Student Voice at Parent-Teacher Conferences

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.

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Enjoy!

The Two-Cents Discussion

The Two-Cents Discussion

I call it the “Two Cents Worth” discussion and I really like to use it when I need to encourage everyone to use their voices. The concept is pretty easy: we put our chairs in a circle, a basket in the middle of it and everyone gets two pennies. When they contribute to...

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