Student-Led Conferences: Um, Yes Please! Part Two

So...time to finish up our post about our AMAZING student-led conferences!

Now that the kiddos have completed all of the legwork, it's time for them to practice and get ready for the main event!  Now the level of your kiddos will dictate how much practicing they will need.  When I first started these, I felt they needed practice.  Now...to be honest...we wing it!  I sit in on the conferences and I can gently guide them to the next section or give them a little nudge to get them going, but they really are pretty amazing at sharing their own work!  When the parents come in, I have them sit on either side of their kiddo.  I sit on the opposite side of the table.  This allows the parents to see their kiddo's conference form, view their math and writing samples, and see the actual book their little one is reading.  I sit opposite them so that I am present, but NOT the central focus.  This is after all, a STUDENT-LED conference!  Can I get an AMEN!

Basically the kiddo runs the conference by reading each section of their form and then sharing the work from that content area.  I only interject to keep them on track or ask them questions to help them share what they are thinking.  When they read the book, we do only have them read 2 or 3 pages to save on time.

This is BY FAR the best part of the whole process.  The kiddos are beaming from ear to ear with pride as they truly see just how far they have come.  I'm talking not being able to write jack at the beginning of the year, to writing spin-offs of their favorite class read alouds!

This was from about 3 weeks in.  She was using sight words we had been working on to write simple sentences.
 She was already using some good phonetic spelling even at this early stage!

This is actually a piece from early February, and we didn't have conferences until late March...so she was doing some fantastic writing already.  She didn't use punctuation here, but she wrote over a 4 page story based on My Lucky Day.  She kept the characters, but changed the story line as the story progressed.  She has phenomenal skills happening here!

This is always a favorite part for the parents too because when they see their little one flip the first page over to the current writing, there is literally an audible gasp escaping from them!  They too can not believe just how much growth has happened, but alas...it's right there in front of them as living proof!  

Here are some examples of the math journal entries they share.

We try to encourage them to choose newer entries so it reflects their current level of thinking.

A little more about the reading portion... we have the kids choose a book from their Daily 5 book box.  That means they already have a "good fit" collection to choose from.  We encourage them to choose the highest level book that they can read with fluency and understanding.  We don't even check them on this before the conference as most of them have had a ton of practice deciding if something is the right fit for them.  If they do choose a book that's a bit too easy (maybe one that has been in their box longer and was used to build fluency, but really is a bit too easy), then we just grab another out of their box and get them to have a go.  They are usually pleasantly surprised to find out it wasn't too hard after all.  After they have read a couple of pages, we stop them and show them and their family what level that came in reading at (for 90% of our kids it's a RIGBY level ZERO!) and what level they are currently reading (this ranges from a level FIVE to TWENTY THREE this particular year!)  Level 5 is considered "ready for 1st" so everything after that is gravy!!!  **Disclaimer....We do have 2 cuties who are not reading at all at this point.  They joined us mid year and were far behind at the time.  They are making slow gains, and we will keep on keeping on!  They'll bloom soon enough!  :)

To keep track of the book they wish to share, they again stick a sticky note to the front to mark it.

I don't know if you can tell, but the sweet Mama in the pink shirt up top has a tissue in her hand!  She literally broke down in tears as her baby read.  You see, reading wasn't really his thing right away.  As a matter of fact, he wasn't really loving the whole writing or math thing either.  He lacked confidence and was always worried he wouldn't get things right.  It has been just amazing watching this kiddo bloom right before our eyes.  He read his book with such confidence and didn't even pause to look at either of us to get help when he hit an unknown word.  He just picked a reading strategy, chunked the word, and kept on reading like he was a professional 1st grader!  She is our school's counselor which made it even sweeter!  She was glowing with pride and adoration for her baby's accomplishment.  Now if that's not worth giving these student-led conferences a go...then I don't know what is!

The last piece of the puzzle is our surveys that we send out to our families.  We ask them to be brutally honest, and to be frank, they do!!!  I had 2 families tell me that they loved them, but that I needed to allow longer than 15 minutes per conference.  (Did I mention that my students and I share an affinity for chatting...ANNNND we tend to go over our allotted 15 minutes and then MAYBE the whole schedule gets a bit behind!!!!)  But this feedback helps us evolve and make these conferences even more meaningful!

