Student-led Conference

This term we embarked on a new journey...a new way of reporting to parents and caregivers, a new way for children to share their learning. The Student-led conference. How SCARY! How incredibly POWERFUL! All we now know about children and their learning has led us to redefine our roles as teachers and the students roles as learners. This has meant letting go of the control and handing responsibility back to the students - trusting they are capable of doing so and having high expectations for each and every one of them. I was in the supermarket recently when I bumped into a fellow primary teacher who had taught my children in previous years. We were discussing student-led conferences and children owning the learning. He believed that children needed a certain amount of maturity in order to do this successfully...I took a slightly different slant...how do we build maturity if children are not challenged or given the opportunity to give it a go? Who decides if children are ready to discuss their learning? If it is a normal part of classroom practice, wouldn't it be second nature to the children anyhow? Then he told me my kids "would always be fine"! Bombshell...what were his expectations for my kids? I don't want my kids to just be fine...I want them to be better than fine. Who pushes the quiet, average kid who isn't a problem? As teachers, we need to stop underestimating the capabilities of our kids and provide them with the tools to step up and be confident, lifelong learners. This starts with knowing their learning. So roll out Student-led conferences. What an incredibly amazing and powerful event this was. Our preparation was no different to normal effective class practice. We spent time setting goals, providing children with goal tracking cards, discussing next steps, encouraging the children to show us the tools available to them to help them achieve their goals...using the language of learning. We provided the children with a scaffolding booklet, filled with photo's to aid our visual learners. There was no time left to practice... We were both slightly apprehensive about the conference. Our parents were not well informed on the reasoning behind SLC's and some were concerned they would not be able to see the teacher in confidence, despite invitations to school parent evenings. We had spent Term 1 calling in parents with whom we needed to discuss concerns. We clearly communicated to parents that we were available to discuss their concerns with them at any stage. The magic unfolded as we walked around the room and saw our children stepping up, knowing exactly what they needed to share, their goals and their next steps...and smiling. The children who we thought would have difficulty surprised us. Some who we thought were confident surprised us and needed more scaffolding. As we watched, surplus to requirements for the most of it, we finally felt the hard work was all worth it. I cannot express how proud we felt. This was where the real power lay...the children teaching their parents about their learning. We have had some amazing feedback from our community. One mother spoke of how proud her daughter was to take control of the interview. The kids have said how it was so much fun, instead of listening to the teacher drone on, almost as if they weren't there. One parent (a fellow teacher) commented on the power of children knowing how they were going to achieve their goals. A quote "I believe that our job as a teacher is to create a lifelong learner, so that he/she can deal with whatever situations come their way. X clearly showed that he knew where he was on his journey and where he was heading. He also showed me some of the tools that he could use to get where he needs to go - which is great because if you don't know where you are going, how do you know when you have arrived". I may have forgotten to mention...these kids are 6 and 7 years old. How mature do you need to be?