Student - Led Conferences Night 2

This night was really highlighted when a dad of one of our students placed his son's professional blog on his smart phone.  To top things off, his dad placed a notification so that every time his son posts on his blog, his dad will be notified.

Connection. Communication. Engaged.

See the son's reaction!


Another great win went like this: (apologize that I don't have video)
Two parents of our our students have not allowed their children to use Twitter.  One of those parents attended conferences tonight.  As his daughter was talking through the agenda for the night, he waved me over and asked about Twitter.

I explained to him ways that we use Twitter in the classroom:

• Our MVP - most valuable point from a day's lesson
• Anything that interests the students should be posted to the world
• We created a Twitter Timeline of events from the Road to the Revolution
• Another way to ask questions of students and teachers

I also explained to him that we teach students how to be professional while using social media and not banning it.  Just as we don't ban students at 16 from using the car, but teach them how to drive.  We do the same with technology.

After the explanation, he looked at me and said, "Sign her up tomorrow!"

Win. Win. Win.  Both for me and the smile that was brought to the student's face!

Student-Led Conferences: Parents & Students Engaged!

Day 1 of Student-Led Conferences is in the books

This was probably the best student-led conferences that I have experienced.

Why?

The parents and students were engaged because the students really knew how to maneuver the iPad to demonstrate all of the work that they completed.  I could sense that students were taking pride in showing their online professional portfolio, creations, and tweets.  I am also thrilled that the professional blogs are a year-to-date body of work.  We didn't just show them tests as was in the past, but all the learning experiences that have occurred along the journey. Students had an agenda that they were to follow and parents totally wanted to hear all about it.  Some parents and students were present for over a half hour!

My favorite video was when a parent asked, "Can I come back to school?"





 See some other reactions below.

Text Message To Parents: See You At Student-Led Conferences

We have tried to inform parents in a technological way about our Student-Led Conferences that are happening next week.  We sent parents in invitation via the iPad.  Today, students used their their cell phones to inform parents about the event.  See the instructions for students.  View how we did it below.





Since our district allows BYOD, some students made it easier on themselves because they had their parent's cell number already in their device.  Worked great!


Great to see a quick response from parents!


Some clarification by students needed to be made to parents.  What's not shown is that her mother responded with a confirmation text that she totally understood what we were doing.


IMPORTANT:  I made sure that students capitalized correctly and spelled correctly prior to sending the text.

Students Invite Parents To Student-Led Conferences via Diji Invite App

The problem:  Parents need to know the time and place for Student - Led Conferences. Usually teachers worked very hard to run paper off, ask for the sheet to be signed by a parent and returned.  Some of which was "lost in transport".

The solution:  This year students will be the ones inviting parents to Student-Led Conferences.  We will be using the Diji Invite HD Lite App for this.

See how we did it.
We first set up our email accounts:  Here Are The Instructions