TTT: Celebration Of Learning

It is that time again… well in my division anyways.  It’s time for conferences or in my case, Celebration Of Learning.  Some of you may be familiar with this term some may not.  I thought I would use this TTT to talk a little about it!

Celebration of Learning is exactly what it sounds like, it’s a time to celebrate and reflect on the children’s (and your) hard work! I typically always host conventional parent/teacher conferences in Term 1.  I feel this is necessary so I can formally meet the parents, and ease any questions or concerns they may have about first grade- it is after all a huge adjustment from Kindergarten for both the students and the parents.

For the second semester I always host a celebration of learning in my classroom and I LOVE it.  It is such an exciting time for the students- they are SO excited to show their parents their work.  Here is how it I set up the celebration of learning in my classroom:

• I use the website signup.com to schedule it.  The website is free and is very easy to use.  Our school used it last semester to schedule conferences and we had no issues.  This online scheduling system works fantastic as it allows the parents to sign up for a time that is convenient for them.  I found I had a much better turnout than if I had scheduled the conferences myself and it is a lot less time consuming on my end.   I schedule three slots per every twenty minutes with a ten minutes between each group of three.  The ten minutes allows me to answer any questions families may have, run to the washroom, set out the students portfolios, and reset the stations for the next family.
• I have 4 stations for the students to take their parents through.  Two math and two Language Arts.  Here are the signs I have put out at each station- you can download them here if you’d like! (Reminder, I teach Grade one but these could easily be edited to fit your curriculum or grade!)

Like anything, Celebration of Learning is great but does not work for everyone.  There will always be families that want to meet and that’s okay too.  It’s important to be respectful of their wishes! With that being said, remember it’s important to address issues as they arise… don’t let it wait until conference time.

Happy Teaching!