At the end of the term, after the reports had gone home, students were given the opportunity to share their learning with their parents at school. Teachers sat in if necessary, but largely the children had ownership of the meetings. They could discuss where they were at and what they needed to learn next, and how they ought to go about doing that...at home and at school.
As the teacher, I was extraordinarily proud of the confident, knowledgeable presentations the students made. It was also great that they took the opportunity to share some examples of their work, in the rooms and in the cloud.
Here are a few pieces of writing the students did in the days after, recounting their feelings about the experience.
As my parents silver Hyundai drove into the school grounds, I wondered whether my parents were happy with what I had done. As we walk through the front gate the stones in the gravel bit into my bare feet, causing me to walk faster. We approach my class and enter. The crreeeack of the door announces our arrival. Mrs J welcomes me and my family.
I grab my portfolio and show mum and dad how I’m going in maths, writing and reading, as the desktop loads up. I share my stanines and my knowledge of maths. It looked like my mum was beaming with pride and happiness. Then I realised that it’s all fine. I was happy my parents were happy and so was my teacher.
Once the desktop loaded and I had logged in, I started to share what strategies I used in maths and what my next learning goals were. I move on to my writing - not my best topic - so, many learning goals. Finally, reading great results, two learning goals and lots of good feedback on that topic.
We say goodbye and as we step out the door crrrreeeecccckkking behind us, the sharing carries on for other nervous students and their families.
Haydon
Share the learning
As I entered the classroom, I felt nervous, I felt butterflies flittering excitedly in my stomach.
I slowly inhaled the cold Tuesday afternoon air. Although I was nervous, I gathered up my confidence, slid out my portfolio and sat down.
By the time I was two sentences in, I was getting the hang of it. I blurted out paragraph after paragraph, as though some unknown force was making me.
Everytime I turned the page my hand trembled before my eyes and the sweat left sticky prints on the plastic covers.
My parents were looking down proudly at me. As I shared my next learning step in writing, Mrs J came to watch for a while.
My shaky knees knocked against the table, making it wobble. The laptop screen cast a shaky light over the wall behind us.
I slowly came to an end, relief flooded my violently shaking body. Share the learning conferences are great because I know what I’m learning and how, and I’m much more aware of what I need to learn than my parents were.
Zoe
I felt so nervous when we arrived at school in the truck that I felt a little bit sick.
When I started to talk to my dad I thought my work was going to be a bit low but it was actually average, but I'm above in my maths.
When I got onto the computer I showed my dad what I achieved and what my next learning step was and how I could achieve my next learning goal for maths, reading and writing.
When I grabbed my portfolio, I showed my dad and 2 sisters Nakiya and Amber where the red little man was and I was a little bit below on my reading test and I was stanine 6.
For my writing, I read my narrative to my dad. Then he read the rest of my writing - my arts festival celtic knots,bio poem and my rock climbing writing.
He was really happy and proud of what I showed him.
Corey
As my mum slowy shuffled towards me. Butterflies grew inside me hoping that I got good grades. Quietly we sat outside the old painted classroom awaiting my fates. Mrs Jefferson slowly trotted down the shaded area. When Mrs Jefferson walked back inside I slowly opened the crackly door and asked, “Can we come in?” Mrs Jefferson said, “Sure if you don't mind me having a cup of tea first.” My mum replied, “No we do not mind.” “Then you may come in,” said Mrs Jefferson.
Mum and me sat down at a table and I signed in to my google docs. At this point in time I was sweating a pool down my spine. As we started to talk about my report and my IKAN and the little red guy that sits on the red dotted line. My mum started to read through my portfolio she said to me what does this mean and what is that?. We were talking for about thirty minutes. About how my grades were and how they could have been.
It wasn’t as bad as I’d expected. My results were good and mum was pleased. Sharing the learning had gone well.
Isaac
