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.

Live&Learn

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