Diary of, video, writing

Diary of Project

Pernille Ripp
For the past two years, my phenomenal tech teacher, Myrna Heilman, has spearheaded the Diary of project in the 4th grade. The students get to research an animal of their choosing, write down 10 facts at least and then create a movie pretending to be their animal. This is based on the books in the “Diary of a Fly” series and this lesson plan.

This lesson not only lets students incorporate tech in a meaningful way, not just for tech’s sake, but lets them truly adapt a different voice and unique perspective. While most of my students’ work can be found here, below is just a sample of the finished product.

collaboration, community, connections

A Connection is Made

Pernille Ripp
It all started with a question, a small idea really, and one word “Community.” Take two sets of children, happy in school, each faced with their own busy lives, full plates, and small victories. What if we turned them loose with a camera, with their own creativity and asked them to show off their community? That is exactly what my friend and inspiration Matt and I did for our classes. What started as just a way to connect two seemingly very different classes morphed into something bigger than just a simple hello via Skype. Instead our students were asked to really think about what sets their community apart from others, and how do you showcase that to others that may have no idea where you are?

What followed after that initial conversation of idea was a lot of hard work and so much enthusiasm. Neither one of us have the luxury to suspend curriculum but had to find a way to fit it in, not just because it was fun, but because it was worthwhile. So I told the kids cautiously, would they get excited as well or would they roll their eyes at yet another harebrained Mrs. Ripp idea? Their excited chatter told me once again this was going to be great.

For 3 weeks the kids worked both in class and outside of class creating their video.  They knew that Matt’s students spoke Spanish so they wanted our sometimes shy Spanish speaking students to take a leadership role in each group.  I was also told that i was not needed, after all, they had Google translate if they needed to figure something out and they knew how to shoot the video.  Donations came in for the care package we were sending out their with some real Wisconsin stuff, and then finally; the last shot was filmed, the movie pieced together, the package dropped off.  

So I am excited to present “Our Community” – a video inspired, created, and carefully edited by the students in my classroom for our friends in Mr. Foteah’s class.  In the end it wasn’t really about the video, it was about the community we shared making it and the community we reached out to.

attention, being a teacher, choices, power

A Thought on Shutting Doors

Pernille Ripp

When that door shuts, I come alive, not because I am afraid to show my true colors with an open door, or because I am worried what strangers might think, but instead because then I can truly focus on what is the most important; the here, the now, the kids. So when I lose my focus and worry too much about what others think it shows up in my teaching, sneaks right in and settles in the back of my mind. I must forget to take my own advice at times; choose who you give your attention to. Choose who you give power to. Choose who you let lift you up or bring you down. Because those choices also influence your students, those choices we seemingly make separately from our classrooms are never quite separate. We carry it all with us, whether we want to or not. Or at least I do.

So I choose happiness. I choose to focus on everything that is astounding in my life. The incredible deep love from my husband, the unmistakable faith from my mother, and my daughter’s incredible joy for life. The student who finally gets it, or cracks me up with a new joke. The coworker that shares yet another success in their teaching or brings up a new idea. I choose to focus on my own mistakes and weaknesses because those I can do something about. And I choose my own words more carefully so to not bring others down.

So now when I shut that door I also make a conscious effort to make myself open it again. To let the world back in, to show those kids that I am there wholeheartedly no matter what passes by our door. To remind myself that my choices are their choices, and that’s the way it should be.

answers, assumptions, balance, being a teacher, twitter

Is Twitter a Cop Out?

Pernille Ripp

I am a Twitter fanatic, if you ask anyone, in particular my husband, they will tell you how often I quote something that I learned abut from this social media or how this or that idea came from there. Twitter has enriched my life in ways that I would never imagined when I first signed on a few years ago. In fact, Twitter has radically changed the way I teach and the way I think. Not bad for 140 characters.

As I get more involved with Twitter and the people that I connect with though, I am starting to wonder whether Twitter to me has become the ultimate cop out? By reaching out through the internet, limiting myself mostly to blog posts (which are pretty one-sided) and 140 character tweets, am I shutting off real face-to-face collaboration? You see Twitter doesn’t talk back all that much or go to the teacher’s lounge and roll its eyes. Twitter doesn’t go to your principal laughing at the new hare-brained idea that was just presented. In short, Twitter doesn’t make me take a risk. If I offer up an idea I seldom get negative feedback, instead some people take the time to praise it and often comment. I do the same for others, in fact, I hardly ever discuss something in negative terms unless everyone else is. So Twitter becomes the ultimate safety net where we are not forced out of our comfort zones but instead selectively choose who we care to share with and listen to. But I wonder whether that is “real life?” Or does it even need to be?

