the ASK: Our school has traditional parent/teacher conferences where we each have a table in the gym and parents can come stand in line to speak with a teacher. I wondered how to quickly get student voices in the conversation.
the TRY: The first few minutes of class the day of conferences I put out speech bubbles, thought bubbles and postcards and asked students to reflect on their learning so far this year.
the LEARN: I learned that when I started conference conversations with student voice (even if it was informal and quick) our conversations were more about learning than just grades. Not only that, but I loved the smiles on parents’ faces when they saw handwriting of their students.
