Student-Led Conferences!

I am officially on Spring Break!!!!!!!  YAY!  We had Student-Led Conferences tonight, and now I can RELAX (as much as I can relax a week before report cards go home).  If you're interested, you can check out the resources I've put together on TpT.  I have revamped the pages a bit, but I haven't uploaded the new thumbnails yet in my preview file.  (I promise I will do that tomorrow since I have the day off!  I've been SO BUSY this week!) I took lots of pictures tonight to give you an idea of what Student-Led Conferences look like in my classroom (minus photos of families).  Prepare for a photo overload!  Haha!

I won't sugar-coat the process. It is a pretty serious undertaking, because for the conferences to be really successful, my students keep track of their data and set goals all year long in their Data Folders.  {Luckily, I had two FABULOUS mentors during my first year, so they walked me through the process of setting everything up!}  They have to prepare a checklist and paperwork ahead of time earlier in the week, and then I always meet with my kiddos for mock conferences before they're expected to run the conference on their own.  I have found that this sets them up for success, boosts their confidence, and helps them plan ahead. (I should note that I do regular conferences in the fall, because I want that face-to-face meeting with parents initially.  In the spring, I feel that the kids have had the time to track their progress and set various goals, so they are very capable of communicating with their parents.)  Honestly, I will never go back to the traditional spring-time conference. Ever.  Even though it's time consuming, the kids have so much more ownership and a deeper understanding of their own learning.  It is so worth the time up-front, because it is such a magical thing to hear your students talking about their phrasing, their fluency, how they were developing round characters, how they followed the engineering design process, how they planned to meet goals, and a plethora of other statements that make you melt as a teacher.

The Fraction Spongebobs are a lesson from the LessonPlan S.O.S. ladies!

The students wrote I Am poems and drew portraits to create identity puzzlers!

Another shot of Spongebob!

Look at those double-stuffed data folders!

Files from my TpT kit in black and white.  I'm saving colored ink, because I'm running low!  :)

An idea adapted from Littlest Learners with student names blurred out!  The each say "Just the Facts" with student names typed underneath.  I'm definitely not very good at airbrushing, so I'm sorry the clipboards look a little on the ugly side!!!

UPDATE:  I've had some questions asked about the format of the I Am Poems, so I'm including a download for you to use from my Poetry Unit!  The kids used the template, and then the poems were typed to fit inside of the magnifying glass.  :)

FREEBIE ALERT!