Conferences are around the corner - Thursday and Friday, November 1 and 2 - and the sign-ups start Monday, October 22. From the feedback regarding Back to School Night, we saw how much parents appreciate making direct contact with their students' teachers. To make that possible in conferences as well, we have made some changes in the conference format, especially for 7th and 8th grade.
Seventh and Eighth Graders and their families will go through a rotation of conferences with each of their academic teachers. In order to make this work, we will have 4 conferences starting at the same time: 2 for 7th graders and 2 for 8th graders. Your grade-level sign-up sheet, therefore, will look different from in the past. It will seem to offer duplications: 8:30 and 9:30, for instance, will be offered twice; etc. That is not an error!
When you arrive at school on conference day, you will find a detailed schedule, showing you the order of your rotation for the conference. One family will start with Humanities, another with Science, another with Math, and another with Spanish. Every 10 minutes, you will move to the next subject area. It is essential that you arrive in plenty of time to see your rotation and to get to your first conference. We will be on a very tight schedule, made more complicated by the overlap of teachers between 6th and 7th/8th.
Seventh grade conferences should take 50 minutes; eighth grade should take 40 minutes. I can offer some high school advising meetings on Thursday in conjunction with your conference times. If you would like us to meet on Thursday, send me an email (ggriswold@theberkeleyschool.org) when you have your conference time, and I will reserve time at the end of your conference.
Seventh and eighth graders attend and participate in their conferences. Advisors and teachers will help them to prepare. If for some reason your family is not able to schedule a conference, please contact your student's advisor to arrange a meeting in which the advisor will provide an overview of the student's progress in all classes. Make-up conferences will not include teachers other than the advisor.
Sixth Grade Conferences: Sixth graders are invited - and even encouraged - to join their parents for a 20-25 minute conference. Stephanie will start a conversation about developmental progress as well as math and science. She will then be joined by Norman, who will discuss the student's progress in reading and writing. Conferences are scheduled at half-hour intervals throughout the day. We leave the decision whether 6th graders attend fall conferences to their families - some parents may want an opportunity to share without their child present - but we expect that all 6th graders will attend and participate in their spring conferences.
Where do we sign up for conferences?
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