What makes great school conferences?

What makes great school conferences?

Our school hosted our spring conferences tonight.  Traditionally this would mean teachers schedule times to meet with each child's family to share strengths and concerns he/she has about the child with the parent.  In its purest sense, these conferences were "parent-teacher" conferences.  The students were not involved.

Novi Woods reinvened our conferences this year.  With great leadership from our teachers, staff, and students, we hosted our first "Leaderbration."  This was a celebration of the great leaders we have at our school.  Students created leadership notebooks to share their learning.  The notebooks included personal and academic goals, progress statements, and plans for achievement and evaluation.  Students knew exactly how to discuss with their parents and how to share their plans for improvement.  Teachers were then free to mingle and dialogue with each family and to celebrate the academic and social/emotional learning the students had achieved since the beginning of the year.

In addition, students had to "complete" a mission by taking their parents to six specific locations in the building which were hosted by student volunteers.  These stations shared how we work as a team and what we are learning.  After completing their mission, students received a small lollipop.

With over 400 students, you would think this evening would have rather chaotic.  The reality was not chaotic at all.  In fact, the mood and excitement in the building for the entire night was one of great collaboration and peace.  Time after time I overheard parents, students, and teachers discussing great growth or plans for the future.  When asked, students knew exactly who was in charge of their learning.  Ovver and over again, students told me they were in charge of their learning.  Even more, our parents understood and capiltalized on this.

For sure, we have had some traditional conferences at different times with our families.  Some cases require that sort of collaboration, but the overwhelming majority of our students were clearly great leaders of their learning and of our school tonight.  And none of this would have been possible without the commitment and dedication of an amazing staff and a remarkable parent community.  Our students are the great benefactors of what makes great school conferences.  The future is bright for these learners because of the community at Novi Woods!

Click here to view a brief slideshow of the evening.