On Thursday, February 23rd, ICS held its annual Student-Led Conferences. This is a much celebrated event at our school as our students have the opportunity to share their learning with parents. The students demonstrate their understandings, skills, and knowledge through hands on activities, written work, and reading. This year, each of our students had the opportunity to teach his/her parents about our school “Be-Attitudes” by posting ideas about how to live out the following tenets:
Be safe
Be respectful
Be responsible
Be like Jesus
What do parents have to say about student-led conferences?
“I was happy to see my son present his most excellent work. This was to be expected. What wasn’t expected was him showing us a piece of his ‘underperforming’ work. The point was to explain how he has made efforts going forward to make his work better.”
“I learnt that children at ICS immerse themselves profoundly in specific topics and analyze these topics from the perspective of all their different subjects. This in-depth study is done as opposed to gleaning many different topics in each individual subject rather superficially. The intent of this method is that kids will learn how to research and dissect a topic from multiple viewpoints and have a more meaningful understanding in the end. Personally, I can see as a result of this method, my son has a new appreciation for a topic he previously thought very little of. I’m happy he is learning to see things from different points of view- a great life skill!”
“We LOVE the student-led conference. Our son gets an opportunity to teach and show us what he has learned in the term. He is always so excited and proud of his accomplishments, and we enjoy listening to him as he walks us through the subjects. It is just him and us. This is such an important day for increasing our son’s confidence in himself and his abilities.”
What do students have to say about student-led conferences?
“Student-led conferences are important because it gives your parents a hands-on experience of what you have been doing in class, such as the enchanted forest, you can describe it but it is better if they can see it for themselves.”
“I think my parents enjoyed observing how many ‘in the field’ projects we really have been doing and how that helps us learn. . .”
“I really like student-led conferences because I love to see how interested and happy my parents are with my school work.”
“I enjoyed seeing my grandma walk around the class and look at everything. It made me feel proud of what I did.”
“I think student-led conferences are important because it’s good for your parent(s) to know what’s going on, what you are learning, and how you're doing in school (plus they won’t nail you with questions at the end of the day!)”
