Putting together the EdCamp

Good organization and lots of positive support from my colleagues made the rest of the experience a breeze.  Thank heavens I'm an organized person or I can see how this would be overwhelming.  Let me give you the run down of how this all came together.

After the nail-biting meeting with the higher powers I got to work creating a Google Form.  In this form I listed several topics that I thought might be of interest to the staff.  We have many folks who aren't as tech-fearless (or maybe reckless is a better term) as I tend to be so we thought it would be good to give folks some ideas to get started.  I also made an "other" choice so they could add additional topics.  Then under those broad topics I narrowed things down further, such as how are others using it, how has it helped in day to day teaching, and so on.  Finally, I had an open response for any topics or ideas that folks would like to explore further.  I received some good ideas that I think need to be explored further, but maybe within smaller focused groups.  There is such a wide range of tech ability levels and grades/subjects taught on campus that it's a little hard to make topics that might appeal to a large group.

Insert a moment of anxiety when I heard some folks say that they weren't looking forward to another boring PD session.  I hoped that they would walk away refreshed and with a few new ideas.  This isn't another sit and listen type of PD!  I don't think they understood that an EdCamp wasn't that type of boring, old thing.  This is fresh, exciting, and participant driven!  I thought I explained that in my email sending out the Form...maybe they didn't read that?

From there I sorted the most clicked topics and figured out a schedule for our allotted time on our PD afternoon.  We were going to have three concurrent 25 minute sessions with 5 minutes between for a total of 9 sessions taking only 90 minutes, then a quick wrap up afterwards.  Wow, now that I think about it, that's a lot of info in a short time period!

Back to the sesion topics, we had quite a big interest group in augmented reality...I need to learn more after hearing other folks talk excitedly about it after the session!  We also had sessions on Google Classroom, Google Maps, Google Forms, classroom management, Padlet/ThingLink, our school-wide website, and a few others. I'm fortunate enough to work with a great group of colleagues who were more than willing to moderate sessions.  I tried to find moderators who were experienced in the topic so they could guide conversation if needed or answer questions.  With many staff expressing an interest in learning more about the topics I felt I needed to have a few folks in the session who could share basic information.  I know that's not the true nature of a real EdCamp, but for our beginner status I felt it was necessary.  Next time I know it will go smoother since folks know how to work the sessions.

Once conversations got started and folks understood that this wasn't a presentation the chatter got productive!  It was going well!  Experienced folks were sharing with newbies about how they started out and what pitfalls they experienced and newbies were asking questions left and right!  It was like I had died and gone to tech heaven!  My anxiety was gone and a smile filled my face!

Knowing that it would be a lot for folks to take in I wanted a backchannel to document the conversations going on.  I wanted to create an easy to use/navigate/edit way to keep track of the things talked about, so I created a Padlet for each session.  I did preload some links, articles, blog posts, and Pinterest boards for each topic to be on the safe side.  I then asked the participants to add ideas and links of their own while the session was going on.  While this didn't go as far as I'd hoped, I think only 4 other people besides myself added to the Padlets.  If nothing else, it's a reminder of the session topics.

I also created a Twitter hashtag, tssedcamp2016!   I was going guns-a-blazing, I wanted this to be like the one I went to in Baltimore! Besides myself, I think only 2 other folks tweeted.  Again lots of newbies and not everyone is fascinated with Twitter like I am.  Baby steps, baby steps.

Finally, after I was able to exhale and thank everyone for participating in the first TSS EdCamp I told them I'd send out a Form for feedback on their day.  Generally it was a good experience, they liked that it was something new, liked the opportunity to talk to other folks, and enjoyed moving around.  It was better than sitting through a 90 minute lecture on something that they didn't care about. It created some connections between divisions.  I think they liked it! They were curious about learning some more things they'd talked about.

