Since 2010, my students and I have been bringing the world in. We have asked others to be our teachers, whether authors, experts, children. We have asked others to share more of their world with us so that we could make more sense of our own. We have created, we have become experts. We have made the world smaller by becoming a moving piece of the world, and we have grown. In our literacy collaborations and creations, we have become authors, poets, performers, and teachers. We have become more than what we started as.
So when I was asked what I would propose to make school different, the answer came quickly; besides empowering students, I feel an urgent need to infuse global collaboration throughout our literacy instruction (or any subject matter for that sake). That in a world that seems so divided at times, where we seem to be hellbent on finding each others differences and using them to distance ourselves, we need to actually know our similarities. We need to bring the world in to make the world smaller, kinder, more empathetic. Have students create so that they can become the person they envision rather than just pretend.
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cross posted at http://pernillesripp.com/
Mass consumer of incredible books, Pernille Ripp helps students discover their superpower as a middle school teacher in Oregon, Wisconsin. She opens up her educational practices and beliefs to the world on her blog www.pernillesripp.com and is also the creator of the Global Read Aloud Project, a global literacy initiative that since 2010 has connected more than 1,00,000 students. Her book Passionate Learners - How to Engage and Empower Your Students is helping teachers change the way students feel about school. Her other book Empowered Schools, Empowered Students is meant to give others the courage to change. Follow her on Twitter @pernilleripp.
