- Showcase portfolios that include academic stats, signature learning efforts, photos, passion pages, social/emotional reflections and goals, and more.
- The opportunity for children to write a script and use that script to lead their own conference.
- The chance to discuss what matters to parents and students, and troubleshoot when needed.
As I think of the conferences to date, I'm reminded of the following teaching/learning elements of success:
- You can't be nice enough
- It's best to do fewer things well than try to do too much
- Make time for student reflection
- Utilize the conference conversations to lead to bettering the curriculum program and teaching efforts.
- A good routine and consistency matters
Some nice additions to these efforts may include the following:
- Continued improvement of portfolio efforts.
- Making sure that students place signature learning and reflections into the portfolios on an ongoing basis.
- Including a program overview in the portfolios--this overview may be the curriculum night presentation. This will serve as a point of reference for program discussion and development.
Teaching is a field where you can forever improve, and the conferences are a time to celebrate what is working well and to begin work on areas where improvement is possible. Onward.
