Student Led Conferences

Wednesday and Thursday was student led conferences at Washington Yu Ying.

Student led conferences are 2.5 hour meetings in which students share what they have completed over the past year with their parents followed by a goal setting session with their teacher.

Jade's conference was Wednesday and we made it an especially special day by starting the day out with a special breakfast date. I was amazed at how much my little one ate. Her meal choices totaled more than my own. While in her classroom we broke words down into syllables, practiced handwriting, spelled three letter words, created a grid of members of our family and a body outline for a self portrait. Overall Jade is doing superb in school. She met all of the goals set for her at the beginning of the year. One suggestion her Chinese teacher had however was to work with her on focusing more when others are speaking.

Vanessa's conference was yesterday. In English, the session focused on their most recent unit of inquiry, ancient civilization, and the methodology used to study it. We sorted words by grouping such as people, place, tool, artifact etc.; learned about world culture via the site Kidipede, completed a "dustbin" and "luggage" puzzle in which we matched families/people to their belongings by investigating items on display. In Chinese, the unit of inquiry was also the focus however the assignments were completed using Chinese as the language of instruction. Vanessa's progress since the beginning of school has been steady and I am quite proud of her. Our goal for the remainder of the school year is to continue improving the speed of her reading and working to be more of a risk taker. Vanessa is a "perfectionist" at heart so if she is unsure of something then she won't attempt it. Her teacher and I both reminded her that "trying" is an accomplishment in its self and that everyone makes mistakes (think Hannah Montana song) so she shouldn't be afraid to give something a "whirl." We ended our day with a special lunch date.

One of the events that took place along with student led conferences was the book fair. Vanessa and Jade each collected money from their grandmother to help with the cost of their book. Jade chose a Barbie Mermaid book (can't remember the exact title) and Vanessa purchased a create your own book kit (yep, she is really into crafts). Also I purchased the following books "Skateboard Mom," "and "A Crazy Day at the Critter Cafe," by author Barb Odanaka. Vanessa and Jade will experience their first book signing today because Ms. Odanaka will be at Yu Ying signing purchased books. Hopefully, I can get a picture of the girls with her.