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

We Say And Yet

Pernille Schmidt 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 Schmidt 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 Schmidt 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 Schmidt 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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blogging, student blogging, Student-centered

Proud to Present – Creating Global Citizens with Meaningful Blogging

Pernille Schmidt Ripp
On November 12th at 3 PM EST, I am proud to be presenting for SimpleK12.  A description follows of this 30 minute learning opportunity that you don’t want to miss.


How would you like to invite the world into your classroom and expose your students’ writing to an authentic audience? Do you want your students to be global citizens who are connected with other children around the world? If so, then student blogging is for you! In this webinar we will show you how to get started with student blogging, as well as how to connect with others throughout the world. We will explore some examples of how global blogging can be used in the classroom and share some tips to make it easier.


To register for this webinar, just click on this link
being a teacher, education reform

The Emerging Age Bias – a Post for Edutopia

Pernille Schmidt Ripp
This was posted on Edutopia this week – what a thrill

“You know I was worried at first, because she was so old, but it turned out she was really good…” A friend and I are discussing her child’s teacher. Her words resonate with me because I have heard them a lot lately; she was so old…old… and I wonder since when did being a veteran teacher become a negative quality in America?
Rewind to my first year of teaching and how I wished to be a veteran, how I yearned for years of knowledge and experience that could really wow parents and engage the students at such a high level that they would love coming to school every day. Instead, I bumbled my way through, figuring out my style, using the students as test subjects to all my untried ideas and staring wistfully into veteran teachers’ classrooms. I envied their orderly, calm lessons, their seemingly endless project ideas and angles to reach every child. I could not wait to be a veteran.

The Case for Veteran Teachers

Now it appears a new trend has emerged; veteran teachers are no longer “experienced” — they are simply “old,” with every negative connotation of that word. The media and politicians portray these older teachers as stubborn and stuck in their ways. They are labeled static and washed out. The way to resuscitate America’s “failing” education is now to get rid of the veterans and pave way for the new teachers, those with boundless energy, passion and fresh ideas. It’s truly a case of out with the old and in with the new.
But those working in education can see just how flawed this method of thinking is. Those of us who breathe education recognize what these veteran teachers really bring to us all — knowledge, expertise, methods that work, and a deep-seated passion for a job that has done little to reward them. We realize that by creating a bias against experience, we are all losers in the world of education. Now before I forget: yes, there are experienced teachers that do fulfill the stereotype, much like there are new teachers that do. However, the majority of experienced teachers do not.
Thanks in part to the rhetoric of the “reformers,” the anti-veteran bias seems to be taking root in society, too. Now when teachers are searching for work, the more years they have, the less likely it seems that they will get an interview. Some districts say tight budgets are to blame, which as a teacher in Wisconsin I can appreciate, and yet, you would think that a district would spend the bulk of its money on getting experienced teachers in front of our students. Instead, we see a stigma that says the more years of teaching you have, the less open to new ideas you must be. Parents eagerly tell us how they want that new young teacher because he or she will have something new to offer. Students hope for the young teacher because they are sure he or she will be more fun.

Our Most Valuable Asset

So what can we do? Youth is the ultimate desirability in America, and it is warping the educational world as well. Youth now seems to be the one trait that everyone agrees will save our schools. Get rid of tenure, and with it the more experienced teachers, which frees school districts to hire as many brand new teachers as they want. Brand new teachers that also happen to cost less. Brand new teachers that come off as confident and brimming with new initiatives. Brand new teachers that lack the foundation that only years of teaching can provide them with.
I think back now to what I put my students through my first year — and I shudder at the thought. There were the make-no-sense rules just to ensure control, tests upon tests because I thought that was the only way I could assess, and just a small stockpile of ideas to pull from. I had the confidence but lacked experience, and the only thing I knew that would make me a better teacher (besides more years) was turning to my mentors, veteran teachers that shared their knowledge and inventiveness. In those master teachers I saw everything that had drawn me to teaching: passion, dedication, innovation and an unstopping sense of urgency to reach all students.
That is what we’ll be removing from our educational system — experience; because in the view of society, old = bad. So when we dismiss and run out our master teachers, we drain our schools of one of their most valuable assets — knowledge. When we place teachers with experience at the bottom of our respect pole, we set students up to be every new teacher’s test subject over and over, throughout their years of schooling. Yes, new teachers bring new ideas to the table, but so do veteran teachers. How anyone can claim otherwise baffles me.
Thankfully, there are others in our profession who agree with me. Veteran teachers are joining social media such as Twitter to reach out to new teachers. They are blogging about their experience, thus creating a database of knowledge accessible to anyone in need. They are creating networks within their schools, ensuring that new teachers have someone to turn to. They are not being run out of education quietly, and we should all be grateful for that. We are only as strong as the weakest link in our schools, and our mentor teachers are doing everything they can to empower the people they work with. That power transfers to our students.