Student Led Conferences

Thank you families for attending our 30 minute Student Led Conferences.  Your student worked so hard at: selecting evidence of learning, reflecting on his/her personal growth and practicing alone, with peers and adults. 

I appreciate you each listening carefully to your child share about his/her "Stars" (what is going well) and "Steps" (what are they going to do next).  I loved to watch them talk so confidently about their own personal progress.  The questions you asked were thoughtful and engaging.  I am truly amazed at what was asked of our curious, thoughtful 6 and 7 year old students and their ability to confidently meet the challenge. 

Learning Target:
I can find evidence to share at my student led conference.
I can reflect on my progress in first grade.
I can practice for my student led conference.
I can give kind, specific feedback using a rubric.

Student Led Conferences

We have practiced and practiced all week for next week's Student Led Conferences (all day Monday, March 14, Tuesday, March 15 4-7:30 pm, Thursday, March 17 4-7:30 pm).  I appreciate you signing up as your child is so excited to share his/her progress this year.  Students collected work to share.  Next, they each reflected on their stars (what is going well) and their steps (what my next step is).  

We watched a video to see what we should be working on.  The students came up with:
~ a level 3 voice (loud voice)
~eye contact
~evidence of his/her learning

I spent time modeling with the kids and many kids practiced in front of the entire crew.  Next, each student practiced on their own, with a fellow crew member and then with their 4th grade buddy.  Many teachers at Fox Creek stepped up to help each student practice with an adult.  We have persevered this week and we are all eager to share with you.

As you listen to your student, you may want to ask questions such as:
"What are you most proud of this year?"
"What have you worked hard at this year?"
"Is there anything I can help you with at home?"

Our learning targets were:
I can reflect on my stars and steps in first grade.
I can practice for my student led conference.
I can give kind, specific feedback about my partner's conference.
***Because of family conferences, we will not have any homework next week.  Please make sure to read to your child each night.***

Growth Mindset

We have been discussing "growth mindset" in our crew lessons.  We kicked off this lesson with this great video from Khan Academy : Growth Mindset

From there, we discussed what hard things have we already learned how to do.  The kids came up with:
~learning to tie his/her shoes
~learning to read
~learning how to ride a bike

For our initiative, we tried hard things like jump roping or for kids who know how to jump rope, trying a new trick.  When things get hard, we made a chart like this to help us remember what to say to ourselves.

Want to support this learning at home?
First, I sent home a book mark for you to keep handy to help your student try and persevere through hard things.  Second, try reading this book.

We did a Fox Creek staff book study of this book and it has great ideas.   It is wonderful to see the kids persevere through hard things and then reflect that the hard work can pay off.
So instead of "You are so smart".  "Wow!  Good job!" .....
In our class, you will hear "Wow!  You worked hard.  What are you proud of?" or "That use to be hard for you and now you tried and tried and got it."  "Your hard work is paying off".

Our learning targets were:
I can have a growth mindset when things are hard.
I can try new things even though it is scary or uncomfortable.