{"id":87,"date":"2019-10-22T14:51:15","date_gmt":"2019-10-22T14:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/brandonblack\/?p=87"},"modified":"2019-11-19T23:47:14","modified_gmt":"2019-11-19T23:47:14","slug":"conferencing-take-two-and-a-step-in-the-right-direction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/brandonblack\/2019\/10\/22\/conferencing-take-two-and-a-step-in-the-right-direction\/","title":{"rendered":"Conferencing; take two, and a step in the right direction!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI think they\u2019re useful,\u201d I said, referring to my recent student conferences, \u201cthough I want them to be more efficient and effective.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you want to get out of these conferences? Better yet, what do you want your students to gain from these discussions?\u201d<\/p>\n

I wish I could say that I had asked these questions to myself, posed to me by an ever-insightful colleague, before delving into one-on-one student conferencing a few weeks ago. However, much like the first few years of our teaching practices, that would simply be more smoke and mirrors.<\/p>\n

Rather, these queries, once put forth to me, seemed so evident that I couldn\u2019t believe I hadn\u2019t considered them previously. The answer? I want to provide my students with a positive learning experience that focuses on their individual needs; for them, I want my students to better understand the foundational skills that are needed to produce quality work rather than focusing on a grade.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>What might your solution have been? How might you have shifted the application and focus of conferencing? For me, I aimed at adapting to group conferences that centred around specific skills. Based on the written feedback that I had provided, students self-selected one or more groups to conference in (one student actually selected every group; why not!?). This method was surely more efficient, seemingly more effective, and, anecdotally, better received by the students.<\/p>\n

Is there room for improvement here? Absolutely; have students self-selected correctly? Could they take something tangible to or from the conference? Is there an opportunity for them to redirect and practice the specific skill discussed? Could they further lead the discussion? Am I beginning to ask questions aimlessly? All are genuine considerations. While I\u2019m not there yet, I feel that I\u2019ve made a step in the right direction.<\/p>\n

What do I do from here, then? Keep on stepping!<\/p>\n

Follow @Bjeblack and let me know how you\u2019ve approached student conferencing!<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI think they\u2019re useful,\u201d I said, referring to my recent student conferences, \u201cthough I want them to be more efficient and effective.\u201d \u201cWhat do you want to get out of these conferences? Better yet, what do you want your students to gain from these discussions?\u201d I wish I could say that I had asked these … Continue reading “Conferencing; take two, and a step in the right direction!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":305,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-action-plan","category-classroom-reflections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/brandonblack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/brandonblack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/brandonblack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/brandonblack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/305"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/brandonblack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/brandonblack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/brandonblack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87\/revisions\/131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/brandonblack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/brandonblack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/brandonblack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}