Student Led Conferences

Yesterday, Brendan and Abbie had their "student-led" conferences. These conferences are basically a semi-private Open House. Each conference is scheduled for one hour, and there are 3 conferences happening at the same time in each classroom. The student has the hour to walk his or her parents through their classroom work and experience. The teacher is present in the room, but not expected to participate in the discussion at all.

Brendan and Abbie had both drafted a "conference" plan which included showing us their work portfolio, playing a classroom game (a phonics game for Abbie, and a probability game for Brendan), admiring the classroom decorations/displays, and touring specialist classrooms. In addition to seeing the classroom, we visited the art room, music room, computer/IT room, library, gym, and drama/dance studio. It was a relaxing experience, with plenty of time to explore and let Brendan and Abbie discuss their school life. There's just no comparison to the Open Houses we've been to in the past where you can barely move, let alone hear what your child wants to tell you. The only downside was that we didn't get an opportunity to check out the next grade level.

The conferences didn't take away too much school time either. They had a half day on Tuesday and Wednesday, and conferences were scheduled from 1-4pm each day. And, you know what? The majority of the kids had both parents attending. Somehow, the dads all found a way to take off a few hours from work and visit the school during the day.

C.J. has a unique Open House as well. We are invited to attend classes for the day. They schedule math, science, humanities, English, German, etc. classes for parents one day and teach "real" lesson so that we can understand/appreciate their school day a bit more.