SO...go wild, have fun, and give STUDENT-LED CONFERENCES a shot!

Student-Led Conferences - Um, Yes Please! Part One

Ok, so maybe I have been promising to write this post for like 2 weeks now.  Let's just say the productivity level around here has hit an all time low.  It's been sunny, breezy, and perfectly perfect spring weather and I may or may not have gotten bit by the spring fever bug!

But...I digress!  (Grrr...see how this vicious cycle works!)

I just finished up meeting with 21 of my students and their families for our spring student-led conferences.  Can I just say how much I truly LOVE these things!!!

3 reasons why...and I'm sure there are more, but since I am slacking a bit...we'll stick to 3! 

 (PS - Did I mention it is officially our spring break...but again...I digress!)

#1:  More work for the kids equals less work for me!  Win and win!

#2:  Parents eat this stuff up...some of them even cry big ol' alligator tears of joy!

#3:  The kiddos' hearts swell with pride at all they have accomplished!  Swoon!

So...if you are thinking "well that all sounds pretty darn awesome" then read on for lots of details and photos to show you just how SWEET these spring conferences can be!

So this 1st part is coming straight from our other post about regular conferences since the sign-up process is the same!

The BEST thing we EVER did was to begin using this "You Pick 3" conference sign up sheet.  We don't have scheduled time off to hold our conferences, so we just choose 3 days that work out for us.  We include as many time slots as possible where we can be available to meet with families.  We always try to include some early morning times for our families that can't take off work or who are just coming in from the night shift.  We schedule slots during our specials classes (music, pe...) and then plenty of after school time slots as well.  We try to have at least 1 late night where we have conferences scheduled for 5:00 or later for our working parents who hit us on their way home.  

Now I know this might seem like a BIG time commitment from you...and it is!  BUT, and this is a BIG but, this is truly one of the BEST ways you could ever possibly spend your teacher time!  It always breaks my heart a teeny bit when the only time some parents hear from us is when something is WRONG!  Conferences give you the opportunity to REALLY connect with families and share some of the GREAT things happening with their kiddo.  Of course not ALL the news will be good news, but we can definitely take this opportunity to FIND the good and share!

And we promise it will SO be worth your time.  You will make some serious partners in educating your kiddos when you build these strong family ties!  And let's be honest, who doesn't LOVE to hear how awesome their kiddo is???

We have been able to get nearly 100% participation in our conferences for the last several years.

And in the case of student-led conferences, who doesn't LOVE to hear how amazing their kiddo is RIGHT FROM SAID KIDDO'S MOUTH!!!!

So now that we have the parents signed up to come in, it's time for the students to get busy on their part.  It takes a little time explaining the conference form to the kids, but they usually catch on pretty quickly.  Here's how we break it down.  

First we have them take out their math journals that they have been working on throughout the year. We ask them to choose 2 entries they would like to share with their families.  Entries include open-ended math journals pages, problem of the day entries, and any other math related activities we have done.  If you don't keep math journals, you can have your students choose 2 pieces of recently completed math work sheets, math recording sheets from Math Their Way or some similar program, really anything that allows them to "show what they know" in math.  We do like for them to be able to share some open-ended response kinds of things so they can explain THEIR reasoning versus selecting pieces with only 1 "right" answer!  Then they fill in the MATH portion on their recording form to reflect their strengths and weaknesses in math in their own opinion.

Next, we work on the WRITING portion.  Again they take out their writing journals and select 2 pieces. Only this time they select 1 piece from August or September and 1 piece from the current month...in our case it was March.  I give them 2 sticky notes to mark the pages they want to share with their families.  They reflect on where they started the year in writing and how far they have come.  They make notes to share on their conference form.  I. LOVE. THIS. PART!  The kiddos themselves truly have NO IDEA just how far they have come until they actually look back in their journals.  We even had a kiddo last year that literally screamed out in distress to tell us "Somebody wrote all in my journal and I can't read ANY of it!"  It was actually HER own writing from the beginning of school!  HA!  Now that was FUNNN-Y!

