EdcampSWCT Wonderings and Wanderings

An overwhelming success, the inaugural EdcampSWCT came and went with a flurry of collaboration, sharing, and learning from the 100+ educators and students who passed through the doors of Brien McMahon High School. As an edcamp rookie, I had only experienced EdcampCT this past summer, but I was instantly hooked on the concept of professional development with other teachers who want to learn on their own time.  Being surrounded by other educators whose passion for the profession and whose love of their students permeated every conversation was a great reminder that we are not alone in our classrooms.  Teachers and students from all different backgrounds told their educational stories of successes, failed attempts, and learning experiences with the purpose of improving the experiences of students.  Here are some things I noticed and some things I learned throughout the day:

Relationships before results

"Challenge: When you walk into school on Monday, talk about something other than school first. Share something about your weekend. Anything other than school.  Build rapport." Paul Bogush (@paulbogush) challenged a group of educators to concentrate on building relationships with students before worrying about the content.  I couldn't agree more.  Showing students that you care about the "person" instead of the "content" or the "data" or the "grade" goes further towards creating class buy-in than any well-crafted content lesson you could prepare.  Once students trust you, the possibilities are endless as to what can be accomplished.  Paul's students even followed him to an Edcamp to present ideas from their class.  

During this same session, Paul talked about the importance of looking at body language when working with students.  He talked about what to look for in their feet, defensive positions, how they were holding their arm, etc.  It was one of the most insightful educational talks I have heard, and to be quite honest, I had never thought to look at those things before.  It was something that I plan to look for on Monday giving directions...after I talk about something other than school, of course.  

Technology was at the forefront of sessions (except when it wasn't)

Most sessions held some sort of technology piece to them.  Google Drive and Classroom were presented.  Blogging came up on multiple occasions as did digital literacy and gamification.  The underlying theme to all of these technology pieces though was that they allowed for student voice and student choice to shine through within a classroom.  Technology within these sessions acted as a gateway of sorts to allow students to expand audiences through blogs, creation of book trailers, and other videos that could be shared beyond the classroom walls.  It also acted as a means to allow choice in how students demonstrate learning.  Jimmy Sapia in his session on Digital Literacy stated that "kids should be content creators."  Allowing choice among technologies as to what content they create helps to build a classroom of unique creators where creativity and curiosity run rampant. Technology or no technology, we all have the opportunity to allow for a variety ways for student voice to shine through and for students to choose how to demonstrate what they have learned.

Learning comes in all shapes and sizes

Great conversations occurred during every session with presenters ranging from veteran teachers from various grades to middle school students who gave up their Saturday to share their learning.  While classroom sessions provided for excellent learning and a variety of topics, my favorite discussions came in the informal setting when I was able to pick the minds of experts on their topics of expertise.  I was fortunate enough to be able to pick Sharon Plante's (@iplante) mind on the topic of dyslexia, a topic which she is clearly at the forefront on in the field.  In a ten minute informal conversation, I gained resources I can use with my students right away as well as a person I feel confident I can contact when I need further help on the topic.  David Saunders (@DesignSaunders) also provided a wealth of knowledge on the concept of Makerspaces.  He gave me so much information, that I needed to go back to him the next day to ask for the specifics again. (Thanks for the information on Little Bits...really cool stuff by the way.) If you were willing to ask the questions, people were willing to help and share.  

Being a connected learner is great, but face-to-face connections are really where it's at

Twitter has been a great tool for me that has continued to challenge my educational thinking by exposing me to educators around the world.  Reading blogs, engaging in chats, and following hashtags has been a non-stop flow of professional development that has opened my eyes to different classroom strategies and practices, authors and books, and basically anything education.  With that said, meeting with other passionate educators face-to-face refreshes my educational soul.  The passion and productivity in the air cannot be replicated across the screen in a chat.  The EdcampSWCT environment was reinvigorating and exciting to be a part of.  Plus, getting to know some of the people you meet "through the screen" face-to-face makes the "community" piece of PLC a little more real.  It was a pleasure to meet some "tweeps" face-to-face for the first time.

If you build it they will come.  

Great things happen when you are willing to take a chance, take that leap of faith and just go for it. This may not be as big as building a baseball field in the middle of an Iowa corn field.  But EdcampSWCT was just that; a group of educators that had met for a minute going for it.  I want to say thank you to Rob Pennington, Sharon Plante, Amy Traggianese, Jimmy Sapia, Frank Rodriguez, and Sean Hutchinson for taking a chance and putting together a great event.  This was a memorable day for many educators because of the work you all put in.  Thank you for giving educators in our part of the state the opportunity to learn from each other.  I can't wait to start planning for next year.