Like many teachers focusing on continuous improvement in the classroom, Janette Stecker, 5
th grade teacher in the
Cedar Rapids Community School District is implementing
student-led conferences. She shares her first-time experiences with this student-empowered process.
Change is never easy. While approaching this paradigm shift, Janette shares that “…the night before the first conferences I have to admit I questioned myself, “WHAT WAS I THINKING??” Read the rest of her reflection...
Have you implemented student-led conferences? Share your thoughts… comment today!
Jay---------------------------------------------
Janette’s story continues...
Giving up control is a teacher’s nightmare. If the teacher doesn’t take control over a parent conference, who will lead? If the teacher doesn’t have hands-on planning of what is to be discussed and presented, who will do the planning? If the teacher doesn’t talk until her voice is hoarse after 23 conferences, who will do all the talking? There is one simple answer to all of these questions: THE STUDENTS!
Over the course of the first trimester, my students have been preparing for their fall Parent/Student/Teacher conferences. The students have data folders in which they have collected work samples from each subject area as well as graphs that represent data from their assessments. We also added a section this year called “All About Me” where they do activities that are more personal to them rather than curricular related.
About two weeks before the first conference, the class and I sat down and discussed how the student-led conference should be conducted. I gave the students an outline showing the steps they should take to get from introducing their parents to their teacher all the way through to the deep breath at the end knowing they did a great job. We took time as a class to allow each student the opportunity to organize their Data Folder, pick out the main pieces they wanted to highlight, and time to practice what they would say. I was amazed at how seriously the students took this time. They were diligent in organizing their folders. If I didn’t have time to allow them to practice; I heard about it. If they needed a copy of an assignment from the Quality Work board, they took the responsibility to get that copy made and put into their folder. Needless to say—this time they spent preparing, used to be solely spent by me; but now they were preparing—and doing it with smiles on their faces. The last time I remembered smiling about conferences was last spring when FINALLY the last one was over!
The night before the first conferences I have to admit I questioned myself, “WHAT WAS I THINKING??” Sure I had their report cards done—they were sealed and in the kids’ hands going home for pre-conference preview, but I didn’t have stacks of papers. I didn’t have any artifacts to share. I was sitting here without proof of their work, just waiting for all the parents to bombard me with questions. What had I done?
The first student came in. She shined like a diamond—took control, shared almost her whole data folder, and every concern or comment I had planned to make was taken care of during the conversation throughout her presentation. Ok—could it be this easy? Wait, she’s a great and responsible 5
th grader………let’s see how the rest of the night goes. The second, third, fourth, fifth, and even sixth conference came and went—my throat didn’t hurt, I had hardly drunk any of my water on the table, all parents left with smiles, and the kids did absolutely wonderfully. Was this too good to be true? Could a teacher honestly get through conferences without being in control of 99% of the conference?
Yes the teacher can. I think about all the positive learning experiences each of my students gained from these student-led conferences: 1) preparation for an upcoming presentation, 2) ownership for their learning, 3) speaking about both their positives and their needs for improvement, 4) feeling accomplished for a job well done, and 5) being able to look at their work in order to prepare goals for the following trimester.
As I think back over the many years of doing traditional conferences, I don’t reflect poorly, but I do have to wonder about the students. How did they feel as they knew their parents and teacher were talking about them? They must have felt extremely left out and unconnected to THEIR education! A student-led conference provides ownership to the students while giving the adults the chance to offer feedback. In the end—shouldn’t it be our goal in our children’s lives to help them to gain ownership and responsibility while passing along our insight and doing what we can to raise positive members of society?
Janette Stecker
jstecker@cr.k12.ia.us
