Imagine this: you go to your first Cohort 21 session and leave buzzing. After a week back in the classroom, you begin to get bogged down by the day-to-day minutia which is teaching. Sound familiar? Me too.

In a mindful effort to bore ahead of the inevitable undertow of our daily lives as teachers, I’m going to loosely aim for one blog a week. Hopefully, this will give insight into what’s going on in my classroom and the areas that I’m still struggling with as a teacher.

Last week I marked and conferenced for a recent grade 9 assignment. Since starting teaching in 2014, I’ve changed my feedback and marking practices quite a bit. Gone are the days of students submitting hard copies and me providing, rather sloppily I might add, penmanship to their work that lacked general focus. Now, I aim to provide feedback that is more specific and which often takes the form of questions. From there, I conference with students and we discuss their individual strengths and areas of need.

After conducting the conferences last week, I’ve realized that time and logistics are something that I need to work through. I know there’s inherent value in conferencing with students, though I’m wondering how this can be done in a more effective and efficient manner? I’m also hoping that the conferences can, eventually, become more student lead. Having met with the great Brent Hurley (@brentmhurley) regarding this issue, I’ve gained some insight into what I might consider as next steps for myself with regards to conferences.

There’s a good chance that student conferencing will become my focus for this year’s Cohort 21 goal. With that in mind, please share your experiences with conferencing!

Follow @Bjeblack and let me know how you approach feedback and discussion about assessment in your class!

 

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