Finally, they fill in the last section for the READING portion.  They look through their Daily 5 book boxes that have "good fit" books for them.  We tell them to choose the highest level they have in their box that they can SUCCESSFULLY read.  (If it's a good fit, that means there may be SOME words that they do not know automatically.  They SHOULD be using some strategies to figure out words, but there should still be a nice, fluent read happening.)  You can meet with students to make sure they have selected a good fit pick for them, but usually by this time in the year...they do an awesome job with this all on their own!  We will give them another sticky note for them to mark the book they select.  It makes the conference flow much more smoothly when we can reach right into their box and quickly find the book they have chosen!

Now don't stress out if they don't write up the form just like you envision (as in... Sophia wrote all about geometry in her math section rather than telling about her strengths and weaknesses in math). It's ok, I promise.  She'll be sharing 2 math samples which will give her the opportunity to show much more of her mathematical thinking!

Translation:  (Although I know you teacher friends are masters at reading K work by now!) 

Math:  I can make a rectangle and make a hexagon and a octagon.

Writing:  I write on the line and better stories and on the lines.  I can write sight words.

Reading:  A Hot Surprise I can chunk and blend and flip the sound and listen for interesting words.

The last section, Personal Goal for the 4th 9 Weeks, is completed together at the actual conference...so more on that later!

Check back soon for more details from the ACTUAL conference!  (Remember...I did already mention that the productivity level is teetering on NON-existent!...This was all the blogging I could muster for tonight!)

Check back soon for how we gather data as to the success of our conferences!

Also be sure and check out our post from a while back about our REGULAR teacher-parent conferences to see how we get nearly 100% participation!

Please let us know if you have questions, comments, or insights to add!

Win over the PARENTS

How can you win over the parents of the kiddos in your class??? It's as Easy as 1-2-3!!

1- Call early in the year to comment about something POSITIVE only!!

2- Anytime you have to report something negative, start with a POSITIVE comment!!

3- You won't need 3 if you get to know your kiddos, their parents and create a
cooperative RELATIONSHIP built on LOVE and RESPECT!!

Remember what Kid President says in his video about 20 things we should say more,

"If you can't think of anything nice to say.... Try HARDER."

Conference Tips and Ideas!

Oh-My-Goodness!  Is it seriously ALREADY time for parent-teacher conferences???  The year is absolutely flying by!

We are gearing up to meet with ALL 19 of our families next week to share the great things their kiddos are accomplishing this year!  That's right, ALL of them!  How you say?  ALL...of them?   Keep reading! :)

We thought we would take a minute to give you a few tips that have worked out really well for us in getting EVERY SINGLE ONE of our families in for this important event!

The BEST thing we EVER did was to begin using this "You Pick 3" conference sign up sheet.  We don't have scheduled time off to hold our conferences, so we just choose 3 days that work out for us.  We include as many time slots as possible where we can be available to meet with families.  We always try to include some early morning times for our families that can't take off work or who are just coming in from the night shift.  We schedule slots during our specials classes (music, pe...) and then plenty of after school time slots as well.  We try to have at least 1 late night where we have conferences scheduled for 5:00 or later for our working parents who hit us on their way home.  (This year my own kiddos have football EVERY DANG night, so I couldn't schedule any that ran TOO late, but in years past I have scheduled them as late as 6:30.)

Now I know this might seem like a BIG time commitment from you...and it is!  BUT, and this is a BIG but, this is truly one of the BEST ways you could ever possibly spend your teacher time!  It always breaks my heart a teeny bit when the only time some parents hear from us is when something is WRONG!  Conferences give you the opportunity to REALLY connect with families and share some of the GREAT things happening with their kiddo.  Of course not ALL the news will be good news, but we can definitely take this opportunity to FIND the good and share!

And we promise it will SO be worth your time.  You will make some serious partners in educating your kiddos when you build these strong family ties!  And let's be honest, who doesn't LOVE to hear how awesome their kiddo is???

We have been able to get nearly 100% participation in our conferences for the last several years.

We LOVE the question and comment section too!  This encourages families to reflect on how their child is doing and what things THEY would like to discuss as well!  Everyone is VESTED!

And if you do have some families that DON'T sign up, we tweak the letter to say this:

Please find your scheduled conference time below.  I appreciate everyone returning the sign-up sheets so promptly.  I was able to give nearly everyone their first or second time preference.  If you are unable to attend at the scheduled time, please let me know as soon as possible to reschedule. 

