Scheduling Student-Led Conferences

More and more teams at Oak and Sherwood are adopting a student-led conference model compared to the traditional teacher-parent conference. One of the big advantages to this format is the ability to meet more of the parents. In order to accommodate everyone, we have parents sign up for a fifteen minute time slot while they are visiting our classrooms on Curriculum Night. There are four openings for parents per time slot. If you would like access to the spreadsheet, please email us.

After Curriculum Night, we recorded the last name of each student and their time slot into a Google Spreadsheet. This document is shared with team members and made viewable to anyone who has access to the link.

How this helps us

• Administration, Allied arts teachers, and Foreign Language teachers all have access to our Conference Day schedule. They know when to stop by if/when they need to speak with a student and his/her parents.
• Parents who signed up for a time slot can confirm that time. If they realize there is a conflict, they can change.
• Parents who were unable to attend Curriculum Night can see which time slots are still available. They can send an email to the team and request a meeting time. Once we "pencil in" a parent for a particular time slot, all other parents can see that time slot is no longer available.

Additional Resources

Tips and Tricks: Sharing Google Docs like a pro

Introducing a new Google Docs (YouTube Video)


Other Ideas?

Please leave a comment with any suggestions you have regarding student-led conferences. 

Do you have another system for scheduling parents?
Does your team use technology during the conferences?
Any other suggestions for using Google Spreadsheets?