Student led conferences with a twist this year. Joanne Carlton, our VSB iMentor was fortunately available to come to the classroom to guide our learning in Division 11. She has a considerable amount of background knowledge in literacy instruction and technology. As luck would have it, Zhi Su, the VSB iMovie expert was also available to come as well. We had planned in advance of their arrival so we could make the best use of their time. The previous week, I has attended a session for teachers and administrators participating the iPad Cart inquiry with my inquiry colleagues. Although I’ve had some experience with iMovie, the facilitators broke down the process so that we were able to take photos and a short videoclip, then add voice and a music track. Very impressive for an after school professional development session. I posted the assignment for students (the list of photos and videoclips for students to collect) on the Showbie APP and explained the purpose with a voice note. Most of the kids are now able to log onto their Showbie account independently. With student led conferences on the horizon, my Grade 3/4 class were excited about sharing the Winter theme books they had created with their photos from the playground, their winter sense poetry, downloaded images and audioclips. However I decided to tap student interest in the iPad technology and allow my Grade 3 and 4 students to use the iPads to demonstrate and talk about their learning this term with their parents. Many parents at the first conferences of the year had expressed they wanted their children to spend less time using technology. I very much wanted them to understand the importance of being deliberate with time spent on screens. Students had each collected:
- a photo of himself or herself
- a photo with the friends he/she particularly works well with in class
- a videoclip of himself/herself doing gymnastics
- a videoclip of himself/herself reading a favorite passage from the book he/she was currently reading
- a photo of a piece of writing from his/her Thinking Book or Writing Book
- a photo of the the province/territory or Aboriginal group he/she is researching
Zhi took the leadership of stepping the students through the process. The first thing he did was show them how to pull up the picture of himself or herself and write their name on it. Students learned to share group photos via airdrop, add music and shorten video-clips. Many of our students attend Chinese School and decided that their Chinese calligraphy had to be part of their iMovie. The more proficient students in the class have been teaching the others Chinese writing to create Lunar New Year cards to deliver to the mostly Asian business owners down Victoria Drive on February 19th. Many students were proud to share their skill with their parents. We had lots of adults in the room helping the students and inquiring about their learning. However the sharing between students was readily apparent. If one student in a working group had music, then it was likely all of them did. Myles LOVED the ability to airdrop and single handedly taught most of the class. Jason, a big ‘”Frozen” fan downloaded an image from the movie as the final frame of his movie with the caption “Bye”. One group of students downloaded applause for their iMovies. The process was not without it’s glitches. However everyone had a movie and one more way to open up the conversation about their learning with his/her parents. Fortunately Henry emerged as our Grade 3 techno-wizard in the process of getting everyone ready for conferences once the mentors were gone. He became the expert on downloading from iMovie to Showbie so we could share the iPads with our other inquiry classes on conference days. Parents were simply amazed at how smart their children are and how much they have learned. As the teacher, the iMovies helped me to learn about my students and determine some of the focus areas for learning. The possibilities are endless and exciting! 
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