Showing posts with label Edcamp. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Edcamp. Show all posts

Thursday, April 6, 2017

Critical Conversations at #EdcampRevolt

Posted on 2:06 PM by  with 1 comment

This post was originally published by Justin Schleider at #SlowChatPE on April 2. #TheEduCal Blog is proud to share it here with permission.


Today was an amazing day. I am feeling a sense of hope and joy that I haven’t felt for a very long time. My goal is to help change the world and I honestly think I may have just been positioned to be a part of a change that will have a huge impact. I will go more into depth with that at the end of this blog. First, let’s talk about how EdCampRevolution rocked my world!

I have been looking forward to this EdCamp for months. The reason why is that their mission aligns with mine. It is one that more conferences need to address.

We at EdCamp Revolution are holding this space for critical educators and progressive educators to come together, share ideas, and feel empowered to affect change in their place of work and communities. How do we discuss STEM, maker-spaces, the arts, health and physical education, within the context of race, class, gender, equity, justice, and liberation?

 Here is a group of educators that is challenging the status quo in a way that I can fall in line with. After going to the conference I fell in love with them.

The first session titled, Critical Pedagogy, was facilitated by Awo Okaikor Aryee-Price (@Okaikor). For those who do not know her Okaikor is a doctoral student who is very knowledgeable about critical pedagogy as well as other social justice principles. One definition of critical pedagogy I found states, “Critical pedagogy is a teaching method that aims to help in challenging and actively struggling against any form of social oppression and the related customs and beliefs” (Link).

She did one of the best jobs in facilitating a conversation. It was interesting because she was one of the quieter people in the room when it was obvious that she had a wealth of information. That is is the true spirit of EdCamps. The room discussed the subject and Okaikor jumped in once in awhile with her substantial wealth of information. If you want to see the notes on the session click here. The major takeaway from the session is that I have to read Paulo Freire and learn more about how my students, as well as myself, can question and challenge my system and my class. The action is the key to critical pedagogy.

The second session I went to was facilitated Diana Potts, Stephanie Rivera, and Elissa Malespina. The subject was how to bring up race in your classroom. The session was awesome!! There was fire and a little edge in the room. This made the discussion come alive! My man TJ was dropping knowledge bombs on my right while Julie-Ann, the founder of EdCampBrooklyn, and I were whispering in agreement to each other on the left. There was a student in the session who gave a wonderful synopsis of why it’s important for teachers to step up their views on race and how pictures are sometimes more powerful than words.

My major takeaway from the session is that I need to continue to learn more about history. Black history, Mexican history, African history, US history so that I can fully understand how the world has gotten to this point. Without that knowledge, I am blinded to certain truths.

Now to the groans and glows of the conference! (thank Jorge for allowing me to steal the idea)

Glow: The session board was filled with great subjects! This was not a conference for those scared to discuss the hard topics.

Groan: There were two people who took a lot of the time to talk about what they were doing. Today race was discussed a lot so that may be why but I noticed both people were white. I don’t know if they had anything to do with the fact that they talked for what seemed like at least ten minutes. It is not fair to monopolize so much time when the whole room should be a part of the discussion. Time just doesn’t allow for that as well as for the fact that people don’t pay attention for that long!

Glow: There were more black and brown people there than any other education conference I have ever been to. That was an awesome site to see!

Glow: There was a boat load of food!

Glow: Lunch was short and to the point.

Groan: My kids were sick so I got there late and had to leave early.

Going back to the beginning of the blog I stated how happy I was that a major change may be occurring in NJ, NY, and CT! I had a conversation where I was asked why EdCampNJ wasn’t doing enough to support other EdCamps. It made me realize that we were in a unique position and time to unite all the local EdCamps in NJ, NY, and CT which will solve a couple of issues that have been plaguing them.

The first issue is that EdCampNJ is attended by a large number of white educators. We see this and now have a viable solution. When we unite we will have the voices of teachers of color as well as white teachers.

