Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Conference time, different twist

Conferences are coming up the 2nd week of November. We got a paper telling how they will be done this year, it's different than the past.
We will arrive 10-15 minutes before appointed time. Our child will take us around his room and show us the things he's been doing the last 9 weeks and show us some examples of his work(as if I haven't seen the ream of trees he's already brought home!). Then he will take us to where the teachers are for the conference. In 4th & 5th grade the teachers work in 2 teacher teams. One teacher does reading/language arts/social studies, the other teacher does math/science. Both teachers and the child will be in the conference.
This is where it gets really good! The child will be given a paper to fill out for a self assessment and the teachers will fill out the same paper. We'll discuss those assessments and also go through another portfolio of his work. I'm thinking this gives us a great opportunity for GS to talk about how he wants homework, how he wants harder things to do, and present a portfolio of the harder things he does for fun at home.

This sounds pretty neat. Nice opportunity but how long do you have for the actual conference? Our P/T conferences are scheduled and only allowed 15 minutes for each child. There's a pretty tight schedule. That's why we asked for a separate meeting to go over this stuff. Choosing to skip the usual conferences this year at our school! I hope it is a nice time for your GS to present his side of school so that the teacher "gets it."
Best of luck for great meeting!

Still only 15 minutes but I'm hoping we can introduce our 'problem', ask for input on working together to solve our 'problem', and set up a follow-up conference.

Great plan! I'll be thinking of you and sending good wishes for a well received presentation!

The school my DDs attend uses a similar parent-student-teacher conference format. It works really well in terms of getting a more complete picture of the work being done in the classroom. The school also uses weekly measures of quality student behaviors.

My experience, though, is that there is little opportunity to discuss anything in detail. The best you can do is raise an issue and schedule a follow up conversation.

Good luck, hope the conference goes well.

I've usually not had him in the conference but I'm thinking this is the right thing at the right time. He's coming home telling me how class is getting boring, he needs to learn how to become part of the solution to fixing his problem. He also needs some coaching on how to present his problem with being bored without offending his teachers! I think these are skills that are appropriate for him to learn at this time, especially since he'll be given a self-assessment sheet by the teachers! I'm thinking about what he can say about his work/study habits...

One side note, he is the only kid in his class that got a speaking part in a music program the 4th & 5th graders are doing. It's a program about the Civil War. His part is a soldier talking about 'all they do is drill'. I heard him do it when I went to school. The teacher complimented his delivery, it had a 'wonderful tone expressing the tedious boredom the soldier was experiencing'! Hahaha, he's had some practice with that tone!

It sounds like an interesting way to do conferences and maybe a good way to alieviate the child's fear of what is the teacher going to say. I know my son has nightmares about P/T conferences. He is sure he is going to be in trouble. So far I've not had negative words with him about any conference.
However, I know that I bring up concerns that I don't want to discuss in front of DS. I like the idea of the survey. I think that would be great to have the child fill out and then have the parents and teacher discuss at the conference.