If you do not see your name below, I did not receive a conference sign-up sheet.  Please rank your time preferences (1,2,3) from the remaining times below.  If you would prefer to have a phone conference, please make a note of that in the comment box below.  Thanks!!!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      See you in 2 weeks! - Cristy Fogle 10-10-13

Then it's time to get ready for all the parents heading your way!  To make it a bit easier, we start with the electronic form below.  We set up the basic format we want and then change a bit here and there to match each kiddo.  For example, each record says:  "Math:  Number Sets - counting sets to___" and we change this portion for each child.  Same goes for:  "Reading/Phonics:  Knows ___ upper and lowercase letters". We just add in how many they know.

The comment section is always very individualized, as is the goal section!

So we hope these tips help you get ALL of your families in to share your kiddo's great learning with them!

We will be more than happy to email out either of these forms if you would like to tweak them to fit your style!  Just leave us a comment with your email address and we'll shoot them out!

Happy Conferencing!

Why is it important to know Why?

Back in the day when we were in elementary school, we never, ever discussed "Why" we were learning things?

We often questioned our teacher, "Why are we doing this?"
Then we would comment, "This is not important! We will never, ever use this skill when we get big!".
The teacher would respond to our questions and comments with , "Just do it because I said so!!"

Well friends...

Welcome to the days where kids get lots of motivation and excitement from learning "Why" they are learning about things!!

Every standard we introduce or work on during the day.... Ok not every standard, but lots of standards during the day, we discuss why it's important for our kiddos to be leaning that standard.

We promise it is painless and quick!
Just tell your kiddos or following an activity, ask your kiddos the standard.
Then, give your kiddos 1 minute to discuss with a friend "Why" it's important to learn that standard.
Then discuss the kids responses as a class. It is amazing the ideas and reasons the kids come up with.

We did model some in the beginning, but here's what our kiddos say...

Teacher-What standard are we working on when we do our lunch graph?
Kiddos- Data Collection
Teacher- Why is collecting lunch data important?
Kiddos- So the ladies will know how much to cook, So you can remember what you chose for lunch, etc...

Teacher- What standard are we working on when we practice letters, sounds, and sight words?
Kiddos- Reading
Teacher- Why is it important to learn how to read?
Kiddos- So we can read to our mom/dad/baby sister/brother. So we can teach our friends to read. So we can get smarter. So we can get a job when we grow up. So we can read signs!

Teacher- What standard are we working at when we do Daily 4 math (math with a teacher, math with a friend, math with a teacher, math by yourself)<
kiddos- Numbers, counting, patterns, more/fewer
Teacher- why should we learn about number and counting??
Kiddos- So we can count how many toys we have. So we can count how many vegetables we get to eat. So we can know how many DOJO points we earned. So we can count to see if we have enough candy to share. So we can count and see who got more snack.

The examples are endless!!
So what can we do with all of this WHY stuff???

It is amazing the students responses change and evolve each time we discuss WHY! It's awesome! Just by answering and discussing WHY, the kiddos get more excited about learning.

Why not let our kiddos reflect on what they are learning and why it's important?  This will also help your kiddos' parents know what's going on in the classroom.

Here's the thing, Jake, my 5th grader and I have the same conversation everyday! This conversations has been going on every single day since prek.

Here is how our conversation goes!
Me- How was your day?
Jake- Fine/ Good/ Ok
Me- What did you learn/ do?
Jake- Nothin.

Seriously! Please tell me you moms and dads out there have similar conversations! I know I try to delve deeper and get more, but it's like pulling teeth!!
Really! He is in school 6 and 1/2 hours! He had to have learned or have done something!!

Well friends, this lengthy blog post (if you have made it this far) is about to send your classroom parents into Parent Heaven! Yes, they will know at least 1 thing their kids learned during the week!

Check out this weekly reflection! Just give it for morning work or as a ticket out the door before recess or whenever you want, but really GIVE IT! Click any image to grab our weekly reflection pages.

The parents will thank you! Not to mention, you have proof of some HOT (higher order thinking) things going on in your room!!

