Workings of an EdCamp

On Saturday, April 16th, Katie Cseh and I attended EdCampNEO held in Mentor High School's state-of-the-art Paradigm center.  It was the first official "EdCamp" I had attended and was unsure of what to expect of this new trend sweeping the nation, however, I had heard this format of professional development was exceptionally worthwhile.  So here is a summary of how it worked.

The morning began at 8am with an appetizing breakfast spread complete with bacon and eggs!  During the first hour of camp, while dining on our scrumptious breakfast with like-minded colleagues, attendees were asked to complete a Google form to submit a topic they would like to discuss with the option to act as moderator for the discussion.  Being a moderator simply means that you are willing to try to move the conversation along - not present or dominate the discussion.  This made the atmosphere considerably more laid-back and non-threatening.  Also, it made all participants accountable for being active contributors to the conversations they joined.  Meanwhile, the coordinators of the EdCamp were actively posting topics and assigning rooms to host the proposed discussions.

After sessions and moderators had been established, participants were able to view the schedule and decide which sessions they were going to attend.  There were only 3 back-to-back sessions, each lasting about 45 minutes.  If we did not find the conversation to be stimulating, we were free to leave one and enter another.  Between each session was a 15-minute break, which allowed teachers to get coffee, and discuss ideas that had been shared in their previous session. Each session began with a brief introduction of the participants and the moderator asked the first question to get the ball rolling.  After that, the discussion was in full swing.  Some of the many diverse topics included using rubric tools, preparing our students to be career-ready, and providing our students a global platform.

The 3 sessions were followed by lunch from a food truck with gourmet cheeseburgers (how awesome is that?) with a student DJ playing some music requested via Twitter by the attendees.  We also had a talented student do a dance routine (dinner and a show!).  Towards the end of lunch - and this was a great idea - 20 participants were asked to share one strategy or tool they found to be most helpful in one minute or less with the whole group. So, in about 10 minutes everyone was able to walk away with additional items from all of the sessions.  The EdCamp concluded with a multitude of drawings for some really cool items, everything from signed books to tech tools to office supplies.

If this sounds like an experience you would be interested in, you're in luck!  The next EdCampCLE is going to be held at Kinsner Elementary School in Strongsville on May 21st!  I'm in, are you?

You can find more information about EdCampCLE at https://edcampcle.wordpress.com/