It struck me today as I read one of my student’s blog posts about what was missing in 4th grade. Her comment was that she wished we did more with the other 4th grade classes. And she is so right; that is missing from this year. And not because we don’t want to, the initiative just never gets taken. Instead we create global connections which have been incredible parts of our school year, yet perhaps we forgot about our local connection in the bigger picture. bAnd yet it is those local connections that radically determine our day, it is those local connections that see all our flaws and strengths, that see us grow without a lens. Those people that can have the most profound effect on us.

At school when I have an idea I have to find people willing to participate in it, someone whom I trust enough to listen to me and who will then weigh their options. I have to make my case and put myself out there for possible rejection, and it hurts when something gets shot down. Yet it is through these awkward moments of self-selling that we become bigger people and a tighter knit school community. Let’s face it, it takes real courage to speak up at a staff meeting surrounded by your everyday peers. Does it take courage to speak up on Twitter?

So I guess I leave you with this question; has Twitter strengthened your local relationships as well or has it made it easier for you to forget about them? Are we all, in fact, just hiding behind our computers waiting for someone like-minded to come and find us? I am not sure anymore.

being me, family, inspiration, role model

A Mother’s Tale

Pernille Ripp
When I was 15, I hated my mother.  In fact, I hated almost everything.  Anger, sadness and oh so loathing of myself emanated and surrounded me every day for years.  Words flew like daggers, piercing indiscriminately whomever and whatever came in my path.  I was a child who suffered in their own self-pity, one who wallowed in misery, and lost friends, alienated family and tried to make everyone else’s life as miserable as I perceived my own. And yet my mother stood by me.  She didn’t change her course, her faith in me, her utmost belief that the little girl that had been the last, would one day come back to her.

People like my mother do not appear often in one’s life.  She is selfless without being depreciatingly so.  She is witty, charming, and very very smart.  She is beautiful in a way that requires little effort.  She is strong, and she is a believer in strength for all.  She is fair, she is opinionated, and she carries a grudge, but she knows when to let go and forgive, even a child that sets out to hurt.

As a teacher, this lesson sticks with me every day.  Our students may lash out with words that are meant to destruct, destroy and hurt, and yet I stand by them, knowing that they too are momentarily lost on their path in life but one day they will return to me.

Tonight my mother was awarded the University of Wisconsin Academic Excellence in Teaching Award.  We were there to see her accept it and there to cheer.  My mother passes her lessons of love, curiosity, and inventiveness on to students every day and for once someone finally acknowledged just how incredible she is.  So thank you to the most important woman in my life, thank you to the one who taught me what it means to live with grace and to believe fervently that we make a difference.  We speak of teachers as role models, and yes, my mother is mine, but she is also many others’.  Thank you for standing by and standing up when I needed it.  Thank you for kicking in and kicking butt when it was deserved.  I am the product of a strong woman.  I hope my daughter will say the same about me.

attention, being me, control, education, power

May I Have Your Attention

Pernille Ripp

Attention; one of the most powerful gifts you can offer someone. When we care about a person, we give them our attention as the main way of showing it. Attention when doled out can make someone experience deep emotions whether in a great way or not. Attention when handled carelessly can inspire someone to believe misplaced intentions or that we care less than we do. Paying attention is a way of transferring power to the person we are paying attention to, and that power is, well, more powerful than we can even fathom.

As a society we strive to categorize and be categorized. Through our labels we determine our social circles, our place in the community, and certainly our own self-worth. Every label we either bestow upon ourselves or are given comes with a set amount of societal power. Through our profesion we receive a certain amount of power societally predetermined, as a woman I may receive less power than if I were male, and don’t even get my started on the power determined by our skin color. In a perfect world we wouldn’t be prejudged, or categorized, before someone knows us well but it appears we are all either too busy or wired in such a way that it happens despite our best intentions. So every day we choose to give power to other people through our attention to them and that power shift can either benefit us or harm us. How much time have I spent worrying about someone’s impression of me; more power to them. How much time have I spent about how people will view me; more power relinquished. How much time have I spent paying attention to empty celebrities, politicians, or people I will never ever interact with in any positive manner? Way too much.

So how do we change the way we offer up power to people who do not matter? How can we stop being sucked in by those that mostly do harm? In this politically charged America, it seems we need to dust off the civility but where? So from now on, I want to be sparser with my attention. I want to give it fully every day to those that mean the most; family, friends, my school community. I will strive to remove my share of given power to people who spew negativity, to people who only thrive when there is misery to be discussed, to those who do not mean well. We may not be able to change society and the uneven power held by people, but we can change the share we control. Attention is an incredible gift; give it to those that matter.