Innovation Day From a Student's Perspective

I love Innovation Day - it is one of my absolute favorite days of the year.  So after we had our 5th grade Innovation Day two weeks ago I asked my students to blog about.  I don't think I have ever had a more eloquent response than the one Megan posted.

The Best Day of My Whole School Career

The best day of my whole school career would be, without a doubt, Innovation Day.  Innovation Day is a day that you get to learn about and create anything.  Sounds like a lot of fun right?  It is, trust me.  But you can’t just have recess for the whole day, or read for the whole day, you have to do something that you will be able to learn about. And you can’t just research the whole, entire day.  You have to create something to show your learning.  

Now that we have gone over the rules, I will tell you what I did.

I interviewed the librarian of our school, music teacher, gym teacher, four regular teachers, five kids, and one 4-K classroom.  Those interviews took up most of the morning.  My mom put my hair up in a bun to make it professional, and I wore business woman looking clothes.  To make it even more professional looking I offered them  a Gatorade or water.  I also made business cards.  After I was done interviewing the subjects, I gave them a king sized Hersey’s bar.  That took up most of the morning. So then I had 2 hours and 45 minutes.  So I put my learning into graphs for the regular teaches, and for the specials teachers and 4-K classroom  I made a poster saying what I learned from them.  Then I made the posters all pretty with highlighters and things like that.  If I was an actual school designer the next thing that I would have done is take that information and incorporated it into my school design, so that I could make the optimal school.  

THAT WAS THE BEST DAY OF MY WHOLE SCHOOL CAREER!!!!!!!!!!! If you do not have Innovation Day at school, and you are a teacher or princapal or student or somebody that has some kind of relationship with school, please make sure that your school has that day.  Because THAT WAS THE BEST DAY OF MY WHOLE SCHOOL CAREER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  And I guarantee that a lot of the kids will feel the same way.        

My Students and Blogging

Sunday I was lucky enough to receive a grant for an iPad for the students to use in the classroom.  here is what I said at the acceptance:

270,490
That's the number of unique visitors my students and their blog has had since they started letting the world in 3 years ago.  From discussing field trips with students in Egypt, explaining Thanksgiving to students in London, England, to sharing book recommendations with students in Singapore, my students personify what we mean when we say we want to create global citizens.  

With the addition of this iPad they can continue on their quest to bring the world into to our little learning universe while further exploring the world.  They often take these connections for granted, which means I have done my job.  Global connections are no longer the exception to the rule, but the rule under which they live.  I am grateful that I get to be a part of their global collaboration every day.

Creating Great Summer Reading Plans

I have never before cared about what my students read over the summer, sure, I cared whether they were reading or not but I figured it was no longer my duty to ensure they had great books to read.  I certainly never assigned reading over the summer and would never do that.  This year though with our  increased passion for reading, my students have been telling me they just are not sure what to read and asked for my help.  So behold; what we will be doing in the final weeks of school to create massive reading lists with awesome book suggestions for each student.

First of all; this is by choice.  I am not dictating what students should read but simply creating opportunities for them to get as many recommendations as possible.  Second of all; they will be making a list of possible books they would love to read and this list will be passed to parents, but I will not be checking up on them.  There is no incentive, no punishment, no have to.  Just hopefully a way for them to continue to stay passionate about reading.

So in the next few weeks, we will:

• Start out with our initial reading plan survey.  This gave me an idea of where students are at with their ideas for what they will read and also gives me something to compare to at the end.
• Continue our speed book dating - 1 minute per partner as students recommend books to each other.
• Try the teacher book dating as detailed by this awesome post by Colby Sharp.  In fact, I brought in my stack of to read books from home so that they can add those to the mix as well.
• Edit:  Here is what my classroom looked like while we did the teacher book dating 
• Skype with other classrooms to get book recommendations.  Short, simple Skype calls where 5 students each get to do a short book recommendation of either a favorite book from this year or a book they are currently reading.  I have asked students to think of the audience as we may be skyping with other grade levels than 5th.  If you want to Skype with us please fill out the contact form located on the right!
• Collect all ideas in our note book so that we can create a master list that can be typed up and emailed/printed.
• Continue tweeting out our book recommendation survey on Twitter and checking in to see which books people are recommending there.  If you haven't taken it - please do!
• Watch the Scholastic fall preview trailer - it may be for the fall but some of these books come out in August.
• Interview teachers around the school for their favorite young adult books.
• Read several book recommending blogs connected through our Kidblog account.
• Create an Animoto sharing our reading plan with the word and posting it on our blog.  Thanks for the great idea Shannon from Van Meter - here is the post she wrote!

