Dear Escalante Middle School Community,
On October 25th, we will be hosting parents for our Student-Led Conferences (SLCs). If you haven’t participated in an SLC before, I want to give you a heads up that it is quite different from traditional parent-teacher conferences.
In middle school, SLCs are led by the Crew teachers. Over the past few weeks, we have worked in Crew to prepare students to be the lead voice in their conference. Students have been reflecting on their academic efforts and their positive contributions to our school culture. At their conference, they will be sharing artifacts from classrooms, their report card reflection, and their goals. Crew teachers will be at the SLC to help guide your child’s reflection on the 1st quarter of the school year.
At times, parents would like to meet with specific teachers after the student-led conference. Keep in mind that almost all teachers are Crew leaders at EMS, so they likely will not be available on the 25th. I do encourage parents to reach out to teachers through email if there are specific needs that surface during the SLC so that parents who would like more direct contact with one of their child’s teachers can arrange it in the coming days.
One of the main reasons EMS switched to Student-Led Conferences is that student reflection on their academic progress is one of the most important strategies to improve or reinforce their learning habits. Additionally, traditional conferences typically engage around 50% of families. After switching to Student-Led Conferences, we are typically above 90% and have hit 100% of families engaged.
On another note, our launch on one-to-one Chromebooks has been a great success this year; however, it hasn’t been without struggles. We currently have about 40 students a day who forget their computer at home and request a loaner replacement for the day. We do not have 40 extra computers available, so students who aren’t coming prepared sometimes don’t have the tools they need for the day’s lesson. Parents can really help us out by ensuring that their kids come to school with a charged computer.
On a positive note, I’d just like to express how delighted I am with our student body in general this year. While there will always be a degree of conflict in a school with 535 11-14 year-olds, I am constantly inspired by the frequent acts of kindness and compassion I observe from your kids daily. When I hold the door open for our students, my heart is always warmed by how many students say, “Thanks, Mr. Voss,” and whenever I ask for a helping hand with a task our kids are quick to pitch in. Thank you parents for raising such wonderful young people!
Sincerely,
Jeremy Voss