The biggest wish was that we had done it earlier in the year so they could have tried things out and worked with them throughout the year.  I won't lie, I did have a "Negative-Nelly", they didn't learn anything new.  Mostly this person is always a grouch, so I didn't take it personal.  I had too many other folks make happy comments to let that rain on my my parade!  Folks said they heard about some things they wanted to explore further!  I think I heard angels singing!  I think they liked it!  I didn't bore anyone to death!!  My mission was accomplished!  Deliver relevant PD that is fueled by the interest of the participants and make it fun!

Overall, I think it was a positive experience.  Folks came away refreshed by a new approach to taking charge of their PD.  Yeah, I'd say it was a great experience and I'm glad I sent that email from ISTE to my division head about leading your own EdCamp.  I'd do it again in a heartbeat!

Slacker is back!!

Oh, yes!  I'm back!  I've been slacking on the blog thing, but it's time I get back into doing this.

A teacher's life is always busy, but it's no excuse to put things off.  I need to force myself to get in the groove of writing at least one entry every other week or maybe once a week so as to create a new habit.

I do so many fun, techy lessons with my kiddos that it's a shame I don't share more.  Well, it's about to stop!  My dear friend, Sheila, will keep me on track, she's my biggest blogging/tech cheerleader and I want to make her proud.

Well then, let's catch up a bit...

You all know I went to spend a few days with Richard Byrne at his awesome Practical Ed Tech Summer Camp for Teachers (PET Camp).  I just got the ok from my division head to head back to Maine to see him again, but this time for a Chromebook camp!  Hands-down, he's got to be my favorite tech guru.  I'm super stoked to go again.  I can't wait to learn even more from him.  You think you know all that you can do with Google tools and he wows you with a bunch more awesome things you had no idea existed.  I'm going to be counting down the days!

Head back farther to November and I was fortunate to be chosen as a presenter at the Thinking and Learning with iPads conference in Raleigh, NC.  I did a session titled "Comics in the Classroom".  The idea was to share with others the many different web-tools and iPad apps that allow you to create comic strips.

My spin was that comics can be fun and useful as an alternative assessment tool.  I use them in my classroom for language arts on a regular basis to see if the kiddos understand how to use different parts of speech in a real situation.  Sure they can find the action verb on an action verb worksheet, but do they really know how to use one in a sentence or a short story?  Yup, you can assess that with a comic strip!  I'll share more ideas and some samples in an upcoming post.  Just a little tease to keep you reading!  Here's a little one from MakeBeliefsComix.com to honor all my creative teacher friends!

Below is the link to this online and you can create one of your own! From the link you will see that my character is animated, it's a still here since I just took a screen shot. It's one of their new features!
Demo Comic Strip

In about a week and a half I will be coordinating our campus wide professional development afternoon.  It's a half day for the kiddos and then the other half is up to me.  No pressure, right?

Well it's not as bad as it sounds.  I went to an EdCamp in Balitimore, MD earlier this school year and was intrigued with the whole concept of an un-conference.  It was truly fascinating to see that the entire conference was participant driven and lead.  While I didn't take away a lot of info, the session topics were more focused toward public, big school, inner-city issues, since that was the majority of participants (I'm small, private school, more of a country setting teacher, therefore not too many things in common).  Regardless, the whole idea of an un-conference held potential in my mind.

Flash forward to the middle of March, I'm home with my little guy and we're both sick.  I'm reading my emails and see one from ISTE about hosting an EdCamp.  I thought, "Hey!  This would be a great thing for our school!"  So drugged up on cough syrup and having NyQuil induced boldness,  I sent an email to my division head.  She sent it on to the rest of the leadership team, and now I'm the proud coordinator of our next PD day!  Wow, how did that happen?  I'll let you all know how it goes after I get through it on the 20th of this month.  Keep me in your thoughts that afternoon and pray I don't have a nervous breakdown (or chew off what's left of my fingernail nubs).

I'll let you know how I organized the whole thing and what I might do differently next time. See, I'm already thinking about the next one and I haven't even lived through this one yet! Optimistic is the way to be!!

I think I've covered the big items in my techy teacher life.  I've got to get to work writing my next few posts now that I'm rejuvenated!

Stay techy my friends!  Steph