Student Led Conferences

I just had my first experience with student-led conferences and despite the fact that I am feeling totally wiped out, I thought they were really cool. I never thought of having students take charge during conferences because I have always taught pretty young kiddos, but my teammates do it, so I tried it out. For our spring conferences we have a choice of doing an open house style arrangement or to just conference with families that we feel we really need to speak with--we are not required to conference with everyone like we are in the fall. Although there are many families who I don't feel like I have to talk with, due to their sweet kiddos being rockstars at Kindergarten, I think every family deserves some face time with the teacher and I think it's really important to establish that precedent in Kindergarten. I also think it's important to talk to the parents of kids who are doing great because it's just as important for them to hear that as it is to discuss challenges with parents.

Our conferences consisted of stations and three families attending at once. The kids got a list and they have to visit each station (in any order). Our stations were:

sight words
reading books
Fast Track phonics
teen numbers
number partners
journals
patterns
making numbers
talk to the teacher

Overall, I really liked the process, but here are some thoughts:
the good

• parents get to see their kids in action and how they are doing with the activities rather than just hearing me talk about their kids
• I can "meet" with 3 or 4 families at once (which really is a time saver considering I have 43 students
• Parents can see when kids struggle, so I don't have to "break the news"
• Parents are more involved
• Kids have to come and take part in the conference instead of staying home
• I have more flexibility to move around and use the bathroom during conferences if needed
• I can see parents interact with their kids while they rotate through stations

the not so good

• Despite the schedule and indication that the conferences should last 30 minutes, some families stayed a long time. I intended to only have three families per time slot, but at one point I think I had six or seven families in the room and people ended up waiting for station and waiting to talk to me. I just let them do their thing, but it got crowded....
• Again, despite the schedule, I ended up staying 45 minutes longer than I planned talking with parents (today I didn't have anything else to do, but this could be an issue Thursday bc I have to leave for class right after my last conference and I don't want to rush anyone out the door)
• If a family has to cancel (like for a sick kid), it's hard to re-create student-led conferences at a later time.

I was at school for 12 hours today, so I am feeling pretty exhausted. I was planning on going to the gym, but I am not really up for it....Maybe I will just read instead. I got three new books yesterday and I already finished Teaching Phonics Today. It was pretty short, but a great resource for a paper I need to start writing because it gave a great historical perspective on reading instruction.

 I feel like I knew a lot of the information about phonics instruction, yet I also learned a lot too. I didn't really know much about how reading has been taught over the years and how/when instructional styles changed. I always hear that it's a pendulum that swings, but at least for my paper, it is really good to know how instruction changed, when, and what the research was behind the changes.

We'll see if I have time to read these over break. I will be enjoying time with Mr. Sneaker, so I may not get to them, but I am excited to read them as well. I have SO many teachery books that I just can't wait to read, but it's hard to find extra time for reading on top of what I read for my courses and what I read for book club. I guess I will have to catch up over the summer. I think back to how much I got to read for pleasure when I worked part time in Germany and I am jealous because that just doesn't happen anymore!