Upper school students, parents and teachers met virtually Friday, Monday and Tuesday for conferences to reflect on student progress and growth in their classes.

This year, conferences took place over the platform Meet the Teacher. Wilson Zhang (12), who attended all his conferences with his parents, found that the online platform allowed for more timely transitions between conferences. The website automatically ended meetings for the participants, eliminating the possibility of meetings running late. 

“[The conferences] went pretty well,” he said. “I found the website simple to use after the login. It was pretty convenient to see the timers before the next meeting and until the meeting ended.”

Some teachers elected to send self-reflection questions or surveys to students beforehand to allow them to take the lead in conferences. The upper school made grade snapshots available on Nov. 16 for students and parents to review before conferences.

Emma Cai (9), who had previously attended conferences at the middle school, also felt like conferences went well, although she noted that the online platform made it more difficult to convey emotions virtually than in-person.

“It felt nice to be able to speak with your teacher about how you were doing with class overall,” she said. “If I wasn’t doing well, I got feedback and tips, which really helped me.”

With online conferences, upper school mathematics and science teacher Dr. Anu Aiyer noticed that more students came to the meetings, and more parents signed up for conferences than previous years. 

“I enjoy this time just [as] a way to connect with the parents,” she said. “Even though it’s on [Meet the Teacher], I still think it’s a important part of our school and allowing the parents to connect with the teachers.”