Student-led Conferences and Exhibitions

Self-reflection and ownership of one's learning are core values at EBS. While these are regular practices, four times per year we set aside significant time to delve deeply and share our reflections with our community—twice at the family level in student-led conferences, and twice in high-stakes, performance-based exhibitions of learning.

Student-led conferences give students time at the end of a marking period to openly reflect on their learning, growth, challenges, and goals. These are done instead of traditional parent-teacher conferences to build students' self-advocacy and involve them in developing strategies to address their challenges and progress in their learning.

Exhibitions of learning build on the foundation of student-led conferences; this time, in addition to their advisor and parents, they also take ownership of their learning in the presence of their peers. Students are asked to craft engaging presentations to describe the skills, approach, and purpose they've developed through their project work and learning over the course of the year—and, at the end of 8th grade, cumulatively over their time at EBS.

Both of these processes are also meant to push and support our teachers in further articulating the purpose behind projects and to make cross-curricular connections. Students are challenged to fully articulate what they know and how they learn, solidifying lifelong metacognition skills and developing their executive function.