Another issue is that the EdCamps are all planning on their own independent of one another. This has caused EdCamps to be held on the same day. That doesn’t do anyone any good. Together we can map out a calendar and figure out the best way to spread out the EdCamps.

The final way this new coalition will help is that we can amplify everyone’s EdCamp! We are not in competition with each other. We all have the same goal of bettering our profession. The joining of EdCamp voices will allow everyone to shine brighter!

Today was a day filled with great conversations and hope. That alone was worth going to EdCampRevolution!



Justin currently teaches physical education, health, and technology integration in Springfield Elementary School which includes grades prek - 6 and is located in NJ. He has taught there for 5 years. He previously taught for 5 years at Mercer County Special Services and Lambertville Public School. He is the brains behind #slowchatpe and slowchatpe.com which is the impetus for the slow chat (question a day) Twitter and Voxer. He is also the co-creator of voxerpe.com, nlpc.us, and the Voxer physical education chat, which has 500 physical education teachers from all over the world. Justin is also the technology director for the NJ AHPERD which is the NJ state organization for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, Dance, and Drivers Education programs.

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

#WhyIEdCamp: An Educator's #Edcamp Journey

Posted on 2:48 PM by  with No comments


As I continue to attend EdCamps the question as to why continues to change after every event and experience.

I attended my first EdCamp, EdCampNJ, in Springfield, NJ about a year ago after I kept seeing #EdCampNJ all over Twitter. Admittedly, I had no idea what the day would entail. My first experience was eye-opening. Eye-opening because I was able to connect with educators who think similarly, share similar experiences, and were willing to learn from each other. This is where I caught the bug and began attending subsequent EdCamps. I thought this is #WhyIEdCamp.

A few months later I attended another event, EdCamp Central Jersey in North Plainfield, NJ. The morning of I said to myself that at this event I was going to challenge myself and present/facilitate a session. My first experience facilitating a session was very positive. I was able to have the experience of fostering an enlightening conversation, not because of me, but because of the educators in attendance. I thought again, this is #WhyIEdCamp.

Early this year I attended EdCampUrban in Union City, NJ. This event was the first organized by a group of educators serving students in urban settings. At this event, I decided to facilitate a session on a topic new to me, Breakout EDU. Usually, I like to focus on Google for Education's G Suite. My session was again a success thanks to the great educators who participated in the activity. However, what I took away most from that day in October was how lively, interested, and eager the attendees were, despite being a bit hesitant and unsure of what would happen that day. Listening to the conversations, hearing the questions asked, and hearing educators say they were willing to try something new they learned that day. This was the first time many of these educators were provided with such an opportunity. Again, I left saying to myself this is #WhyIEdCamp.




Most recently I attended the fifth annual EdCampNJ. This was the first time I was joined by my colleagues. I had attended previous EdCamps by myself but was finally able to convince my colleagues to attend after my many stories as to #WhyIEdCamp. The days leading up I informed them as to how the day was going to work and what they could expect. Most importantly, I advised them to go in with an open mind. As we sat and talked before the event started we met so many educators, eagerly watched as the session board was updated, and discussed which session we would attend. The atmosphere in the room was energetic, and it was hard to decide which sessions would suit us best. This is where the rule of two feet came into play, and some of them saw this as a positive.

After the morning sessions, we came back together and talked about the sessions we attended. We talked about how open and comfortable the experience was thus far. We talked about how we could use something we just learned. We talked about what topics would be posted for the afternoon sessions. We were all excited for the day to continue. After the afternoon sessions, we came back together again and briefly debriefed the day. This was done all organically, as the intent of EdCamp. The conversation even continued when we returned to school. They even told their stories to other staff members with the hope of convincing them to attend an EdCamp in the future.

