being a teacher, classroom setup

Where I say Goodbye to an Old Friend; My Desk

Pernille Schmidt Ripp

Today I decided to get rid of my teacher desk.   Felling like a rebel, feeling a little brave, put the door it went to some other wanting teacher.  And yes, while this may seem spur of the moment it is something I have been pondering for about a year now pushing it away whenever the thought crossed me. You see, I love my desk. To me it signifies being a teacher; sitting behind the desk, grading papers, surveying the room, feeling powerful. All things I used to take such pride in, particularly the grading of papers, and now that doesn’t seem to be me anymore.  Now I don’t take pride in grades but rather in the conversations I have with my students surrounding their work.  Now I love being away from my desk, preferably on the floor or next to a student working. Now I don’t feel powerful in an authoritarian way but rather in a “knowledge is power” type of way.
And yet that desk was my anchor. My teacher space, sacred to me and a no-no for the kids.  Whenever I needed to retreat I scurried behind it, setting up my barrier. Whenever I needed to signal to the kids that I needed some space, there I was sitting in my chair working. The wall was up, the kids knew it and I was safe.  The chair was too comfortable, the desk had too much space for piles, and the kids didn’t like to approach me whenever I sat behind it. And yet it beckoned for me, drew me to it almost like a magnet; come sit, come relax, come work. And so I did, finding myself nestled in its power, in its comfort over and over, when I should have been on the floor next to those kids. When I should have been out in the room walking, working, learning. Now don’t think I sat behind it teaching, just shouting out instructions, I never did, but I pulled kids behind it for one-on-one time. I had kids come there for help, for learning, and it didn’t work. They immediately felt the power of the desk and were not able to relax. They knew they were in my space, not theirs, and so their guard was up when I needed it to be down. The desk had too much power.
So today I say goodbye to the beacon of my teacher strength. I cleaned out all the drawers, emptied the files and wiped it down one last time. The remarkable thing was all the stuff I found in it that I didn’t even know I had; 13 white out’s, reward certificates, and numerous empty files. Apparently my so essential piece had become rather nonessential in its true purpose. I was nervous sure, I still am, but at the same time I knew it was time to say goodbye. I don’t want our classroom to be their space versus my space. I want it to be all of our space. I want the kids to feel they can approach me wherever I sit. I want them to have room to sprawl out on the floor, I want to sit with them as we learn together. I have said before that we were on this learning journey together; now we truly are.  So farewell dear friend, you have served me well but now we have grown apart.
For more inspiration to give up your desk, please read this posts – they inspired me.
Russ Goerend’s Post on going desk less.
John T Spencer’s Post on how he was wrong.
being a teacher, education reform, Student-centered

What Do You Have Room For?

Pernille Schmidt Ripp
With the school year upon most of us in Northern America, now is the time I start to dream.  I know I cannot change the system in which I operate, although I can make waves, but I can continue to change our classroom, the journey we are on, and the road we take.

We all have such power; but do we remember it?  Do we remember that even though much of our day is dictated by outsiders, we still have a voice?  You do.  It may seem like test prep, rules, and “routines” day in and day out but really there is room for you as well.  There is room for you to give your students a voice and let them own the journey.  There is room for you to not punish and not reward, those are choices you make.  There is room for you to engage kids, to not be the center of attention, to let them speak, hope, dream, and inspire each other.   There is room for all of that.

So although it is easier to say education is being done to us as much as it is to our students, it is not entirely true.  We still have choices in our school, even if it is only how we speak to our students.  And even that holds power within itself.  So ask yourself; what do I control?  What can I change? What do I have room for?

Related articles
new year

On Those Two First Days

Pernille Schmidt Ripp
I am in the countdown, getting butterflies, and starting to have those back to school nightmares about how much the kids will hate me.  Yes, school starts in 3 weeks.  So yesterday I sat down and brainstormed what I would do those first two days or week with my kids.  We start weird this year with orientation on Thursday and then full day Friday but then Labor Day weekend so I don’t plan out the lessons.  But I do make a list of all the things we should do.  Care to see it?

So what does it say?

