Flipped Student Led Conference

In an effort to push myself as much as I push my fellow educators, I experimented with "going digital" during conference time. There were several issues that I wanted to address during conferences:

•  As an elective teacher of juniors and seniors, I am not a priority for even the best of parents. In fact, in a video of a student-led conference, a parent admits that he wouldn't be worried about my class, it's an elective and his student has an A. I understand that thinking. By the senior year, most students either have figured out school or they haven't. Elective courses are not a primary focus or concern. I don't believe that this is a reflection of apathetic parenting; rather, an effort at prioritizing tasks in a reality of being scheduled for more than can be accomplished in a day. The comment made transparent what many parents are thinking and how this thinking is different than how educators view conferences. There is as much a benefit to the student and parent to understanding what is going well and why as there is to identifying what isn't going well and what needs to change.

•  Students, especially in their senior year, need to become the owners of their education. Understanding course requirements, communication, assignments, etc and reflecting upon what is going well and what adjustments need to be made are college and career readiness skills, applicable to higher education and the work force. How do I, as their teacher, scaffold them through this new ownership?

•  For the reasons above, how do I make more school-to-home connections? I'll admit, this was the motivating factor that made me first consider shaking up my conference approach. And it may have to do with new evaluations that address this connection. But I like that detailed evaluations have me reflect upon my instructional practice in a way that connects my actions with student outcomes. And how I provide evidence to that end. 

The idea of making my students conduct their own conferences started rolling around in my head as I was reading articles and tweets about different ways to "flip" instruction. I sent a tweet out asking if anyone  had done anything like what I was imagining and received some interested replies, but no one who had tried this format. A Google search led to some detailed video examples of student-led conferences, but the conferences were a part of a well-developed strategy that combines mentoring and portfolio assessment. Obviously not applicable. So, with encouragement, I ventured into uncharted waters.

The first thing that I did was try to get the students excited about the process. That was fun. They don't seem to enjoy being the guinea pigs as much as I enjoy the mad scientist role. But I did involve them in the process from the very beginning. The first thing we had to discuss was how the conference could be recorded. Acknowledging that there may be technology issues and problem-solving before implementation was helpful. Solutions from iPads to webcams to Smartphones were identified. Next, I found several examples of rubrics for student-led conferences and  spent some time with my students evaluating the content from the perspective of what the students thought their parents wanted to know about a class when they attend a conference. Content was taken from two forms and added to the format the students thought was most user-friendly. The resulting document was comprehensive and served as a guide for the students to use while conducting their conference.

Yes, I accepted the "verbal" signature for points!

What I learned from this process was a confirmation that introducing new strategies, especially those that involve the use of technology, requires patience and flexibility. As an interesting aside, most of my students parents actually came to conferences this year! I think my students were trying to avoid the student-led conference. I made it as an assignment for points in order to encourage participation by parents and students. Technology difficulties included loss of wi-fi service and coordination of schedules. I remained patient, but firm, that the assignment needed to be completed. In the end all of my students (yes, all 8!) did complete the flipped conference. When I had received all of the links for completed conferences I sent hand-written thank you notes to the parents for participating. Including in the note was several ways to contact me with any questions or concerns.

In reflection, I believe that this project did address my concerns regarding conferences. I plan on doing this again, but am looking for input and suggestions from my colleagues more experienced with the "flipped" concept and/or student-led conferences. Unfortunately, the conferences that required the most flexibility and patience were the parents that I did not see during face-to-face conferences so there is still a bridge that needs to be built to connect to parents that don't traditionally attend conferences. Assigning points definitely helped.  Feel free to add your comments to this post or send me a tweet.

The Power of We

In celebration of Blog Action Day 2012, I started thinking about #Power of We in the K-12 education community and what immediately came to mind is the book It Takes a Village by Hillary Clinton. The idea behind the book, which is obvious from the title, is that outside forces, groups, society and culture impact a child's well-being. And in order to do right by children we must, as a society, create a culture that not only values children, but supports families through the process of raising adults.  The children, cliche and song lyric worthy as it may be, really are our future.

While the book has been out for some time, I think it is imperative in the current political and economic period to consider what this means as we move forward. Unfortunately, educators are currently being portrayed as "on the dole" part-time workers with little or no interest in student achievement. Union members can't possibly be negotiating for interests other than their own, right? Lawmakers have passed national standards, reforms that are not based on proved methods and instituted legislation limiting benefits that will deter our brightest and best from pursuing education as a career. Parents feel polarized and left-behind in a sea of failing schools, if we are to believe Waiting for Superman and Won't Back Down. Somewhere, in the middle of all of this finger-pointing and blame, there are still children. Failing. Without Resources. Or succeeding, while few notice.

What if "we" acknowledged that some students aren't getting the education they deserve? That if children come to school without their basic needs being met the school may not be able to overcome all of the obstacles to achievement? What if legislatures valued teachers (not just say it, but put support and finances behind the rhetoric), making them a part of reform? What if teachers were willing to be less defensive and respond professionally to criticism or reform? What if parents decided that they were going to support the efforts of the school instead of placing blame? What if the children really came first.

There is no way as a teacher that I can meet the need of every student that I teach. It isn't humanly possible. That doesn't give me an excuse to not challenge each student and champion them to the highest standard of achievement that is individually possible. But if "we", all of society, stopped blaming one another and became the village described in Clinton's book, maybe we could accomplish what is best for children.