First off, if you have not attended an Edcamp you need to. Go to edcamp.wikispaces.com and find the Edcamp near you. I went into the edcamp not know exactly what to expect and came out with so many new connections, ideas, and enthusiasm that I'm more excited for my job now. Thanks to all the EdcampKC sponsors and planners, I will hopefully be back.
When I showed up at EdcampKC I was nervous, but conversations started to happen. I meet Patrick Donovan (awesome guy) who I have followed on twitter for a while and compared our stories. We have been working in the field of Technology Integration for about the same time period and work with staffs of about the same size. Was nice to bounce ideas off of each other and see what worked in each others situation. I came out with some good ideas and motivation to get Google Certified.
I then proceeded to look at the session board. Time slots were starting to fill up and people were coming up with ideas for sessions. I did put a session up, which was a flop, but that is ok, I now know that this day is more about conversations than presentations. Kyle Pace did and introductory time with everyone and we were off to learning in sessions.
Session 1 for me was about Twitter. Came away with awesome ideas and some new stuff to try. Never thought of having teachers practice tweeting using Todaysmeet.com. What a great idea, keep it safe and help with formatting ideas in 140 characters. I will have to try this one. Also, got to share how our wonderful staff participates in a monthly chat on the first Tuesday of the month using #wcedchat.
Session 2 was my session on Hapara Tools, but wasn't a good one. Got to have some great conversations, then poked in on another session. This is one of the great things about an edcamp, you are not tied to a session, if it is not going the way you want, go to another session.
After the first two sessions we had time for lunch and to walk the Art Galleries since we were located at the Nelson Adkins Art Museum. It was great.
Session 3 was a session lead by a couple of students from nearby High Schools. They talked about their educational experiences and what they think and ideal teacher would be. Isn't this a great idea, let's ask our students what they expect from their teachers. Discussion was great and one teacher said that a beginning of the year activity that she did was to have students create lists on poster board together that listed what they expected from the teacher, peers and themselves. These lists were then used to direct the class throughout the year. Talk about student choice.
Session 4 was a session over how to change Professional Development. I gained some new ideas of how to use twitter to send stuff to staff and also some ideas to hopefully change some of my Professional Development time with staff.
All in all it was a great day, oh and I didn't mention that I won a Hat at the end of the day from the giveaways from the sponsors.