Common Misbehaviors and How I Work With Them

I am editing my book (to be published in mid-July by PLPress!) and while I am taking much out because it seems redundant or unclear, tonight I added more thoughts on getting rid of punishments.  As so often happens my thoughts kept evolving and I came up with this, hope it is helpful

Misbehavior	Old Ways	New Ideas
A child constantly blurts or interrupts	Reprimand, check mark or anything else that signals they were not following rules	Partner share - have them tell answers to children at their tables before sharing with you Dry erase board - this way they can flash you the answer rather than blurt it out A tally sheet - They mark down when they blurt out to create awareness of problem, no punishment attached
The child that cannot sit still	Force them to “Pay attention!”	Give them a movement break - a quick walk around the school usually helps Allow them to work wherever they choose, at least  then they will not distract their seat mates Change up the way you are teaching @Cybraryman1 reminded me of ball chairs - which I actually have in my room and forgot to mention - these are also great for kids that are falling out of their chairs.
The class that cannot concentrate	Yell or raise voice, give them a lecture about importance of information	Change the way something will be taught Ask the students how they would like to learn about it
Late or missing homework	Missed recess or phone call home, loss of privileges	Ask them how they plan to fix it.  Often students will brainstorm a way to get it done. If they say they left it at home tell them you believe them and that they can hand it in the following day Conference to set up plan for remembering in the long run
Disrespect	Yelling or raised finger, immediate dismissal to office	Much of this can be prevented through establishment of community, however, if it happens stay calm and try to joke about it Speaking privately to the student about the disrespect and ask for reasons behind it
Constant chatting between students or passing notes	Singling out students, loss of privilege	Recognizing the conversation and asking them to stop then changing how the lesson is delivered   Give students time to discuss or work with partners Ignoring behavior if it is not a big deal
Excessive violation of classroom rules	Loss of privileges, loss of recess, sent to the office	Classroom discussion to see if rules need to be changed Asking child why they are doing what they are doing and what you can do to help Keeping it low key to not give it more importance and trying to figure out what is causing it rather than just focusing on the infractions themselves.

Related articles

• How To Give Your Students a Voice; Advice From Someone Who Tries (pernilleripp.com)
• "I will not let an exam result decide my fate" by Suli Breaks (kidblog.org)
• Principals; Please Let Your Teachers Evaluate You (pernilleripp.com)

Great Mystery Skype Questions to Get You Started

My students have grown into being quite good Mystery Skypers but it has taken them most of the year and many practice calls.  One thing they have really worked on has been the act of asking great questions so we thought it would be nice to offer up some great sample questions for when you get started with Mystery Skype.  However, the best way to grow is to not follow a list but instead discuss throughout the year what the best questions are for your class.

For the USA

• Are you in North America?
• Are you in the United States?
• Are you east of the Mississippi?

Depending on the answer to that, you can go in different directions:

If east of Mississippi:

• Are you one of the original 13 colonies?
• Do you border a Great Lake?
• Do you border an ocean?
• Do the Appalachians run through your state?
• Do you border Canada?
• Are you Northeast/Midwest/Southeast region?
• Do you border the Gulf of Mexico?

If west of the Mississippi:

• Are you in the West/Southwest region?
• Do you border the Pacific?
• Do the Rocky Mountains run through your state?
• Do you border Canada?
• Is your state landlocked?
• Are you one of the contiguous states?

For Canada:

• Are you in North America?
• Are you in Canada?
• Do you border a ocean?
• Do you border Alaska?
• Do you border the Hudson Bay?
• Are you landlocked?
• Does your province have a NHL team?
• Do you border the United States?
• Do the Rocky Mountains touch your province?
• Are you north of British Columbia?

