ISM Spotlight – Student Led Portfolio Conferences

This year I am the luckiest teacher in the world. I get to teach at the best school ever – International School of Morocco, with some of the best, most creative, teachers ever. Each time I walk into someone else’s classroom, I get inspired and we just seem to spiral great teaching ideas off of each other. It’s a wonderful place to teach, and since we are all collaborating, it’s a wonderful place for our kids to learn – a teacher’s dream, right? I have tried and tried to convince the other teachers to create blogs of their own to spotlight and share some of their amazing ideas, but everyone is super busy. Instead, they have each agreed to let me spotlight some of their ideas right here on Raki’s Rad Resources. So, each Friday night, I will be posting an ISM Spotlight.

Each month at ISM, we have a Morning Meeting, to share what we have been learning with the parents.  Most of the morning meetings we have shared songs or skits that we have been working on in class.  Some of the morning meetings, we have invited parents to come to the classrooms to share projects with them, like our Earth’s Materials Online Posters and our African Folktale Project.

This past Friday, we used our Morning Meeting time to give students time to share their online portfolios with their parents in student led conferences.  The Pre-K and Kindergarten students created paper portfolios to share with their parents, while the 1st – 4th graders shared online portfolios in the computer lab. 

The student led portfolio conferences are so impactful.  They allow students to choose the works that they are most proud of.  They also allow students to then present their work and their learning to their parents, which is much more impactful than a teacher presenting the pieces they have chosen to the parents. 

Do you do student portfolios or student led conferences?  What’s the most powerful part in your class?  Mine was seeing one of my “macho boys” sitting on his mom’s lap and guiding her through the math videos he has created this year.