Thursday, March 5, 2015 Dear Parents, At our March 30th and April 1st parent conferences, all of our Grade 1 -3 classrooms will be using a new format to communicate to parents what and how their children are learning at school. On the evening of Monday, March 30 th parents will be invited to join their child in their child’s classroom while the child leads you through a series of activities that showcases the learning that they are doing at school. Parents will have the opportunity to engage with their child in their learning and celebrate their child’s learning. This type of conference is called a Student Led Activity Conference which is a well-researched means of communicating student learning to parents that puts the child at the center of the reporting process rather than the teacher. Warman Elementary has completed a couple of pilots of this style of conferencing with our Grade 2 classes last Spring and with our Kindergarten classes in the Fall. We found on both of those occasions that the students were very excited to share their learning with their parents and that parents thoroughly enjoyed experiencing their child’s learning through their child’s eyes and words. Parents will sit alongside their child in the classroom for 20-30 minutes (or longer if needed) and their children will take them through a prepared journey of what they have been learning and how they are learning. There will be a few other families in the classroom at the same time doing the same thing and the teacher will be in the room to move between families to answer any questions and to interject into your conversation as needed. If at all possible it would be great if you could arrange it so that your sole focus could be on your child that is leading the conference at that time. At the conclusion of the conference there will be an opportunity for you to write a short note to your child to give them some feedback, to celebrate the great work that they are doing and to encourage them to keep doing their very best work. Parents will also be given the opportunity to provide us with feedback on how well they felt the student led activity conference process went for them. The evening of Wednesday, April 1st will be set aside for parents who feel they need to talk one on one with the teacher or if a teacher wants to request a one on one meeting with a parent. You can book your Monday, March 30th student led activity conference time by going to www.schoolinterviews.ca and using the Username: wes2 and the event code V3UCJ (there will be 5 openings per 30 minute time slot available for you to book). Families can book online until the day of interviews, March 30. If you feel that you require a one on one meeting with the teacher then you can book that time for Wednesday, April 1 st by contacting the classroom teacher directly. Your child’s teacher may also contact you to arrange a one on one meeting for that evening if they feel it is necessary. We want to thank all of our parents for continuing to engage in their children’s learning and partnering with us at Warman Elementary to help each and every student to succeed to the best of their ability. It is a well-researched fact that students whose parents engage in their child’s learning do much better in school.