Parent-Teacher-STUDENT Conferences

My master teacher has done it again! She implements so many of the best practices and progressive practices that we read about that my head is sometimes left spinning considering all the information I am trying to process and absorb.

In this instance I sat in on 5 hours worth of back to back conferences. While the sit was long, the information I learned about each student, about family dynamics, about communicating with parents, and about what the student-led conference looks like was overwhelming and amazing.

When I walked in there was a large table in the center of the room. The desks had been moved to make room for this epicenter of meeting. It was great- the student was literally put at the center of things. As each family entered with their student the student went to their desk, immediately taking the role of leader, and grabbed their folder of work, their portfolio. They brought the portfolio of work back to the center table and took in all the focus of the room when they sat and opened it. The children had marked their various pieces: unit math tests, a native american legend, a writing prompt, a reading response, and a few others, with post-it notes the day before. Most of the notes said "Proud of" in kid writing and a few said "Not proud of" or "Need to work on." Some had organized their papers into these two categories. The students went through their work highlighting what they were proud of and what they should work on. They showed their parents their report cards and went through the same process of pointing out the good and the not so good if you will. My teacher finally entered the conversation here pointing out some of the great things about the student and then pointing out the report card section on goals, which each of the students had seen and agreed with the teacher about beforehand.

My teacher also had students on occasion work through a problem or two that they may have missed on their math test or what not. Her reasons were two fold: first she wanted the student to see and understand why they got the problem wrong and how to do it correctly and second she wanted the parents to see what they child needs to work on and how to begin to approach helping their child with it.

Lastly she asked the parents if they had any questions of her or the student. Some did, some didn't, only one had an issue they wanted to discuss later with her without the presence of the child. Some parents just used the rest of the time to chat, which was a great time for me to begin to get to know them more and to enter into the conversation. One family, originally from Bangladesh, asked questions about how the public school system was here in the U.S. and spoke of their negative memories of school back home where they were always ranked against their classmates. It was an interesting cultural snapshot and again gave me a picture into who they are, where they came from, and where they want their daughter to go academically.

Overall I really appreciated seeing this process in action and find that it is one I would definitely initiate in my own classroom. After seeing this, in addition to all the reading we have done as well as the experiences we have each had as a student, I feel all the more confused by the reasoning behind having had child-free conferences for so long. The child is ultimately the topic at the center of discussion, so letting them be physically at the center of the discussion makes so much sense and provides so much power to the student. Watching each of them point out to their parents, the people they ultimately want to please, and to themselves what they are proud of was this really wonderful moment- I could feel the pride radiating from them. The feel in the room was not tense or awkward, it was joyful.