Saturday, October 07, 2017

Thinking about the Family-Student-Teacher Conference

I remember years ago when I missed the opportunity to meet my son's teachers and hear about the teaching program. That year for my son was not as good as the years when I attended the meeting and could then reference what I learned to support my son's learning throughout the year. So, with that in mind, I'll go the extra mile to try to make sure that I meet with every family and student in the weeks ahead to set the stage for a good year to come.

Family-Student-Educator(s) Conference Sign-Up
Our team generally opens up a Google document to allow families to sign up for a time that works for them. We generally offer early mornings and later afternoons to accommodate family schedules, and try to have all the conference in the same one-week period so we are talking about the same general curriculum efforts, assessments, and goals with all families. This one-week (or so) window also provides us with a good amount of information with which to discuss and develop our program to best meet the needs of all families and students.

Conference Preparation
Last year I felt that I didn't carve out enough preparation time to truly meet the expectations and potential of the conferences. Our team has talked about this and we have shifted some of the learning to better prepare. We've carved time from the schedule for student reflections, goal setting, and portfolio work. We've also made time in our personal schedules to meet the approximately 50 hours that conferences take--about one good hour of planning and prep with and without students, 20-30 minute (or more) meetings, and the approximately 30 minutes per students of follow-up work to respond to the meeting's efforts.

I also want to make this an opportunity to clean up the classroom, and prepare a useful space for parent meetings. Due to our new locked door routines in the school, we'll have to remind parents to come around to our back doors to be let in at times that occur outside of the school administrative staff's schedule.

The Conference 
We have invited students to attend the conference. When students attend, we'll ask the students to make the introductions between family members and teachers. We'll then have students introduce their year's learning to date with special attention to three-four portfolio pieces including their happiness survey, reflections, Selfie mini-poster, and goals. Then teachers will have a few minutes to review the child's learning stats such as early year math and reading assessments as well as observations. Family members will have time for questions, and finally we'll set a few goals together. I can imagine some of the the most common student goals will be include the following:
  • Reading more often on your own or with others to develop fluency.
  • Reading more often on your own and with others and discussing that reading to develop comprehension.
  • Getting to school on time, and following the morning routine to get a good start in the day.
  • Asking more questions when you don't understand or need more help.
  • Practicing math skills for a few minutes each day using specific study sites and tools.
  • Reaching for enrichment by trying out some of the bonus assignments.
  • Contributing to class culture by cleaning up at the end of the day and following established class protocols.
  •  Writing the teacher an email at night if you don't understand to build better understanding of expectations or to share your ideas more.
It may be that family members ask the teacher for a few minutes to talk without the child and we'll accommodate that as needed. I hope that every conference will result in one to two goals that family members, teachers, and students agree on.

Conference Follow-Up
I will have a notebook set up off line to jot down notes about each student, particularly notes about goals. I'll reference those notes as I plan the curriculum and work with my grade-level colleagues so that we keep the goals for each child upfront in our planning and communication. We'll also work during open circle with students to discuss how they might keep their primary goals upfront too, and how they can self-advocate and positively self-coach to lead themselves forward to meet their goals as well. 

There's a lot to do to make the conference period useful and successful, and in the days ahead, I'll work with students and colleagues to make this a reality as we know that when families, students, and educators work together as a team children are happier, learn more, and overall, gain greater success. Onward.