  • Flag pennent – a way for my kids to show their personality and decorate their cubbies – it’s a 5th grade thing
  • Wordle about me – I have parents hand in 5 secret adjectives to describe their child and then we add 5 of our own and it make a really great Wordle about the kids which we hang up – the students get so surprised over the adjectives their parents use.
  • Intro to Blogging – we start to talk about blogging on the second day of school because it is a huge part of our classroom.  And then we start to discuss safety.
  • Paper blog lesson – this is a great lesson shared by @McTeach and one that I love to do with my kids.
  • Lunch magnets – sign in, sign out
  • Name sticks – I randomly pull sticks when we discuss and use them for group work.
  • Pencil cups – I have tables this year so no more name tags on desks.  Students will instead have a decorated pencil cup with their name on it.  They work on this while I read aloud.
  • Writing sample – I love seeing how they grow.  I think this year’s topic might be “What color is 5th grade?”
  • Read Dear Future Mrs. Ripp Student letters aloud.  Every year my students write a letter to the new kids sharing information about this classroom and how to get the best out of it.  This year some of those students are still with me so I am going to share their letters with the whole class when they work on projects.
  • Time Capsule – we measure height and write down our favorites and dislikes.  The kids always crack up at the end of the year about what they wrote.
  • Make Animoto classroom vision – the kids figure out our vision for the room and put in into Animoto.  It really gets them thinking and helps them take ownership of the room, here is last year’s.
  • Discuss classroom jobs – I have helpers every week and this year I added new jobs like Googler and Mapper.  The Goggler will google questions we have submitted on a list and the mapper will keep track of where we connect with.
  • Morning Routine – we discuss expectations; what type of morning do the kids want?  How do we get started for the day?  We come to an agreement on how it will run best.
  • Random Pictures of Mrs. Ripp – I will be sharing a slideshow of random pictures from my life to see if the kids can guess what they mean to me.  The following the kids will bring in their random pictures.
  • Connect the students – this is a great activity that only requires paper and sharpies.  The kids all write their name on the border of the paper and then one person makes a statement like “I play soccer.”  Anyone else who plays soccer gets to connect their name to theirs and then the next person states something and so on.  In the end you have a huge spiderweb of how connected we are in the classroom which I display even though it is super messy but it kind of looks like art.
  • Rules discussion – I don’t set the rules, the kids do.  So how do we want our room to function, how do we want it to sound, to look like?  What will we do to maintain it.  That conversation starts on the first day.
  • Be a tour guide – I have some of my students from last year so why not have them give tours of the classroom.  I have changed some stuff but not everything so then everyone can feel at home.
  • Name your table.  The students will come up with a table name and then create a banner for it.  This will happen monthly as the students change tables.
So there you go, just a couple of my to do’s for the first couple of days.  If you see something you like; borrow the idea.  
blogging, connections, reform symposium

The Reform Symposium Recordings are Live

Pernille Schmidt Ripp
I was lucky enough to present twice at the Reform Symposium 3, once with Matt Ray on our collaboration  and once on why you should blog with your students.

Both presentations are now live as a recording and you can watch them whenever it fits into your schedule.

Here is the link to WisconsiNewYork 

Here is the link to Ask the Children: Blogging with Your Students

I would love to hear your comments or help out with anything that I can.

being a teacher, new year

Recipe for My School Year

Pernille Schmidt Ripp
It is easy to create disaster, a horrendous start to the school year that haunts us the rest of year.  It is easy to make our students feel unappreciated and undervalued, in fact, we can often ensure this within the first day.  I wrote about this in my post “Recipe for an Awful School Year” and many asked what then would be my recipe for an amazing school year, and to this I say…I don’t know.

It would be easy for me to give you a long list of the things that I must do to ensure a good start but the truth is, I think most teachers do these things already.  I think most great teachers do many things that I have no idea about and that I have yet to learn.  And then I realize too that for all of the planning that I can do to set up the year there is one ingredient I cannot control; the students.  Yet, for my own sanity and to get my own ideas flowing there are things I have to do for this to be my room, our room, the kind of room I would want my daughter in, the kind of room I would want to be a student in.  These things are simple and they do not cost any money.  So here is what I will do.

I will greet my students with a smile and a laugh, probably a joke even though all of my jokes tend to be corny and yet they make them laugh.  I will let them know that I am excited and nervous too and that we are on this journey together and if they fail then I fail and that is alright by me.  We will talk about our vision, how do we want this classroom to feel?  Do we like noise or do we work better quiet?  How can I get their attention and how can they get mine?  We always need to figure this out before misunderstandings and hurt feelings occur.

The classroom will be bare because it is not mine to decorate, it is theirs and they can take over as soon as they would like.  There will be no rules poster because we set those together and then we discuss and change them when needed.  There will be tables, finally, this year so that students can work together whenever they need to and always have someone to reach out to.  There are also pillows and comfy chairs, carpet squares and corners for retreat – we all need our quiet space.  There are boxes of books to be explored and pictures to take.  We need to document this journey together.  There will be things to teach each other as I have had some of these kids before and they seem to know me better than I do.  My daughter and husband will have made a welcome video because they become a huge part of our classroom since they are a huge part of me.  There will be sharing but there will also be work that first day because kids tend to want to get started.  After all, they are older now and wondering what this class is all about.  Their voices will do most of the talking because I should not be the center of attention.  And so goes my first day.

I cannot tell you how my first week will go because we haven’t decided.  Of course there are plans to follow, lessons to be taught, school routines to conquer but how these will shape out I am not sure of yet.  I have to get to know my students before I can think that far.  I have to adapt my teaching style to them.  I have to meet them before I decide how the school year will unfold, hear their ideas, their hopes, their fears, and then together we will plan.  Together we will make this a journey we all want to be on.  Not just my journey or theirs, but ours.  It is always about the ours.