Student-Led Conferences and Digital Portfolios

Student-Led conferences was something that was new to me. I had never heard of it before. I believe it goes along with students taking ownership of their own learning. I really like this idea. I was taught in school that there were really only right or wrong answers and ways of doing things. I still have a hard time in school getting creative and interpreting an assignment. I want to know exactly what I need to do and how. I really struggle with this. Just like this assignment. Yes, there is a rubric but it still leaves room for interpretation. I am not use to being asked my opinion. Facts, that is what I am use to learning and being able to recall for tests. Student-Led conferences puts the students in charge of explaining what they are doing in school. I think I would use this in my classroom. Probably not for official conferences, but maybe host an after school night where the parents come in to the class to have a conference with their child. Another option would be for the students to make a video for each 9 weeks of school. The video could be the students showing their work and discussing what they have accomplished and what they struggle with and what their goals are for the next 9 weeks of school. I think that would be a great tool to teach ownership of their own learning.

Digital Portfolios are another way to keep a collection of student work organized. I would use these in my classroom to be able to assess student growth. I could see areas they have improved on and areas that they are struggling with. Here are some fabulous ideas for how to use Seesaw in the classroom.

I have seen portfolios kept in a classroom before, but not digital. I would think the digital portfolios would be much easier to keep up with and organize with less space. I am old school and have a hard time letting go of all the paper. I am slowly jumping on this digital world train. I come from having to keep boxes and boxes of photographs to now keeping them on disks or the computer. I am now also learning that I need to backup all of my photos and files to be able to access them after a computer crashes. Learned that the hard way, a couple of times! Back to digital Portfolios. I would use these in my classroom. It would be beneficial, to me, to be able to pull a students file up or email to a parent for parent conferences to show growth and/or problem areas. It could be very revealing if there is a pattern in a problem area.