​My colleagues overwhelmingly had a positive experience. Some cannot wait to attend their next EdCamp. Some stated they wished EdCampNJ was more than once a year. They all appreciated the organization, the freedom, and the conversations that occurred during the day. I appreciated they all had a positive experience, shared, and learned. This was a new and fulfilling reason as to #WhyIEdcamp.




Shivan Persad (@MrPersad_BA) is a certified Social Studies and Special Education Teacher who currently teaches Middle School Social Studies Teacher at Buzz Aldrin Middle School in Montclair, N.J. Shivan has studied educational history, theory, and practice at Seton Hall University, Montclair State University, and Teachers College, Columbia University. He is an avid Education Technology enthusiast and advocate. His enthusiasm has contributed to him becoming a Google Certified Educator and Google for Education Certified Trainer. Shivan was bitten by the EdCamp bug after attending his first event in 2015. As a teacher his goal is to enhance the learning experience of his students in order for them to become lifelong learners. Additionally, his goal is to share with and learn from other teachers to enhance his and their teaching.

Thursday, July 14, 2016

Personalizing Professional Development

Posted on 7:21 AM by  with 1 comment
By Keith George

The idea of personalized learning for students has received a great deal of attention over the past several years. The Gates Foundation issued a report in 2014 that identifies four basic “look fors” related to the personalization of student learning. These include the creation of individual learner profiles that lead to personal learning paths that are customized to the goals for each individual student. Students are assessed using competency-based progression measures. They should be able to complete their work in flexible learning environments, which encompasses every aspect of the educational process- staffing, space, time (Gates, 2014. emphasis added).

A more recent trend has been to apply this concept of personalization to teacher professional development. This has been initiated in a couple of simple ways including allowing more teacher input into the selection of PD sessions they attend. For instance, many school districts have altered the traditional sit-and-get, prescribed, beginning of the year inservice or professional development days to offer teachers choice.

Another fast growing strategy is the EdCamp model in which educators gather for a educator-driven sessions facilitated and created by the participants. This model allows teachers to attend sessions that they feel they would benefit from most. Having attended several EdCamps and serving on the planning teams of both EdCamp Montgomery (AL) and EdCamp Lake Eufaula (AL), participants most commonly appreciate being able to choose the sessions they want to attend.

The EdCamp format has become so popular, in fact, that many traditional educational technology conferences are incorporating “un-conference” days or portions. On these days, there are no scheduled sessions, only time slots in which motivated educators can step up to share ideas and strategies with anyone who might be interested in the same topic.

A photo from EdCamp Montgomery!

While these moves towards more teacher choice in their PD are a start, the idea of truly personalizing the professional development takes more. If we adopt the same “look fors” that the Gates Foundation describes then we can formalize this effort. Many teacher evaluation systems include some sort of self-assessment but this is often a “completion” effort in that is only a box to be checked. They also often require teachers, usually in consultation with an administrator, to develop goals and identify strengths and weaknesses. Occasionally, teachers are allowed to identify ways to reach their goals. However, they may or may not have the support, both financially and administratively, to follow through on their self-identified goals.

The competency-based progression concept is a tougher nut to crack with teachers. Most teachers would be hesitant to have their skills measured objectively for fear that they would be misused. However, this could be overcome with an earned credential approach in which third parties issued the credentials and teachers had voice in the courses they completed.

The area of greatest potential, however, is that of learning environments. This broad concept includes the time, location, and even the format of the PD that teachers complete. Allowing teachers to determine how they go about reaching their identified goals could have an incredible effect on the benefit of the professional development activities in which they participate.

For instance, if a teacher has reflected on their teaching practice and determined that they need to improve in the area of integrating technology into their science classroom, the teacher may start by searching for resources that could help reach that goal. The teacher may decide that they will locate a book on the topic and participate in an online book study. They might locate an upcoming EdCamp and participate in a teacher-driven session on technology in the science classroom. The teacher might then actively participate in a series of scheduled Twitter chats to share ideas and questions related to connecting technology to science education. Finally, the teacher might enroll in a free, Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) to learn more specific strategies on technology integration.

