In my last post I hinted at the EdCamp that I was going to coordinate at my school. Well now I can tell you all about what we did! I have to admit, I thought I had bitten off more than I could chew, but it actually went really well! I'm proud of myself and now I know I can do it! I"ll break down how it all went down in 3 parts so it's not too lengthy!
I know, me lengthy? Never!
Let's start at the beginning...I went home early one day with a sick kiddo (I was feeling like crud too) and took some heavy duty cough syrup. I'm sitting on the couch, wrapped up in blankets like a butterfly in a cocoon, laptop in my lap, and a coughing kid on the couch across from me. I'm sifting through email and I read one from ISTE on leading your own EdCamp. What a cool idea it would be to have one at our school! I should send this to Debbie (my division head)! She will appreciate this, she always encourages me to do new and exciting things.
*Note to future self: don't send emails when you are loopy on cough syrup.
Anyway, she tells me a couple days later that she liked the email and sent it to the Leadership team! Huh? Fast forward a couple days and I bump into our headmaster and he says he can't wait to hear my ideas at their next leadership team meeting. Again, huh? This is what happens when your head is too stuffed up to think straight and you can't connect the dots.
A couple more days go by and I get an email letting me know when the next leadership team meeting is and the time they'd like me to come over and talk to them about my idea. Now this snapped me out of my daze! This was really real!! Yikes! What have I done?!? I don't know how to put together an EdCamp! Am I crazy? Well, there's no going back. I can do this, I was raised to be a strong, independent, smart woman. I got this! OK, breathe. I chewed off all my nails. That's ok, because I've got this!
**Can you tell I had some moments of "what in the world have I done"?!? I waffled between being super excited and super stressed.
Hindsight is always 20/20, but now I realize that the day I pitched the idea to the leadership team was the most stressful part of all. Were they going to understand the concept of this? Would they think it fit their idea of what a PD day should look like? This really isn't a traditional PD, would they think it doesn't fit our needs? Am I sounding like I'm a know-it-all and I don't think other folks are doing enough with the tech piece? All these and a hundred more went through my mind as I walked over to that meeting. Again, the nerves kick in except I don't have any more nails to chew.
Fast forward 30 minutes and I'm walking back to my class with a big smile on my face. They thought it sounded like a good idea and that it was great to be on the forefront of new ideas. It's a great opportunity to share new and fresh ideas among the divisions. I was on my way to organizing the first ever EdCamp at our school! Why had I stressed so much about this? Debbie wouldn't have let me pitch this idea if she thought they would have dismissed it. Wow! They liked the idea of an EdCamp! This was going to be great!
One hurdle over, now for the next one. Getting this thing put together and ready to go. I'll have all the fun details on how I got this baby off the ground in my next post!
Keep it techy!
Steph :)
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