Praxis Reflection

 

In a typical conference setting, the teachers and parents discuss what their child has learned, their behavior and areas of strength and weakness. When the student comes to conferences, they typically sit and listen to the discussion that their parent is having with their teacher. Their faces are full of confusion, uninterested stares, and sometimes frustration. Our students need to feel that they are a leader in their educational journey. Through student led conferencing they can share how and why they are learning different concepts each day. Primary teacher, Linda Picciotto (1999) explains that students love being in charge. Students build communication skills with their parents by showing their work and how they are learning in class. In May, I tried this theory out. We had student led conferences in our classroom. I created seven different centers which students brought their parents through. This is the link to the centers that I created. http://nmperius.blogspot.com/2013/04/student-led-conferences.html At these centers, my students communicated How and Why they learn certain concepts each day. The framework of my centers came from Picciotto’s article. Before open house conferences, I called each family to discuss important conferencing topics such as behavior, growth and test scores.  The article I read by S. Cromwell explained that parents wanted more information than what their child explained during student led conferences. My student’s parents explained that they would not have thought that the conferences would have been as successful without the phone call before. I plan on incorporating student led conferencing next year. I would like to provide centers at each conference next year in addition to the traditional setting. I would like to end the year with a spring open house again. Most importantly, I would like to incorporate constructivist methods that place my students in the leadership role more often.