Student-Teacher Conferences

I know everyone has had conferences with parents about how their children are performing in school, but how often do you have conferences with students?  I've been thinking a lot about student-teacher conferences lately because I feel like students should take more of an ownership role in their learning - especially as they get older.

I have had many informal conferences with students in the past, but it seemed more teacher-focused, with me telling them what my expectations are.  I realized that I was having the same conversations with the same students about the same things, but there was not much of a plan in place.

I came up with some conference forms that I plan to use with my students as soon as we come back to school.  I want my students to reflect on their strengths and areas in which they feel they need improvement.  It is my hope that they feel secure enough to honestly reflect on what kinds of things they need to work on in order to be successful.  At the same time, I want them to tell me what things I can do to help them succeed and be their best.

Students will fill out a self-reflection pre-conference form so they can rate themselves and think about areas where they can improve.  I will also fill out a form to highlight each student's strength and what I think should be improved.  Students will come up with some goal statements with ways these goals can be measured and, together, we can come up with an actual plan to put into action.  Once we meet, the student, their parent(s), and I will sign the conference form so that we are all on the same page.  We will all work together as a team to accomplish the goals set, and we will meet again every six weeks to check on their progress.

I have very high expectations for my students.  I honestly feel that my students can achieve anything they set their minds to achieve.  I do not "dumb down" my lessons because I know my students are all capable of higher level thinking.  I have to include a lot of scaffolding for them to learn new concepts sometimes, but ultimately, all my students can learn.  Sometimes, the hard part is getting kids to live up to those expectations and BELIEVE in themselves.  Sometimes, they have to make up their minds to shine and live up to my expectations.  I KNOW they can accomplish practically anything.

What do YOU think?