Edcamp. Take II.

How did I spend the first weekends of the new year? Learning in a professional community, of course! Last Saturday I participated in edcamphome2.0, which was my first edcamp experience, completely online. And this past Saturday, I had the pleasure of participating in edcampsac, a face-to-face edcamp. Some might say that I had a hand in helping bring the edcamp experience to the Sacramento area, but that is it, merely a hand. The power house organizing team consisted of Peter Strawn, Colin O'Connor, Cynthia Cost, and Danielle Lemke, new acquaintances that I now consider to be trusted colleagues. 

Danielle, me, Colin, Peter, Cynthia

The day started with a decent gathering of educators from near and far, with varying years of experience. There were experienced edcampers and newbies, but you would have never noticed if the question had not been asked at the beginning. As the first sessions began, I was immediately flooded with new ideas to take back to my classroom, as well as to other colleagues. The mood was friendly, inclusive, and jovial. It is always nice to be learning with a group of educators that want to grow as professionals, which is not always the case at our own schools, so the day really energized me. Not only did I get to learn with familiar faces, I got to learn with new ones, creating relationships within the region I work. This is important to me because often I feel that I am in a bubble in my district, since I teach in the foothills of the Sacramento region. I am not near a metropolitan area, nor near an area heavy with technology industries like say the Bay Area or L.A. region, which can often promote forward thinking and innovation.

That's why I feel so strongly about this edcamp movement. It brings everyone together to share their knowledge, thus growing the knowledge base of everyone. It's almost like a collective think tank if you will. Not only were new resources, strategies and general ideas shared, but the sessions also allowed for individuals to problem solve issues in their own classrooms. In one session I was in, genius hour/20% time, a participant was concerned that an administrator might question her incorporation of the time into her math class. The group quickly offered up solutions and justifications she could use to explain her decision for starting genius hour in her classes. This is the power of a group of educators who come together to learn from each other, and I was almost dumbfounded by the amount of trust that had already been built in the room by people who barely knew each other.

I had two takeaways from the day that included the idea of changing the face of professional development. There are experts among us, we need to leverage the knowledge and talent of those around us, whether that be at our school site, district, or region. When PD is participant driven, the more learning takes place, which leads me to my biggest takeaway. I need to use this model in my own classroom, leverage the experts in my room, create a culture of trust and learning for my students. This way learning can be authentic and meaningful. We had a wonderful day, as evidenced by comments made in the Slam session. 


I was left thinking: Don't we want our colleagues and our students feeling this way about learning?

Edcampers taking a moment, in between sessions, to document their excitement for learning.