About Mrs. Ripp

Since I was a child growing up in Bjerringbro, Denmark, I knew I wanted to work with children and somehow help them become the person they envisioned they could be. In January of 2008 I took my first step in making a difference by becoming a math resource teacher and then transitioned into the classroom as a full-time general educator teaching 4th and 5th grade. Now I have found my home as 7th-grade English teacher in the phenomenal Oregon school district here in Wisconsin. There is nowhere else I would rather be every day than in the classroom.

At home, you can find me surrounded by my 4 children; Theadora, Ida, Oskar, and Augustine. Together with my husband, Brandon, who is also a teacher, and our pet hedgehog, Piglet, we like to have a lot of fun together. You can often find us swimming, biking, laughing and reading many books. We love to travel as a family when the opportunity arises and try to get home to Denmark as often as we can.

Our Classroom:

Diving into our identity and how our identity moves us to experience the world is at the center of all of the work we do. This means that we embed choice, reflection, and personal goals all throughout our time together. Developing our reading and writing identity is at the core at what we do and so is seeing the humanity of each other and respecting each other's journeys.

Our year together is based around a few big ideas:

• In order for children to learn best, they have the right to feel safe, accepted, and valued in our learning community.

• Children grow more as learners and as human beings when they have choice in their learning, especially within their reading and writing, but also in how they navigate our learning experiences.

• Our identity plays a huge part in our perspective of others and the world, so in order to better understand the world, we need to understand ourselves and why we think the way we do.

• Technology can help connect us to others, share our voices, and also create change in the world.

• Learning should be engaging, appropriately challenging, and accessible for all kids.

• In order to be a better teacher, I need to invest in meaningful professional development, student feedback, home communication, and self-reflection in order to grow.

My journey would not be as phenomenal if it wasn’t for the incredible students I get to teach every day. To get a sneak peek into our classroom and the work we do, watch this video.

Our Classroom Library:

One of the things I love about teaching seventh graders is just how unique they are. The differences in student interests, maturity levels, as well as learning goals are vast and varied. These kids are not only different ages; they arrive at school with different reading abilities, different backgrounds, and different experiences that have shaped their lives in both positive and negative ways. They, therefore, have different needs when it comes to reading. As a teacher, I have a responsibility to serve all of the kids who come to me, and a responsibility to offer literature choices that speak to all of them, which is why I have an extensive classroom library with 1,000’s of books available for them to check out.

Kids, in general, do a fantastic job of self-selecting books, and when they find they have picked up something they are not ready for or not interested in, they are usually quick to put it down and ask for help choosing something else. (In fact, I encourage my students to abandon books that are not right for them at that time.) As a teacher, I will offer recommendations, however self-selecting a book is a pillar of our reading community, and a skill students continue to develop throughout their year by making many different choices. Commonsensemedia.org is a great website to use if you are looking for reviews of books.

As part of our reading journey, I would encourage you to speak to your child about what types of books they feel comfortable reading if you have not already done so so that this becomes a part of their selection process as well. If I can ever be of help to you in recommending titles for your family or navigating this reading journey with you, please don’t hesitate to ask. I respect your right to help your own child choose reading material, and ask that you respect the rights of other parents/guardians to do the same. If you object to your child reading a particular book, let me know, send it back, and I will help your child find another selection. I will put the first book back on the shelf because even though it may not be the right book for your child right now, it may be the perfect book for someone else’s child.

Our library will have a wide range of choices for kids – to meet all of their varied needs and help all of them develop and/or maintain an appreciation of reading. This includes our picture book selection that spans many social justice and historical social issues, such as gender identity, the history of marginalized communities, and discrimination. These are used for mini-lessons throughout the year as a way to garner discussion and reflection on our role as human beings. Through the use of these shared read alouds, I hope for students to not only love reading and storytelling but also to give them an entry point into complex matters. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or would like to visit our classroom library. Finally, thank you for your involvement in your child’s education and helping to encourage reading growth and engagement.

Blogging and Sharing:

I have been blogging since June 2010 when I decided I needed to reflect more on my own teaching journey. I never imagined others would be interested in that journey or that the blog would lead to so many incredible opportunities. My blog is visited by educators from all over the world and I am proud of the international debate it has created on topics such as failure in the learning environment, what the role of a teacher is, how to create passionate learning environments, and how to ignite student passion in literacy.

Other Professional Work:

In 2014, a dream came true when my first book Passionate Learners – How to Engage and Empower Your Students came out. It has since been updated and published in a 2nd edition format by Routledge based on my experience as an elementary and middle school teacher. My second book Empowered Schools, Empowered Students – Creating Connected and Invested Learners was published by Corwin as part of their Connected Educator series also in 2014. I have also authored Reimagining Literacy Through Global Collaboration published in 2016 by Solution Tree, and Passionate Readers -The Art of Reaching and Engaging Every Child, published in summer 2017 from Routledge.

Beyond teaching 7th graders, I also get to train other educators in creating better literacy experiences, as well as providing opportunities for students to shape their educational experience around the world. This does mean that I am out of the classroom once in a while, however, Mr. Starz is my trusted guest teacher. He knows our routines, our curriculum, and is great with the kids. We try to minimize disruptions to the classroom throughout the year caused by my travels and my promise is always to make sure all of our learners are fully supported in meaningful work if I am gone.