Student-Led Conferences

Tomorrow afternoon & evening are Parent/Teacher Conferences. I don't particularly like these times events, but I think I could. At the moment I have fear that I will be blamed for a student's lack of success (despite my efforts) and it's really uncomfortable for me to tell a parent that their child isn't doing everything they could be doing to find success. This is probably because I remember very well what the nights my parents went to conferences were like. I was terrified that they would find out what I already knew: that I wasn't trying my hardest or completing all my work.

I wonder if I was more involved in the process if I would fear those nights so much? I wonder if I knew they were coming and I had time to prepare for them if would be really be slacking off to the extent that I was? I never heard about the good things I was doing even though I'm sure my teachers mentioned them because the bad overshadowed everything.d

For all of these reasons I'm really interested in Student-Led Conferences. I'm going to use the space below to drop links and resources I find on the internet regarding them so perhaps by the fall I can expect my students pull together what they are proud of and what they need to work on. I think this could be a valuable practice, even for the students of parents who can't attend on the actual night (Maybe I can send them something in lieu of the conference).

Anyway, here we go:

LINKS:
Student-Led Conferences: Resources for Educators
When Kids Lead Their Parent-Teacher Conferences

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Mrs. Dietrich's class is using MyBluPrint to make a digital portfolio, but it appears that you need to pay for that site. I wonder what other sites could be used to create an online portfolio. Google Drive?

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I'm sure all the resources are great, but I really like the clock sign for the door of conferences. It's so easy to go over the 7 minutes allotted, if waiting parents knocked respectfully it would keep the conferences moving and everyone would get to where they need to go on time.

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