Let us know if you use a reflection form with your kiddos! We would love to see and hear what you do to help your kinders with "self efficacy."

Free Assessments and a Giveaway!

Where does time go? We can't believe our year is almost over. Boohoo! Just when you get your babies trained really well, it is time to give them up. We spend the first 6 weeks of kindergarten wishing we could have our babies from the previous year back. We always forget how well we get them trained by the end of the year.

Can you believe it is already time for us to enter grades for the 3rd Nine Weeks? What is crazy is that we conduct formative assessments all the time. However, a couple weeks before we have to enter grades, we scramble because we decide our checklists, individual conference forms, journal entries, and work samples, may not be enough to prove to parents that their child Meets or Does Not Meet the Standard.

So, we get busy making one more final assessment to test these new skills.  Below are a couple of assessments for some Common Core Language Arts Standards that we just created.

If you are like us and just need ONE--- MORE--- ASSESSMENT to make SURE your kiddos meet the standard, feel free to click on it and grab.

If you don't need anymore assessments, you could also use these for formative assessments and/or extra practice.

K.RFS.3 (d) - Distinguish between similarly spelled words by identifying the sounds of the letters that differ.


K.RL.9 - Compare and Contrast the adventrues and experiences of characters in familiar stories.

K.RIT.9 - Identify basic similarities in and differences between two texts on the same topic.

Congratulations to our blogging buddy, Tammy over at 1..2..3..Teach With Me on 600 Followers. Thanks so much for letting us share in your success and participate in your giveaway. We are giving away our Common Core Unit 4 Math Pack: Wild About Addition and Subtraction. The giveaway ends Monday so hop on over and check it out.

If you have any great assessment ideas, we would love to hear them :). Thanks for reading!!

 Good luck in the GIVEAWAY!!

Send a Letter! Phone a Friend!

Sooo...we are already 3 days into our new year.  Our kiddos arrived bright and early this past Monday morning.  We can't believe the summer flew by! 

Now that we are back into full swing, we are thinking of the 1st piece of useful information (we hope!) that we can pass on to our super sweet new followers! 

And the winner is...Send a letter! Phone a Friend!

Before school begins each year we send our new kiddos (and families) a letter in the mail.  Let's be honest...who doesn't love getting REAL, honest to goodness, snail mail!  (Bills not included!) 

Here's links to our webpages where we include the same information that we put in our letters.
http://www.cowetaschools.org/arbor/fogle/meet_mrs.htm
http://www.cowetaschools.org/arbor/tarleton/meet_tarleton_archer.htm
Hopefully this will give you some ideas for what you may want to include in your own letters if you choose to send them.

The next step (and this is the BIGGIE) is that we call every single family the very first night of school!  It usually takes us 1 1/2 hours...but this is the BEST TIME YOU WILL EVER INVEST in your class.  We promise this is SO worth the effort and time.

We try to keep the calls brief telling parents 1 awesome thing we noticed about their child that day.  We also ask them if they have any questions or concerns now that the year is underway.

Parents are SO appreciative to receive this 1 special call.  They immediately know that we think their child is special, that we want to build great relationships, and always have an open line of communication.  The next time you may have to make the "Oh no.  Johnny was swinging from the ceilings." phone call, parents are already on board and ready to work together.

We promise this will be SO worth your time.  Here's some of the emails that parents sent us the very next day after receiving our calls.

"Hi Cristy!

I hope your first day of school was as great as Kayton's was. She came home talking about the book of the boy who didn't listen and got the wrong things, the songs you all sang, her clips and just what a great day it was. Thank you for that! Thank you also for your call last night. That was so considerate to call and check with the parents about any concerns, none here though. :)"

"Good morning Cristy,

I am so glad to hear that Hunter had a great day yesterday. He has been so excited to start school and he just seems to adore you. You definitly made his day with that call. He was so proud to tell us he was good all day.   Don’t ever hesitate to call or email us. We want to help you as much as possible and are looking forward to a great school year. "

"Dear Page,

Thank you for the phone call yesterday. Such a positive message! Clayton enjoyed the fact that you called to say he had a good day and I too appreciated it. Thanks Page! Hope you have a good day."

So here's hoping your school year gets started off with a BANG!