These are suggestions only!  Depending on your answers you have to adapt your questions.  We play in a yes/no format where students get to continue guessing until they get a no answer.  Then it becomes the other teams turn.

Things we do not recommend doing:

• Vague questions such as weather related ones unless they are specific.
• Guessing states too quickly.
• Not having a student write down the questions and answers.
• The teacher having their location on their Skype profile.
• Wearing a shirt that represents or is a clue to your location.

Things we do recommend doing:

• Paying attention to the questions that the other team asks - often it gives away clues.
• Paying attention in general.
• Having a sign signaling thinking or someone telling jokes/stories.
• Staying calm and don't be rude to each other.
• Assigning jobs and sticking to them.
• Having a student-led discussion after the call to discuss success/failures and figure out how to improve.

The Learning Doesn't Stop - Ideas for Maximizing Those Last Few Weeks of School

I don't do end of year countdowns, I actually dread the last day of school because it means these amazing kids are not going to be mine any longer.  And yet, being in 5th grade means that graduation is near, middle school looms, and the kids know that our time is limited.  So they started asking me what we would be doing these last few weeks after math is done, memoir is done, all that stuff we had to get through is done (I never tell them that we are never done even if we aren't).  And voila; a list of ideas for the remaining weeks.

• The teapot project.  After we finish our math journals I don't want math to end, so thank you Aviva for choosing us to receive your teapot.  This means that the last two weeks of school we will be busy researching, designing  and building our own packing material for the teapot that will go back to another classroom in Canada.  Math journals may have stopped  but the math certainly doesn't
• Our reading recommendation list.  My students love to read; they breathe books and many kids have already expressed fear that they will not know what to read over the summer.  We therefore decided to ask strangers for recommendations and will also be compiling our own.  In the end we will create Animotos showcasing our favorites reads, a list for students to access for recommendations, and probably a massive wish list of books for me for next year.
• Book bins of our favorite books.  This was a great idea from a teacher at my school; have your students create personalized book bins for the incoming class.  My students will each create one with a favorite 5th grade book, a favorite series book, a book they never thought they would like, and a book that was too hard for them to read at the beginning of the year but now they have mastered.  What a wonderful way to get the next set of students ready to read.
• Our favorite memories.  Students become movie producers as they sort of how to film students favorite memories of 5th grade.  This is a great extension of our memoir unit and also allows the kids to tell me what they loved.  A committee usually takes care of the actual filming and producing.
• What I like about....I love this simple video project where every student is tasked with complimenting three other students.  Again a committee takes care of the filming and editing.
• A thank you letter for all those other people.  I try to teach my students the power of a thank you letter and so we end the year compiling letters to all of those people that have made the school year wonderful; our specials teachers, our custodians, our lunch ladies and anyone else the students want to thank.  Since they are 5th graders they often ask if they can write thank you notes to their old teachers as well.  A committee take scare of the binding of the books but this is a great way to once again discuss letter writing.
• Precepts for the new 5th grade students.  Anyone who has read Wonder knows what I mean by precepts but in essence they are words to live by.  I will therefore be asking my students to write precepts for my new students that I can use for my welcome display.  This is their chance to give them words to live by in 5th grade and it will be nice to have these reminders on the first day of school where I tend to miss those old students a lot.
• Innovation Day.  We just had Innovation Day as a whole grade level on Wednesday and I cannot tell you how incredible it is for 60 students to just engage in their very own project for a whole day.  If you don't know what Innovation Day it is not too late to do it at your school.
• Dear Future Mrs. Ripp's Kids.  Letters from my old students to the new ones offering them tips, getting them excited about the year to come, and of course trying to answer any questions they may have.  I hand these to my new students to read and discuss and then I take them back after that.  I save every year's letters as a reminder of just how many kids I have been privileged to teach.
• We also blog up until the last few days, do a government simulation, read one more book aloud, do an end of the year survey, present our biome projects, weed through our library, figure out how the classroom should be set up next year and just have a really great time with each other.  So yeah, I don't do a countdown - we simply have too much to still do!

