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.

being a teacher, hopes

Have Hope

Pernille Ripp
DevineMusic.org.uk Photo Credit

Some people say that they are tired of fighting.  That this is the end of education.  That the reform has gotten so far out of hand that there is no more room for common sense, for creative thinkers, for partnership.  Some people say that our students will suffer, and yes I agree, but some see no end to it all.  No winning, no change, just more tests, more papers, more, more, more – with less.

I say there is hope.  That amongst all of this fear, all of this uncertainty, we can still look at our students and see that spark.  That they know we suffer through testing with them and we teach them to be resilient.  We teach them that sometimes life asks you to do things that  make no sense, and we must get through it with grace, valor, and creativity.

So when it all seems to be too much, too crazy, too little, too late, think of the students.  Think of what we do for them every day when they enter their rooms at school, when we tell them good morning, when we end the day by saying thank you.  Thank you for being part of this, thank you for being part of something that is bigger than us, for placing your faith in me as your teacher.  For placing your faith in this school and this wonderful learning journey.  Have hope; our students do every day.

challenge, connect, connections, honesty

A Challenge to All

Pernille Ripp
I was the new kid in town 4 times before I turned 14.  I hated being the new kid.  My sister, Christine, was a dazzler.  She made new friends simply because she arrived, she drew people to her, and she still does.  I was the awkward kid that kind of looked like a boy, had huge feet, and was way too serious for her age.  Not a great combination for dazzling new people.  So when I first joined Twitter, I felt the clammy hand of past embarrassment gain hold of me.  What if no one cared?  What if no one responded?  What if no one followed?  I want to say that I joined Twitter to learn, which I did, but I also joined the blogging and tweeting world to connect with people, and it is this connection that keeps me coming back every day.  It’s the connection that urges me to get others to join, that makes me write my heart out on this blog, and that makes me push myself into new challenges.  But what if you just can’t make that connection?

There were a couple of people who immidiately took me under their wing Lisa Dabbs @Teachingwthsoul, Edna Sackson @WhatEdSaid and Joan Young @Florishingkids.  If it hadn’t been for them, I don’t think I would still be tweeting.  So as I look at my own follower count and see it grow way beyond this shy girl’s expectations, I wonder, who can I reach out to and how?  How can we make deeper connections, especially with those people that like me felt like the new kid in town?  How can we let people know that Twitter is all about connections and not to be afraid to reach out?

I think a movement has gained momentum lately spearheaded by Katie Hellerman who posted this incredible video: The Connection Challenge.  This then sparked an amazing post by Jabiz Raisdana called “Next Level” which urged us all to reach out and open up.  Cale Birks came up with the idea of the Ten Picture Tour of our schools, which you can follow on Twitter under #10PIXTR. And today Justin Tarte wrote a great post asking what can we do to keep the momentum going called “It’s All about Sustainable Momentum..” 

So I have been wanting to open up, after all, I am way to honest on my blog anyway.  And the one world that we often keep hidden is our home, afterall, we can hide behind our computers. What if we did the 10 picture of our homes instead?  Wouldn’t that also provide another layer to our connection?  If you see the mess I sit in every day when I blog, will it make you know me better?  So I offer up this challenge:

Do a 10 picture tour of your home.  Nothing fancy, I don’t expect masterpieces.

Post it on your blog and tweet it out using the same hashtag #10PIXTR (I hope that’s alright).

 Let’s see if we can take this connection one step further.

education reform, hopes, testing

Bring Back the Thinking

Pernille Ripp
One of the biggest struggles in my classroom and teaching is how to infer.  This vast concept of being able to process information and knowledge to produce an answer is a lifeskill, one of those daunting tasks as a teacher that we must accomplish making sense of for our students.  I don’t think the students are the problem, in fact, they are quite creative in their thinking; it is the educational system as a whole that is to blame for this.

With an emphasis on tests we teach students there is only one packaged answer, at least at the elementary level.  We do not teach them that the answer can be deeper than just one sentence or that their answer may differ from ours.  Why?  Because you cannot measure that on a test.  A test requires one bubble filled in or writing that fits into someones rubric.  A test requires conformity in our thinking and particularly in our creative problem-solving skills.  Tests do not like when we debate or argue various points.  Tests urge simplicity in our instruction.

