Student led parent/teacher conferences?

[styme46]

So I just got back from dd's parent/teacher conference. The last two years her school has been doing student led conferences. So I take her with me and she shows me some of the things they've been doing in class (she showed me some writing and read to me and we wrote some home and school goals for her) then we talked with her teacher and got her report card.

I'm still trying to decide how I feel about the student led conferences. On one hand, I love that she has the opportunity to show me the things she's doing, but I also thinks it takes away from the whole point of the conferences. I have a hard time talking honestly about my kid to her teacher when she's sitting right there and can hear everything we are saying. Granted, she's a good kid and a good student so there isn't much that I wouldn't say in front of her, but it would be nice to be able to talk to her teacher about things like my xh without having to worry about her hearing me.

Thoughts on student led conferences?

[game blouses]

I taught at a school that did them. I really liked them as a teacher, because it made the student accountable for his or her actions. We didn't talk about grades (they were all online) but we talked about classwork and homework trends, and quiz scores, and stuff like that. It was nice to tell a parent "Cody hasn't turned in any homework this quarter" and have the parent turn to Cody and say "Um, why not?" It was also nice to heap praise on a kid and have them there to bask in it.

Can you schedule a separate conference if you need to talk about things without her there?

[RoxMonster]

Ours aren't called student-led conferences, but they encourage students to also attend. I'd say about half my parents that came brought their students with them.

I am OK with it. I do like that if there are any questions or issues, I can turn to the student and ask them about it right there with the parents present. I know sometimes the stories that get told at home are not accurate to what actually happens at school.

[styme46]

Nov 7, 2013 16:57:07 GMT -5 game blouses said:

I taught at a school that did them. I really liked them as a teacher, because it made the student accountable for his or her actions. We didn't talk about grades (they were all online) but we talked about classwork and homework trends, and quiz scores, and stuff like that. It was nice to tell a parent "Cody hasn't turned in any homework this quarter" and have the parent turn to Cody and say "Um, why not?" It was also nice to heap praise on a kid and have them there to bask in it.

Can you schedule a separate conference if you need to talk about things without her there?

Yes, I've already planned on doing this or sending an email. I don't have any MAJOR concerns that I think would require another face to face discussion.

[styme46]

Nov 7, 2013 18:28:05 GMT -5 RoxMonster said:

Ours aren't called student-led conferences, but they encourage students to also attend. I'd say about half my parents that came brought their students with them.

I am OK with it. I do like that if there are any questions or issues, I can turn to the student and ask them about it right there with the parents present. I know sometimes the stories that get told at home are not accurate to what actually happens at school.

I agree with this 100%, especially where dd is concerned. She often tells things differently to me, but her teachers are pretty good about calling me to discuss things if they feel I need to hear it from them. And if I don't get a call, I always try to email or call the teacher myself if I feel like I need to follow up on something she tells me.

I can see the benefits of doing it both ways, which is why I'm still tossed on the idea. I think if she were more of a problem kid, or struggled, I might prefer to discuss those kinds of things without her there, but I could always schedule a meeting with her teacher if I felt the need to do so.

[styme46]

bricco, that makes total sense. I am more interested in hearing it from a teacher point of view because I'm sure there are reasons for having them be student led that I am unaware of. And like I said, I have no major concerns and don't feel that I need to have a one on one with her teacher at this point, I was just more curious on what others thought about it.

[Monica Geller]

I teach middle school and we do student-led conferences. I love them because they really hold the kids accountable for their work and their grade.  It's very hard for the parent to argue a grade when there is evidence right in front of them (shoddy work, incomplete assignments, missing work, etc.)  By middle school, I firmly believe that the student should be held accountable for their work and behavior.

I would think it might be more difficult for lower elementary teachers & parents since they might need to discuss development issues in some cases and that might be awkward to do with the child present.  I would assume in those cases the teacher and parent would have an alternative conference (phone, email, face to face) and did the student-led conference in an effort allow the child the experience of presenting their work to their parent.

[texassmith]

DD's class does something like that the first Friday morning of each month. All the parentscome to the classroom just for like 10 minutes and look at goals, reading levels, etc. So its not really a conference with the teacher since there are so many other parents there too, but it is very much student led like you are describing, which I like. So far we haven't had any regularly scheduled one on one conferences, but we can email the teacher any time to set one up.