Student Led Conferences, Advisory, and Next Year's Schedule

What's Happening with Advisory and Student Led Conferences next year? 

• Building Engagement & Agency.  Both rounds of the Student Led Conferences were very successful this year.  Teacher and parent feedback was overall very positive from the three grade teams.  Students found the process to be challenging and uncomfortable, but with a a couple of exceptions, the large majority of students approached the situation with seriousness and a high level of reflection.  For our first implementation, Student Led Conferences marked a first step to actively engage students and their families in their progress and learning. This engagement is critical for our young women.  By putting the kids at the center and in the driver seat of these conferences, we're developing their agency and independence while at the same time empowering their families to be supportive and inquisitive about what each of our students takes away from your classes.
  
• So...what are the logistics? This year, we have scheduled three rounds of conferences. We're shifting from the high school parent conference schedule to the middle school conference schedule to allow for students to draw from a broader span of work, and thus more capably demonstrate progress.  The first set of conferences will be in November, the second in the spring and the last one in June (June conferences focused on reflecting about their growth over the year).  We'll use the same structure as last year with times during midterm week and conference days.
  
• And what's up with Advisory? Advisory will meet 4 times per week (which includes a regular assembly).  At the beginning of the year, the assembly will be weekly as we adjust to the new school year.  After September, grade teams can adjust the frequency of their meetings (no less than monthly).  Advisory will be 25 minutes, and the expectation is that all students work independently and silently (reading, homework, etc.) while advisors individually conference with students.  Advisories will be 10 or fewer students so that teachers can conference at least 2-3 students per advisory session.  These weekly check-ins are targeted at supporting students in reflecting on their progress and work habits as they are reflected in their student work and in JumpRope.  When everyone returns in the fall, we'll be giving a detailed PD of advisory expectations for the upcoming year, but as a heads up Advisors will be regularly checking in and helping students set and track goals around
• Attendance and Lateness
• Organization and Work Completion
• Quality of Work submitted (grades on assignments)
• Behavior Choices and Actions

First Peek at Next Year's Schedule

Click HERE for to See the Draft of 2012-2013 Schedule

• This is still in draft form, but take a look to see how the schedule is shaping up. The 11th and 12th grade schedules are still not under development.  
  We're waiting to here final scheduling details from Poly to integrate those courses into the schedule.

Announcements

• Learning Cultures Summer Institute Starts this week!
• The leadership institute for LCSI starts 30JUL.  Next week, 06AUG through 08AUG marks the beginning of the teacher week.  If you still haven't registered, please click HERE to do so, now!
• Also please visit learningcultures.net to learn more about the rubrics and formats.
  
• Continue Building your Resources for structuring Independent Work Time
• To make space for your in-class academic conferences, you need to have well-structured independent work time.  We will continue the PD we started in June around conferencing, setting up the classroom environment, and structuring independent work time (particularly the flipped classroom).

• Upcoming Blog Topics
• I ran out of time on discussing why the focus on Independent Work and Conferencing, so I'll lead with that one next week.
• What rubrics are we using for teacher evaluation?