![](\"http:\/\/www.abraminterstate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/making-waves-by-doing-less-but-better-how-to-find-your-passion-2-638.jpeg\")
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Since going back to teaching after having a baby, I\u2019m constantly on the lookout for ways to save time, places to become more efficient, and strategies for better managing my workload. Well this fall, I may have designed my ideal intro-unit to Grade 8 English that I simply cannot keep to myself.<\/span><\/p>\n We began the term with this provocation. I like it because it gives students the moment to pause and realize a few things:<\/span><\/p>\n Essentially, the unit builds towards <\/a>students drafting a one-page statement about themselves, articulating what their English strengths, challenges, and next steps are. While it is not their report card, it is written in the same format as one (albeit a much longer one). Here is what students do in the first few weeks of school:<\/span><\/p>\n With all of this data collected, students organize their data and start to look for trends, patterns, highlights, challenges, successes, and trends in their reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. They draft their one page statement, get feedback, and then revise and redraft (sometimes adding in insights gained from the revision process). Their statement becomes the cover of their writing portfolio website.<\/span><\/p>\n Students distilled their self-report down to a few key points and ideas and shared this with their parents in their learning conference.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Our learning conferences are 10 minutes. Traditionally, I would usually talk for about 7-8 of those minutes and then we would have some questions at the end. But this year was so much better! I started with the student sharing their insights in the first 2 minutes. I would pepper in observations, specific successes \/ challenges \/ next steps when I thought the student needed to go a little deeper, and then parents shared their observations and questions from home.<\/span><\/p>\n What I noticed this year was that students understood this process and seemed more prepared. I never felt like I was putting them on the spot when I asked them about themselves and their learning. On top of this, I was able to prepare by printing out a report from FreshGrade and making a few short notes on each student. I did the least amount of personal prep for these conferences and they turned out the most productive learning conversations I\u2019ve ever had.<\/span><\/p>\n That said, there were some drawbacks that need to be acknowledged:<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Despite those challenges, I do feel like I know my students on a deeper level this year and that I am well situated to start writing report cards shortly. When students share the insights themselves of their learning challenges and their own next steps, it seems that hearing other ideas from their teachers may be more welcome and possibly even understood once they have done that work themselves.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Looking forward to future years, I would still use this intro unit, but I\u2019m wondering: <\/span><\/p>\n Since going back to teaching after having a baby, I\u2019m constantly on the lookout for ways to save time, places to become more efficient, and strategies for better managing my workload. Well this fall, I may have designed my ideal intro-unit to Grade 8 English that I simply cannot keep to myself. \u201cWhat possibility am … Continue reading “How to Hack Learning Conferences”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/teachingtomorrow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/teachingtomorrow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/teachingtomorrow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/teachingtomorrow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/teachingtomorrow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/teachingtomorrow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":853,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/teachingtomorrow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472\/revisions\/853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/teachingtomorrow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/teachingtomorrow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/teachingtomorrow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u201cWhat possibility am I creating for myself this year?\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n
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But here\u2019s the best part:<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n
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\u201cI did the least amount of personal prep for these conferences and they turned out the most productive learning conversations I\u2019ve ever had.\u201d<\/em><\/h1>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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