That is not to say that all tests are bad.  We often discuss how it is what you do with the information that measures the worth of a test, and yet, tests hinder us from doing exceptional things in the classroom on a daily basis.  That urgent need to constantly check for progress through a test experience, stiffles students in their quest to become bigger and better thinkers, and to help create inferences.  SO most of our instruction is teaching to the test, math has one answer, when we ask questions they almost always have one answer as well.  Teacher bias means a need for student thinking to line up with their own interpretation, so it becomes right versus wrong.   After all, how many of us after the correct answer has been given, stop to ask whether there are other correct answers?

So why am I so hung up on inferences?  Well, they require that one gathers a lot of information, mixes it up with background knowledge, and then draws a new conclusion.  Inference requires confidence in ones own qualities as a thinker, as an independent creator.  Tests do not teach confidence.  My instruction attempts to, yet I am constantly battling students who think that there is just ONE answer.  After all, that is what they have been taught.  So if they miss that one true answer, then they must be stupid.  It appears that we, by pushing tests on our students, become the creators of our own demise; students who have no confidence in their abilities to learn.  And by “We” I mean the system as a whole.  In our incessant quest to measure, we are dumbing down our student population, urging them not to think creatively but rather stick to the known, the facts, the things that can be measured.  We are making them believe that the world has a right and wrong answer in every scenario, but it doesn’t.  No wonder some of our most successful thinkers did not feel the urge to complete college.  We have to get past the one answer tests to help our students.  We have to get past the constant need for progress measurement.  Get back to teaching.  Get back to discussion.  Get back to creative solutions.  It is time to bring the thinking back in education.

our classroom, pictures, school staff, tour

Ten Picture Tour – Plus One

Pernille Ripp
Inspired by three fantastic people Cale Birk @birklearns, Katie Hellerman @TheTeachingGame and Jabiz Raisdana @Intrepid Teacher, I am happy to open up and share 10 pictures + 1 of my school environment.  So this is West Middleton Elementary…

The long hallway that I walk countless times a day.  Our building has been added to  3 times at least, each time it seems, adding another hallway.

As the founder of the Global Read Aloud, we have the Little Prince watching over us and all of the connections we make around the globe.

A very unmessy desk day, usually I have piles of stuff my students want me to watch or read, as well as all their work.  However, I leave a clean desk every single night – sick habit.  Notice my daughter’s picture on the computer, I change it weekly so the kids can see her too.

The school lies off a busy road leading out of Madison but my window looks into the playground area.  I have the most divine sunlight come in and we almost never have all of our artificial lights on in the room.

We are taking part in the Students Rebuild crane folding, I never knew how to fold origami before this and the kids are way better than I am.  It has been amazing to see student leaders emerge in this and the kids get fired up over helping others.

Being a native Dane I was raised on the fairy-tales of Hans Christian Andersen so a big thrill of mine is the annual fairy tale unit I do.  We go all the way back to the gruesome versions and then discuss the moral of the story from back then.  Right now we are reading “The Little Mermaid.”

A special collection of gifts for a care package we are mailing to Mr Foteah’s class in New York City – Matt, no peeking!  

A Venn diagram given to me by my favorite Nolan.  He surprised me with it on our last day together as a split class.  One circle is him, the other is me.  If I ever have a bad day; this is what matters.

Another reference to The Little Prince reminds me every day what my teaching philosophy is; if the kids fail, it is my fault.

They put me in the kindergarten wing, which means I get to look at incredible colorful art every day.

A glimpse at our office run by the amazing Sue.  Our school is fighting bullying and 5th graders have put up slogans all over.

 For other amazing 10 picture tours make sure you check out:
@mmhoward: http://bit.ly/gIjcDg@johnnybevacqua: http://bit.ly/gxJDqH
@birklearns: http://tiny.cc/18o9s@justintarte: http://tiny.cc/kawd1
@thetheachingGame:  http://ow.ly/4vGcW