A Student Demands a Better Education...Finally

I don't know if you have seen this video, chances are you haven't so stop reading and watch it.

Edit: the video has been pulled by the user which I am sad about.  It was 1 minute 30 seconds of a student asking a teacher to please teach them better than she was, that they did not want anymore packets and that she had to get them excited and to touch their hearts.  He then leaves the room after the teacher keeps telling him to.  He does this without swearing or raising his voice.

Edit 2:  The video is back up on Gawker

The video was posted on Reddit, I saw it this afternoon and immediately knew that I had to react it.  And while I do not know the backstory, I do not know this kid, or his teacher, or what the context was for this particular moment, I do know that I think this kid has courage.

If it is true that all he has been doing is packets since he got there then he has the right to stand up in a respectful manner and demand a better education.  It is what I teach my students every day; their voice matters because they are the ones we are doing this to.  And this kid, Jeff, he did it.  He stood up to a teacher without screaming, not really swearing, and asked her to touch their hearts.  To not treat them like a paycheck.  To make them excited and not sit behind a desk.  And then he left, just like she asked.

I cannot imagine the anger that must have built up for a kid to stand up to his teacher in this way.  I cannot imagine the courage it must have taken.  Courage to stand up against a system, courage to demand a better educational experience, and yes, courage to defy the determined authority and stand up for his own desire to have a better class.

I wish more students would stand up to the system, in a respectful manner, and let their voices be heard.   Students in America have the right to be angry about what is happening to them in their classroom, I am glad someone is finally speaking out.  We have silenced the voices of our students for too many years, we have not invited them into the educational debate even though it is being done to them.  Even though every decision we make as a teacher directly effects their lives and their future.  Jeff gets that and he has had enough.  I hope others figure out that they have to.  Us teachers cannot be the only voices demanding a change.

Testing Makes Me Feel Like a Bad Teacher

image from icanread

I know I should not care, I should go on my day like it is nothing, but the truth is; standardized testing makes me feel like a bad teacher.  It shouldn't be a big deal but anyone who has had their students sit through a MAP test will tell you; printing out that report and seeing whether the students met their projected growth score is downright anxiety producing.

Once the test is over then we stand with the repercussions; scores that were not met because the kid was having a bad day, scores that were not met because they rushed, scores that were not met because they didn't get that one question.  And yes, scores that were not met because I didn't do my job well enough.  The problem is; I don't know which category a score fits into.  I can certainly take a guess but that is all it would be; a guess.  So I base my teacher performance on a score that supposedly tells me everything without really teling me much.

I take their scores and try to let them be a guide merely, forget that they will go on with the students to middle school, forget that these scores will determine where on the data wall they sit.  Forget that as much as we pretend they don't matter, that these scores will usually mean more to their future education than any of my feedback or summative assessment ever will.  And it makes me feel like a bad teacher.

I cannot protect my students from what I fight against; the standardization of their intellect.  The standardization of their knowledge, their creativity  and their aptitude.  I cannot protect them from being labeled due to test scores.  I can only do so much within my classroom to shield them from the test obsessed education policy that seems to be driving us.  I can downplay the test but the educational system does not let me downplay the result anymore.  So I feel like a bad teacher.

I became a teacher to make a difference, not to feel bad about the tests I have to put my students through in order that someone will believe me when I say that they grew as a reader, that they grew in their math knowledge, that they grew in their intellect.  Apparently my word is not enough anymore, perhaps it never has been, now the data is what guides us.  And the data makes me feel like a bad teacher.

My Student End of Year Survey

I give my students a chance to do a survey on me and the year anonymously because I worry about them not wanting to hurt my feelings.  I usually do paper copies but thought this year I would try a Google form since my students love using computers.  Thank you to Edutopia for some of the inspiration as well as Leading & Learning.

My Parent End of Year Survey

Last year I asked my parents to fill out an end of the year survey on me (students do a separate one) and so this year is no different.  I have updated it, but here it is, please feel free to use it.