Student-Led Conferences

For upcoming conferences, teachers in my school were gently reminded that all parents should have the opportunity to meet teachers during conferences throughout the school year. This, obviously, is a great concept. But at my school, our conferences 'sell out' faster than a Led Zeppelin reunion concert.

To accommodate more parents, I'm going to try implementing student-led conferences. Researching briefly online, I found an old student-led conferences handbook from an expeditionary school in New York. While some of the procedures don't fit in with my school, I like the goals and listed expectations for students, parents and teachers.

Since my conferences are mere weeks away, I will implement an abbreviated version of the process. My students already spend time reflecting on their work, so they will do well in that area. I think the biggest challenge might be helping students lead the conferences on their own, so I'll have to allow for some rehearsal time. I also need to make sure I keep parents in the 'know.'

I'll report back after November 19 with my own reflections.

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Back to Work: My Goals For Using Tech

Believe it or not, the summer of 2015 is over and boy was it not very summer-y. Besides getting away with a broken sprinkler system thanks to all the rain, I managed to take one of my final classes (Designing Online and Blended Learning) at CU Denver, started and sputtered on a kitchen renovation, repeated the phrase "blow more bubbles!" to all my swim lesson kids and...oh yeah, traveled over to Europe for a week or so!

Now that that's over and done with, I'm starting to think about my tech goals for this year:

Create an online course for students...and get them to understand and use it!

I created a grammar unit for 8th graders during my summer college course. The Art of the Sentence is designed to help kids be better writer of sentences. This seems small, but I have been thinking the past few years that it really all comes down to sentence writing. I'm going to use discussions, video quizzes from eduCanon, and peer/self revising activities to move my kids above and beyond in the art of the sentence!

Keep my students and parents better informed

Always a struggle for teachers. How do I get my kids to remember their homework assignment? There really is no easy answer, but after a several years of experimenting, I think I'm using a combination of two great tools plus one new one. 

• Google Apps (gClass folders, Doctopus, Calendar) for my Weekly Agenda
• A virtual base camp a la Weebly
• Remind App (this is the new one)

I feel more confident than ever that students are going to keep up with the work this year! (Cue WiFi meltdown...)

Chill Out!

This one isn't particularly ed tech related, but it's an important goal for me because stress always seems to be skyrocketing in the educational field (what?). I want to make sure I take good care of myself and have fun. Of course, I'm telling you this as an entire kitchen's worth of cabinetry sits in my garage waiting for me to figure out how to wrestle them in!

l&l

JJ

SwimKidsDenver: Summer #4!

It's unbelievable but this summer marks my fourth year as a swim teacher...my fourth year in Denver, that is! A simple Craigslist ad and a Weebly website launched my 'off-season' business, and here I am-- still teaching all of the families I started with (plus a few more).

My fortunate success in starting my own small business reminds me that it only takes a few customers to get things rolling. One of my goals that I keep throwing on the back burner time and time again is to support myself full time as a business owner. My main difficulty? Nailing down what it is I want to launch. One friend of mine recently started a business making specialized clothes geared towards yoga enthusiasts (arm warmers and leg warmers). I have made a beach dress for one of my swim lessons clients, so maybe that could be my niche... But I also make a sweet sorbet, so why not try out the summer food market circuit... Or maybe follow my mom's footsteps and start making custom curtains for Denver folks... the ideas are endless. Now to choose!

L&L
JJ

What does the future of education look like to YOU?

This year, several staff meetings at my school have centered around the idea of "Our Future." Our principal has asked us, "What does our school look like in the future? What does a our student look like in the future?" Interesting questions if you look at the future of education from a tech point of view.

I stumbled across an online article at Ask a Tech Teacher which listed some traits of future schools. What I noticed is that several of these traits have already come true in my school:

Homework and projects will be submitted online.
In our school, kids submit work into Assignment Folders created through gClass Folders on Google. Many teachers have been using Google Classroom this year, which also creates student folders. The biggest problem we've encountered is that our district's google server stops working around mid-morning. Neither students nor teachers can access any files created through district accounts. While the district has finally improved this glitch, I'm creating student folders using their own personal google accounts and through my own personal google account (just to be safe!).

Students will actively participate via a backchannel device.
In my class, I use Socrative and Nearpod to conduct mini-lessons and formative assessments. I know several teachers use the assessment software that comes with each classroom's ActiveInspire whiteboards. There are several sets of clickers available for teachers to use the ActiveInspire backchannel. But for me, I prefer the online assessment sites and I like to try new ones with my students.

There were also several traits that did not exist:

Students will each have a digital device.
This is somewhat true because students have access to a device only in some classrooms. We have Chromebooks available for all students in the Social Studies and Literacy classrooms. Students do not have access to the same devices at home. There are some elementary classrooms using iPods but again, students do not take these devices home. I'd like to see a take home device in the future. Although this can prevent a headache in terms of condition and loss, I think it would be great for kids to have equal access to devices for homework purposes.

Snow days will be a vacation of the past.
Um, please. Can I just have a snow day? I know everyone thinks teachers have it easy with snow days and summers off but really...guess what teachers do during their time off? They PLAN because there sure isn't anytime to really PLAN during the school year!

Here are some of my ideas about the tech future of our school:

Students attend school in brick classrooms part time.

This is what I envision in terms of how technology can change the face of our education system. I feel the key in improved student engagement, learning and accountability and in improved assessment, reflection and differentiation among teachers is small class sizes. Technology can make this dream a reality.

Imagine teachers working with a rotating group of fifteen students per day. Meanwhile, students who are at home are working on assignments on the devices provided by the school. While the teacher is checking in with students face-to face about their progress, students at home could be collaborating with other home students on projects and discussions, or working on an independent assignment created by the teacher and student.

I currently teach a 7th grade class of 13 students and what a difference it has made. It's easier for me to assess student learning, we have deeper conversations about what we're reading in class, and it's difficult for students to sit back and hide in the background. I know exactly where my students are in this class while in larger classes, it's more difficult to pinpoint what students are learning.

What are your thoughts on your school's future? Leave a comment! Read a comment!

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