, and yet others may have played math games, my team and I decided to challenge our kids instead.  So rather than their normal math problems where every single step it hammered out for them they were given problems to solve.  Problems that didn’t tell them what to do.  Problems that weren’t broken down into easily digestible bits.  Problems where they had to try and fail and try again.  Problems like we solve outside of school.

At first the kids moaned, hesitated, and then they got involved.  Then they got excited, and then they worked on it for 90 minutes straight until they had solved every single one of them.  This was not by force from me, they were told to do as many as they wanted, but they wanted to solve them.  They wanted to share their solutions, they wanted to mess with them, to play around, to try something.  They beamed.  They couldn’t wait to show me, they couldn’t want to explain how they had tried something and then something else.  They asked if they could take them home.  Math!  Home!  Wow…

So I ask myself, why can’t math be like this every day?  I like our math program but that is exactly what it is, a program, something prescribed and broken down.  Where is the time for our real exploration?  For our trying and failing?  I have to find the time.  

Uncategorized

How One Idea Connected 4,000 Kids – I Present at the Global Education Conference

Pernille Ripp
I am super excited and freaking out just a little bit over being a presenter at the Global Education Conference happening November 14th – Nov 18th, 2011.  Not only is this another incredible professional development opportunity, it is also a chance to connect with educators around the world all from the comfort of your own home.  Oh and did I mention it is free?

My session will be a window into the Global Read Aloud; how it started, how it grew, and ultimately how it continues on.  I hope to inspire others to create global projects by showing how easy it is with the use of social media, and also to promote getting involved in global projects. 

So join me, join the conversation, and get inspired!  I will post a link to my session soon but it is Tuesday, November 15th at 8 PM CST.   Here is a link to the entire schedule.

alfie kohn, being a teacher, education reform, Student-centered

We Say And Yet

Pernille Ripp
We say we don’t want to be micromanaged as teachers and yet then we do it to our students.

We say we want democratic schools, where our voices are heard, and yet we rule our students with an iron fist.

We say we are working as hard as we can and that merit pay will not boost our dedication or our effort, and yet we dangle grades in front of our students to try to incentivize them.

We say we work too many hours as teachers without getting paid for it and yet we assign hours of homework to our students.

We say our voices are not being heard in the educational debate yet we do not listen to the voice of our students.

We say we want to be invited into the educational policy decisions being made and yet we do not invite parents and students into our own decisions.

We say that we want freedom to teach and yet we allow little freedom to our students in learning.

We say we want to teach in our own way, infused with our passion, and yet we expect students to all learn the same way.

We say that we need to time to teach and to learn all of these new things being thrust at us and yet we expect our students to all find the time and to master it at the same time.

We say we want to be respected as individual teachers and yet we show little respect to our students as individuals, expecting them to fit into whatever we have decided the perfect student should be.

We wonder why our students are losing interest in schools and never stop to look at what we do to them.  Education should not be done to them, it should happen with them.  Give back your classroom to your students; give them a voice.