The key to all of these ideas is that the teacher, not the district or the administrators, determined how the teacher reaches the goals. That is not to say that teachers should not consult with administrators during this process, only that the teacher should drive the path that the learning follows. Additionally, teachers need to realize that there is a justifiable need for accountability. We already know that “sit and get” PD is not effective because it is often done in isolation with no follow up. Effective PD includes both practice and reflection. These must be included even when teachers design their own learning. When teachers are given the opportunity to control their own learning, they will design a learning plan that provides the most benefit for them and their students.


Early Progress: Interim Research on Personalized Learning, RAND Corporation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, November 5, 2014. http://collegeready.gatesfoundation.org/article/early-progressinterim-report-personalized-learning.

keith2006web.jpgKeith George is the Educational Technology Specialist with the Alabama Math, Science and Technology Initiative at the Alabama State Department of Education. Before joining the State Department of Education, Keith taught Social Studies and Computer Technology for 13 years, as well as serving as an Instructional Technology Coach.

Keith routinely presents on effective technology integration at several state and regional conferences. He is active on Twitter @BigTechCoach and blogs at www.bigtechcoach.com.

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

#WhyIEdCamp: Passion and Positivity from #EdCampSummit

Posted on 10:56 AM by  with No comments

By Rachel Murat

To put it mildly EdCamps and the people that attend them have saved my career. If you’ve never been to one, you need to get to one. You can find the link to the events at http://www.edcamp.org/participate, and I guarantee that if you walk in with an open mind and a willingness to be outside your comfort zone, you will never look at professional development the same way again.

I have attended over 30 EdCamps and have helped to organize three. The last of which, EdCampSTNY, was held in my district on April 9th, 2016. Being an organizer of an EdCamp has so many perks and opportunities for growth that I could go on for hours about them. Instead of doing that, why don’t I talk an opportunity I never thought I would have and that was to attend the inaugural EdCampSummit, an EdCamp for EdCamp organizers. When I first heard about it, I jumped right on it because I knew it would be a way to network with other organizers and grow even more as a professional.






Although those two things did happen, what I hadn’t anticipated was the sheer amount of passion, positivity and warmth from such an eclectic group of highly motivated educators. I met organizers from all over the northeast and from as far away as the Ukraine! Having time to share our stories, experiences and learn from each other is something I will never forget.

I would like to share two experiences from that weekend that I will always remember. Both got me so far outside my comfort zone I wasn’t sure I was even in the same room with it anymore. The first was an “unkeynote” from Anthony from @SpeechlessShow where he had us laughing to the point of tears as we learned the art of improv and then he taught us how to beatbox.

Yes, I said beatbox.

In keeping with my discomfort of the new activity, I volunteered to participate in an activity that would later be recorded and tweeted out. Normally, I am totally fine with that, but who wants to see a 44 year old suburban white woman from NY beatboxing? No one I know! LOL! It was a great community building activity that sparked so many ideas for classroom application of the improv skills we were working on.






The second experience was a very frank discussion on race that had me reflecting on my practice at school and in life in general. Listening to the perspectives in the room has had me thinking about this topic ever since. I am looking critically at the relationships at school and also how I present myself. I am thankful for the EdCamp Foundation for being mindful enough to bring Jose Vilson to speak with us and start a meaningful conversation about race.



Throughout the conference, I was learning more about organizational strategies, strategies to get more educators, administrators, parents and board members to our events as well as having discussions of how not to let the EdCamp model “jump the shark”. There wasn’t a minute of the weekend that I regretted my choice to attend. I was able to engage in conversations over meals, on walks with Katie McFarland, and during sessions all of which made me a better organizer, professional and person.

Many people at work asked how I could “give up” my weekend to attend the event. I asked them how they thought I could give up the opportunity to be around like minded, passionate educators who are part of my tribe!



