Conference Week & A FREEBIE!

It's Parent-Teacher Conference week.  The longest, shortest week of the year!  Long because I'm on contract until 7 pm one night and 6 the next night and hold conferences until 4:00 two other nights.  And that doesn't count the normal work I'll need to get done after conference hours.  And it's short because it's only a 4 day week for the kids.  We have inservice on Friday.

On top of that, 2 years ago, my beautiful, wonderful, adorable, precious son decided to make an EARLY entrance into the world at the end of conference week.  So again this year, I'll be doing some late night party prep for his birthday this weekend!  Phew!  It'll be so worth it though.  I just love celebrating my little guy!

This year, our district is expecting grades 3-12 to participate in student led conferences.  It's an option for K-2.  And although I'm not quite ready for my firsties to lead an entire conference, I did invite all of my kids to come to the conferences.  I've always invited them to come to help show off their work.  But this year, I really made a bigger deal of it.  And we discussed in detail what we would be sharing with their parents.

We spent last week getting ready for moms and dads to visit.

First, we set end of the year goals on our district PLP's {Personal Learning Plans}.

For the last few years, I've set reading goals with my kids during my quarterly DRA assessment.  It has been amazing for kids.  I can tell a huge difference these last few years in the student ownership and motivation in reading.  They know exactly what reading level they are on and get excited when they notice I have a book on a higher reading level during Guided Reading.  I even have parents that seem to know what their child's reading level is before I even send home new report cards! :)

When I first pull them back to DRA test their reading level at the beginning of the year, we fill in their level thermometer together.

Once I'm finish testing, we set a goal for the quarter as a class.

Then, each additional time I test them, we color in their reading level as it grows {hopefully ;)}.  And I also set a new goal one-on-one with them.  Both of these sheets are stapled in their library/reading folder that stays in their desks.  Both of these goal setting sheets are included in my Guided Reading Packet.

During writing last week, students wrote an opinion piece independently for us to show parents a writing sample.  We had been working on self-assessing our writing all week using our Good Writer's Checklist (check out my writing rubrics packet for more on this!)

My firsties self-assessed using this good writers checklist.  They circled the goal they wanted to set for themselves based on their assessment.  Then I checked it in blue so parents could compare how accurately their child can self-assess his/her writing.

Grab your FREEBIE of this writing page with the checklist HERE.

During our responsibilities unit, we've been learning about attitudes we should show in our classroom.  Students "checked their attitudes" last week and set goals on which attitude word they think they need to work them most on for parents to see.

A full page writing checklist and the check your attitudes page are both included in my Responsibilities Unit.

I'm hoping all of my kiddos will show up for their conference with their parents so they can help lead their conference.  But even if they can't come, I love that I have so many samples of their work to share and so many goals they've set for themselves to show parents.