I woke up this morning thinking, "What have I gotten myself into?" It is that time of year when we are all exhausted, anxiously awaiting Spring Break, and feeling drained from just the work it takes to get ready for conferences. Over the last 13 years I've almost always trained my students to run student-led conferences in the spring. I'm a firm believer that kids should know and understand their data and be able to effectively communicate that to their families. They need to understand that they are in charge of the learning and they cannot do this if they don't know what their data means.
This year I changed grade levels from middle school age kids to 3rd grade. These kids are just beginning to become independent in their learning. I knew it was going to take a little extra time to get them ready. We began our planning for conferences the first week of March. Kids wrote letters to their parents about how their school year has been going. They discussed routines in our daily schedule and how they are doing behaviorally. We then reviewed our independent goals and decided whether they needed more work and needed changed. Students collected samples of work they were proud of and assembled them to share with their families. I had a mini-conference with each student individually to talk about data and what their numbers meant, how close they were to meeting state/district standards, and what they could do to improve. (Although, kids at this time in my class already knew a lot of what I conferenced with them about). The entire process is time consuming.
So through the entire month planning for conferences, I question why it is I put myself through this. Do parents really care if their child shares or I share? Will the process really have a lasting impact on my students beyond the day they conference?
After many years of answering my own question and seeing the rewards of the efforts I can share that there is something amazing about the time and energy that we give a task and how it takes on a new meaning. I think about how much I learn about the student as we go through the process. How much more does that student learn about himself/herself? I would encourage you to try student-led conferences if you have not already. And if you get to that point where you question "What were you thinking" due to exhaustion, remind yourself that nothing great happens without hard work.
Since I get to see your students almost every day I can see how much they have grown this year. They are so confident about their learning, it has been fun to see the change. It seems that the projects or activities that we come up with that take the most work end up being the things that are the most rewarding. Watching you has helped me stay motivated to try things that are more work, like the Economics unit. That was so much work but the kids learned so much and got more out of selling and keeping track of their profits (or losses) then they would have from reading a book or doing a worksheet. I'm so glad I have you around to remind me that it's all worth it in the end. :-)
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