Rachel is a social studies teacher at Maine-Endwell High School who teaches a flipped AP Gov course, Economics, US History, PBL Entrepreneurship, and Digital Citizenship. Additionally, she is the Tech Integrator and Tech Lead Teacher for the High School. Rachel is the President and founder of M-EALS and Leadership, a school food pantry that feeds 100+ district families each week and over the summer. She also advises the Class of 2016 and Mock Trial, and runs the Mentor/Tutor program that links upperclassmen with the freshmen for an entire school year. You can find Rachel Twitter @MrsMurat, on Facebook as Rachel Beatty Murat, or by email at rmurat@me.stier.org.




Tuesday, March 29, 2016

#EdcampSWCT: My First (Amazing) #Edcamp Experience!

Posted on 12:53 PM by  with No comments

By Dan Kreiness

This reflection was originally published by Dan at https://leaderoflearning.wordpress.com on March 14, 2016 and is cross-posted here with permission.



It’s not you, it’s me.

Step aside, traditional professional development methods. You’re not right for me anymore. I’m an Edcamp guy now!

Only recently I found out about and realized the awesomeness of a relatively new form of professional development for educators called Edcamp . See, I have absolutely become a self-admitted education nerd, spending (probably too) much of my spare time browsing the internet, Twitter, and Voxer reading about, talking about, and tweeting about teaching and learning. And as I have dedicated this spare time over the past few months to becoming an uber-connected educator, reaching out to other teachers, coaches, administrators, consultants, etc. around the country and even around the world, I have been finding so many new ways to grow myself and my colleagues. That’s when this concept of Edcamps suddenly appeared up on my radar.

I should mention that I have attended or worked at a summer day camp almost every year since I was entering nursery school at four year old. I have served in many roles in my time on the staff; from group counselor to activity specialist to administration. That may have been part of the initial reason why the word camp stood out to me, but it may have also been the same reason why the unconventional format of Edcamps confounded me.

According to the Edcamp South Dakota‘s explanation of what Edcamp is, “Edcamp is a form of unconference designed specifically for teachers and their needs. What makes Edcamp an unconference? Unlike traditional conferences which have schedules set months in advance by the people running the conference, an Edcamp has an agenda that’s created by the participants at the start of the event. Instead of one person standing in front of the room talking for an hour, people are encouraged to have discussions and hands-on sessions. Sponsors don’t have their own special sessions or tables, all of the space and time are reserved for the things the people there want to talk about.”



So, last week I found out that #EdcampSWCT (Southwest Connecticut) was happening that same weekend. This would be an amazing chance for me to get even nerdier about education and learn more about my craft so that I can get better at supporting the teachers I work with. Selfishly, it would also be a great way to put faces to the names of some of the other educators from around the state whom I had followed on Twitter or spoken to on Voxer, and to connect to even more people than I already had.

Speaking of connections, one that I had recently made was to a teacher who was very well connected in his own rights and, believe it or not, teaches at the middle school in my town. Little did I know at the time that this teacher, Joel Pardalis, not only grew up in the house next to mine and that our kids take the bus home from school together, but then I found out that he was one of the organizers of #EdcampSWCT. I knew then that this “unconference” experience would be something I would definitely have to check out!

It is difficult to describe what I was feeling when I arrived at Brien McMahon High School in Norwalk, Connecticut on that Saturday morning. I do know, however, that I definitely expected to learn a lot, and I was eager to assert myself in conversations and sessions throughout the day. That is what led me to post my own session idea. If you look at the session board photo above, my session was posted in the last time slot in room 1045 and would be about online close reading using ActivelyLearn. I decided to facilitate this session because I wanted the experience, but I also figured that this program that I wanted to demonstrate was relatively little known, so I would be able to offer a certain level of expertise that perhaps the other participants would not. So, it would be like teaching in some ways, taking the information that only I have and giving it to others. I also decided to post the session in that final time slot because, since this was my first time even attending an Edcamp, I wanted to gauge various aspects of the other sessions I would attend first.

