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.

being a teacher, discipline, discussion, students

But Wait, You Didn’t Tell Me I Wasn’t A Disappointment

Pernille Ripp
Today I was embarrassed, so utterly left without words and ashamed that I didn’t know what to say.  A child did this to me and I deserved every moment of it.  That child and I had had an interaction more than 3 weeks ago where I had scolded him for improper video camera usage.  The task had been simple; film a short film telling me everything you know about a topic.  This child had decided to goof off and create bloppers and then forgotten to delete the evidence.  In my best teacher voice, I had reprimanded him and told him how very disaapointed in him I was.  I had then left it at that and dismissed him thinking nothing more of it.

Today, as he walked down the hallway, I stopped him to ask him about a rumor I had heard and whether it was true.  When he affirmed its validity I couldn’t help but tell him I was surprised he had been involved, that it seemed out of his nature to make such choices.  He looked me straight in the eye and said, “Well, Mrs. Ripp, I thought you didn’t care because you were disappointed in me.”  Confused, I asked him what he meant.  “You told me you were disappointed in me back in social studies…” 

And then it all clicked; this child had never been told that I was no longer disappointed.  This child, whom I care for deeply, had never been let off the hook but instead I had left him dangling, wondering where our relationship stood.  I stammered out a hurried reply about not being disappointed any longer and then walked away ashamed.  How could I have left him to think that for so many weeks?  How many times have I done this before?  How many other kids assume that I view them unfavorably because of how they have been spoken to?

So as I sit here defeated, I vow to change, to speak to these kids and then follow up.  When we use such heavy sentences as “I am disappointed in you” do we ever come back to tell them that we no longer feel that way?  Do we repair the void we create with our words or do we just let it grow?  As for this kid, I wrote him a note saying I was sorry.  What will you do if this happens to you?

help

Can You Help – Fulfilling my Brother’s Wish

Pernille Ripp
My brother, Paul, is returning from Afghanistan this month where he has been stationed in the middle of absolute nowhere for the past year.  Paul is a trauma nurse, one of those guys that are on the front lines working in a tent with no running water saving the lives of soldiers.  To say that having him in Afghanistan has been hard for my family would be an understatement but now with the count down finally happening we are hoping to see him by Christmas.  This is where I need someone’s help and I figured this would be the easiest way to do since it seems I have many connected people in my personal learning network.  Paul  is a massive Maple Leafs fan, in fact, I have not encountered many people who are more loyal to their team.  So I would love to get him a signed Maple Leaf shirt for Christmas.  It is a small gift but it would be the biggest surprise for him in the world.  This would be a way for my family to celebrate that he is around to watch another season of hockey…

So can anyone out there help me get a signed shirt for him?  I would pay for everything, he is a size large, but it is the signatures that would make the whole world of difference.  I would appreciate it if you would pass this on to anyone who could possibly help.  I hope you don’t mind me asking.

Update:  2 days after posting this I was contacted by both Dallas Eakins, Head Coach of the Toronto Marlies and Jon Sinden A social media marketer for the Maple Leafs.  They have promised to help me fulfill this wish.  This could not have been done without the massive power of my PLN, there was no official route to do this through since I am not a charity.  I cannot tell you how absolutely thankful I am to all the people who have helped. 

I will update more when I know more.  This again shows how we must all pay it forward.  I look forward to helping someone else out.

being me, labels, questions, students

Does Teachers Having Background Knowledge on New Students Harm Them?

Pernille Ripp
Early on in my life, I was labeled smart, something I have discussed in other posts.  This distinction wasn’t given to me because I proved myself in class or because I excelled in all academics.  The label had in fact been bestowed upon me because I had started school when I just turned 5, rather than the normal age of 6 in Denmark.  Unfortunately, I was the perpetual underachiever that just floated by unless I really, really cared about something such as creative writing and yet the label stuck through all of my years of schooling.

That label “smart” though had its advantages; teachers viewed me with a favorable lens, even when I really had no clue what I was doing.  I was assumed to be not working hard when in all actuality I really was so lost I couldn’t explain many things.  And the teachers did most of the work for me,  it worked perfectly since from year to year my old teachers would tell my new teachers that I was smart and so the year was set.  I didn’t have to prove anything to anyone, just sit through the barrage of parent teacher conferences where my mother was told numerous times how I wasn’t applying myself.

Some may say that my teachers saw something in me that I had not recognized myself yet, and to them I say, sure…  But what is more intriguing here is really that label teachers bestow upon children and how it tends to stick with them.  They say that first impressions count and nowhere is that truer than in an educational setting.  Often by the time our students start in our classrooms, we know a little about them, maybe not all of them, but most.  We may have spoken to their previous teacher or we may know their family, or in the very least have heard of them.  Sometimes they come with a file thicker than my arm, other times they are a vast mysterious until we have our first class.  And yet, we think we have them pegged very quickly.  I often wonder how much of a different perspective one could get of a student if the first class you had with them was one in which they excelled?

So can we move away from our assumptions?  Are we, in fact, creating a barrier between us and the real student by having “background knowledge” about them?  Can we stop labeling students or is this hardwired into our nature?

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