Friday, October 21- NO SCHOOL
Monday, October 24 – NO SCHOOL
Student-Led Conferences:
One of our central goals at Desert Academy is to help your student become a more autonomous, confident self-advocate, the kind of person who owns his/her experience as a learner in the world. To that end, we have adopted student-led conferences. Unlike traditional parent/teacher conferences that emphasize communication between parents and teachers, often to the exclusion of the student, student-led conferences place the student at the center of the reflective conversation. The student-led conference is an opportunity for your student to take responsibility for his/her educational process, reflect on the work they have done this first quarter, and articulate goals for the rest of the school year. In this way, your student is given the opportunity to practice organizational, analytical, and communication skills with “real-world” application. This is sure to be an enlightening and important experience for all of us who will participate in the process.
This week in Advisory, your student will begin to choose work from his/her first quarter to place in a learning portfolio. This portfolio, which will be structured around the IB learner profile traits, will provide the framework for the conversation. Advisors will help students decide which pieces to include in the portfolio and rehearse for their conferences.
The student-led conference will be attended by you, your student’s advisor, and at least three of your student’s teachers. Because the scheduling of these conferences is quite complex, we ask that you make every effort to attend the conference at the time you are assigned. If you are unable to attend the conference, your student must still be present to lead his/her conference. We are happy to accommodate students who need to remain on campus for some time before or after their conference time due to transportation issues.
You will receive your conference time soon.
Sincerely,
Amy Miller
Assistant Head of School
Desert Academy