I decided for the first time slot to attend a wonderfully informative session facilitated by an amazing district-level technology coordinator/coach Alexa Schlechter – whom I had also recently connected with on Twitter – on the 20 Google Chrome extensions teachers can’t live without. It was ruly an enlightening session. I quickly learned how to manage my time between following along with Alexa as she presented the various extensions and live tweeting my experience using the Twitter hashtag #EdcampSWCT. However, that was coincidentally when I began to get a little nervous.

One of the appealing aspects of Edcamp and the “unconference” format is that it allows session participants and even facilitators to not be experts in the area of the topic being presented in a session. In fact, Joel, who had facilitated a session of his own on the question formulation technique – getting your students asking the questions, had mentioned that he even told his session participants at the start of the session that he sought their input as he did not consider himself a leading expert on the topic. But Alexa seemed like such an expert in the extensions she was presenting and had clearly put in the time to prepare her presentation.

And the next session I attended, led by another #EdcampSWCT organizer and recent education connection on both Twitter and Voxer, Rob Pennington, on the use of another amazing education tool called BreakoutEdu, was again a well-prepared and expertly executed session. I was definitely second guessing my decision to facilitate the ActivelyLearn session. And, oh yeah, I had met Michele Haiken, another inspiring educator, who herself was highly knowledgeable about ActivelyLearn. I worried that she knew more than I did and should have been the better choice to run the session than I. I was feeling a bit intimidated and very unprepared.

By the time I got into my third session as a participant, despite enjoying the Edcamp experience immensely so far, I was beginning to think of excuses to get out of running my own session. I found out that after lunch many of the conference goers leave to enjoy the rest of their day and weekend. I also was dealing with a pest problem at my house that I may have needed to leave to deal with at any moment. Perhaps these would prove to be opportune ways for my session to be cancelled. But what would that say about me? What would it do to my chances of becoming/staying well-connected in the education world? Why would I stray from my personal commitment to being a highly-regarded educational leader?

I stayed at the Edcamp, determined to run my session and live up to my own expectations of myself. I have to admit, there were certainly aspects of my session that I would have liked to go better. The other participants (there were seven others besides me) and I had some trouble signing into the program I was presenting, and my goal of having them become “students” in my sample class never really happened. Plus, I had to figure out the answers to a few questions on the spot. But I stayed the course and lived to tell the tale. And I’d like to think that at least a couple of the other session participants even learned a few things and may actually implement the program in their own classroom, or better yet even recommend it to others.

So, what did I take away from this, my first time at an Edcamp? Realistically, too many things to even begin listing here. But I will tell you that I am so glad that I went and so very glad that I didn’t flake out on my own session. It was a completely worthwhile and fulfilling learning experience that I am now starting to think will become something I get hooked on. Just in the few days since this event I have reached out to others to find out how to become even more involved in Edcamps than simply attending/participating. I have also begun to think about ways to organize an Edcamp in my own district (stay tuned for more info. on that as it arises).

Thank you to the founders of Edcamp and to the organizers of  #EdcampSWCT. You have further fueled my fire to become that highly regarded educational leader I alluded to already, and inspired me to think outside the box to come up with fresher ways of enhancing professional learning for me and the other educators I am connected to on both a personal or digital level!







Dan Kreiness serves the Derby (CT) Public Schools as a secondary level Instructional Coach based in the middle school. Before taking over this position in the fall of 2015, Dan helped create the intervention program at Derby Middle School as the Reading Interventionist. Dan began his teaching career by spending nearly eight years in the New York City Department of Education at two separate intermediate schools as an eighth grade English language arts and interventionist and middle level literacy coach. Dan holds Masters in Adolescent Education and Educational Leadership and has specific interests in administration, educational technology and student engagement.

Follow Dan on Twitter @dkreiness and find his blog at https://leaderoflearning.wordpress.com.
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