Pernille Ripp

being a teacher, choices, inspiration, life choices, students

Choose Your Message

March 31, 2011 Pernille Schmidt Ripp

With the waves of uncertainty surrounding us, I remain steadfast in my commitment to my students. I remain steadfast in my commitment to my family, to myself, and to my dream of positivity. To say that life is stressful would be an understatement. Personal life-changing issues abound, as well as professional ones, yet I remain steadfast in my dedication.

We choose what we portray. We choose the message that we bring. And although life may be very hard, we choose how we deal with it. This time has tested me to the core, and yet I choose to smile. I choose to exhibit hope and positivity, fore I choose to stay above water and not get pulled down. So ask yourself, what do you choose? What do you bring in with you when you show up at work or at home? What is it people will leave your conversations feeling like?

As teachers we affect more than just our students. We affect all the staff in our schools, and we affect how the children entrusted to us, go home and in turn affect their families. We have an immense opportunity and indeed responsibility to have a positive effect on all the paths we cross. So yes, I get how tough it is right now, and no, I am not a saint. I have bad days, I have horrible days, but I cannot focus on those. I have to remember why I am here in the first place; to make a difference, and not a bad one.

We speak of peer pressure as if it is a always a bad thing. I exert my peer pressure but use my powers for good rather than evil. I choose to continue to focus on a message of positivity, of challenging oneself to not be the pebble, and hope that I can influence others to do the same. Perhaps it will be cool again to smile? Perhaps laughing will become the new “it” thing to do. Who knows? I choose to remain dedicated.

being a teacher, hopes, inspiration, vision

Our Vision Has Not Changed

March 31, 2011 Pernille Schmidt Ripp

6 months ago we created this video for our school’s vision. Today, while education is in turmoil, we stand behind this vision.

being a teacher, education reform, hopes, students, testing

Being a Good Teacher Means

March 30, 2011 Pernille Schmidt Ripp

It is no longer a secret that our nation is obsessed with the supposed battle between “good” and “bad” teachers. Apparently, according to many, America has an epidemic of bad teachers on their hands and it is only through dismantling of the unions that these bad teachers can be disposed of. So for the sake of research and help, I asked colleagues to finish this sentence “Being a good teacher means…” So America, here to help you with the definition of a good teacher, as well as how to evealuate them, see my favorite answers below:

Being a good teachers means…

Being willing to reflect, change, and improve-looking for the best opportunities for student learning – @MrMacnology

Laughter, lots of laughter. Laughing with your students – @HeidiSiwak

Recognizing you are a learner, as well as a teacher and getting your students to understand that learning is for life -@henriettaMI

Listening more than you talk … Often kids have a better answer and you just have to hear it – @Polygirl68

Being open 2 our students drive their own learning in the classroom – @MollyBMom

Always feeling the lesson could’ve gone just a wee bit better – @Attipscast

Means u never stop learning and u always work to improve – @KTVee

Being a learner. being humble. being empathetic. being flexible. being knowledgeable. being driven. @RussGoerend

Always doing what’s right by the kids @Becky7274

So there you have it; what makes a teacher good. In my words; passion, change, dedication, transparency, authenticity, knowing when to be quiet, and knowing when to fight. No one said test scores, rigidity, or grades, so why do they seem to be the driving force behind what determines someones worth?

What is missing?

being a teacher, students, teaching

So I Work on the Weekends

March 26, 2011 Pernille Schmidt Ripp

Today is Saturday, the second to last day of my spring break, the day my daughter smiles the biggest, runs the most, and my husband beckons for me to read, relax, live a little. Instead I go to work. Mind you I don’t have to, no one told me in my contract that I had hours to fulfill. No one told me that I better get in there to check on everything, to plan, to prep, to clean. And yet in I go, blissfully so. So why do I work on the weekend?

I work on the weekend because there is not enough time in the week. Of course, there would be plenty of time left over if all I did was teach out of the book and not do any assignments, so perhaps I just have myself to blame. Perhaps when I decide to plan projects, extensions, and create opportunities for all of my kids to learn, I need more time. Perhaps when I decide that teaching straight from the book just is not going to cut it, then I need more time. I am not mad, or angry at the time I spend fore I know that I will get results back from the time invested. So I work on the weekends because my students deserve it.

I work on the weekends because it is quiet. I don’t turn on the music, the lights and I shut the door and let my thoughts roam. I practice, I reflect, and I tinker with what I am going to teach. I do this uninterrupted by students, coworkers, phone calls, needs for hugs, requests for lunch, mini meetings, or friendship counseling. I relish the quiet as my thoughts paint pictures of the results I want to have in the coming week.

I work on the weekends because it makes me a better teacher. By coming in, spending the time, and thinking once again about what I intend to do, I grow. I question my intent, I question my goals, and I always, always, think about the students. How do they want to learn about this? How can I be quiet while my students explore? How can this become memorable and not just another daily lesson? So I work on the weekend not by force, but by choice, because I choose to attain greatness as a teacher so that my students can attain greatness as well. I work on the weekends because my students deserve whatever extra time I can put in, they deserve that extra attention, they deserve the best. So I work on the weekends.

being a teacher, education reform, reality, testing, time

Give Me Time

March 26, 2011 Pernille Schmidt Ripp

I do not teach in a poor school, nor do I teach in an affluent one. I teach in your middle of America school, where we have our constraints but do not have to spend our entire paycheck buying classroom supplies. I am lucky in some respects, yet sheltered in others, so I wonder whether I can truly form an opinion on movies like “Waiting for Superman.”. Can I judge what this movie portrays when I have not taught in a fail factory or been labeled a bad teacher?

What I can respond to though are statements such as the one at the end of the movie, “Our system is broken…and it feels impossible to fix.”. Statements such as this does nothing to fix the problem but perpetuates the pervasiveness of just how horrible the American school system is. This angers me. The entire American school system is not horrible, there are entities of it that are, and yes, those entities need to be fixed but is throwing out the entire system really the way to do it?

The preferred method of fixing anything in education seems to be to throw it all out and start over. You see it in school districts all over; desperate to fix falling scores or inadequate growth, money becomes the solution. Buy a new program! Buy a new test! More training! More supervision! More, more, more! It appears we are choking ourselves to mediocrity and then wondering who is to blame for the lack of oxygen?

So my plea is simple; enough with the reform! We have been reformed to death these last many years. Stop changing the strategies, stop changing the methods on how to test us and just let us teach. Let me teach. Give me time to reach a deeper level with my students. Give me time to let them create and explore. Give me time to differentiate for all of my students and not just the easy ones. Give me time to speak, to listen and to develop. Some may say that time is all teachers ever have been given. Not true; our time to learn with our students has been taken away minute by minute by new curriculum implementation, standards, tests and more guidelines. So before you tell me to change again, give me time to learn how to teach this way. Then I can become a better teacher and prove to you that our system is not impossible to fix, just give me time to teach.

being a teacher