Guest Post: How Edcamp Makes Professional Development Meaningful

EdcampSTL was amazing.  It was everything I wanted it to be and so much more.  Probably the best thing about Edcamp was building so many new relationships.  These relationships are with people in town, supporters of local education and out of town.


Edcamp is an outstanding way to build your professional network and find new supports outside the walls of your school building.  As a by product of this planning I had a chance to "virtually" meet Sarah.  Sarah asked to write a guest post for my blog on her take of the Edcamp concept and how the movement is changing the way we think about Professional Learning.  Here she goes:

Sarah Fudin (MAT@USC)currently works in community relations for the University of Southern California's online teaching program, which provides aspiring teachers the opportunity to earn an MAT degree online and will be offering an online Masters in Education program this Fall.  Outside of work Sarah enjoys running, reading and Pinkberry frozen yogurt.

Edcamps are shaking up the traditional model of professional development for educators. Most professional conferences and seminars involve one-way communication with teachers trying to soak up information that they can later integrate into the classroom. Educators may come away with unanswered questions or with a feeling that their professional reality is at odds with theories presented by the expert speakers. Many teachers who have wondered if there isn't a more meaningful way to expand their professional knowledge are finding answers at Edcamp, the "unconference" concept that's based on two-way communication and a spirit of collaboration.

By its very nature, an Edcamp puts professional development (PD) into the hands of individual teachers and administrators. An Edcamp is a free one-day event that requires less planning than a multi-day conference with preplanned speakers. Because everyone is viewed as an expert in his or her own area of experience, anyone can organize an Edcamp or lead a session. Since Edcamp is free, there's less pressure on participants to forcefully absorb as much information as possible. An Edcamp is not a trade show and there are no vendors, so there are no sales pitches and no pressure to spend money.

The only real limitation on the topics covered in Edcamp sessions is the interest of participants. Lesson plans, academic testing, technology tools, educational activities and administrative issues are all fair game for sessions. Edcampers can choose the sessions they want to attend and if a session is not delivering as expected, attendees are encouraged to use the "rule of two feet" by leaving and finding a more meaningful session.

Unlike traditional conferences where networking takes place between sessions, networking is continuous during Edcamp. The benefits of Edcamp can extend far beyond the event. The collaborative setting provides more opportunities for personal interaction than a traditional seminar or online PD program. Face-to-face meetings can turn into mutually supportive professional relationships. Conversations often continue on blogs, Twitter and Facebook. Teachers who are facing similar issues or who share philosophies can connect and share their expertise. Edcamp can also help teachers who are passionate about their profession realize that they are not alone and that there are other equally passionate educators who are making a difference in their communities.

Although the emphasis at Edcamp is on personal interaction, digital technology and social media are key tools for setting up and publicizing an event. School districts and teams of teachers can use district websites and email networks to get the word out about Edcamp events. An Edcamp can be publicized on the Edcamp Wiki, which is also a good source for information and advice about Edcamp organization. In the past two years, there has been an amazing growth of interest in education unconferences and many education professionals are eager to share their experiences.

Since the schedule for an Edcamp is determined the day of the event, it's important to recruit participants who are willing to lead sessions. Rather than attracting a large number of attendees, an Edcamp should bring together passionate educators who are willing to share their knowledge in a discussion-based format. An Edcamp thrives on the energy of its participants and generates its own takeaway energy.

Traditional professional development programs can still play a role in continuing professional education. According to Dr. Kristen Swanson, an Edcamp founder, an unconference is one more offering on the PD menu: “There will always be a place for traditional professional development to ensure that faculties are using the latest research and effectively employing the most fundamental strategies purported by the educational organization. However, using the Edcamp format to honor teachers’ expertise and provide interactive learning opportunities is a worthy process... Edcamps strive to provide space for teachers to learn from each other. They give everyone a voice and a forum to explore new ideas and strategies."

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Special thanks to Sarah Fundin for the post!

Countdown to Edcamp

Interviewer: Where have you been why have you not been posting?


Me: Well you see, I've been doing a few things here and there.  Mostly innovating my classroom with flip teaching, standards-based grading and personalized learning plans. Oh, and I'm helping to organize a little thing called EdcampSTL.


Interviewer: What is EdcampSTL?


The edcamp concept is based on the unconference format where the participants drive the learning based on their passions and interests throughout the day. Upon arrival, each of you will be able to sign up to facilitate a session of your choosing or choose to be a participant in a session. There will be ten choices for each of the four sessions, and if at any time, you want to start a new conversation, it is just a matter of finding a few chairs, a few friends, and the learning begins again.  Undoubtedly, you will leave the day with new knowledge, new connections, and new energy about the possibility of educational innovation. We will start at 8 a.m. and finish before 4 p.m. The idea is fast and furious learning with an expanded learning network.


Interviewer: Sounds easy, How hard could that be?  You mean, you don't organize any of the speakers or anything?


Me: No.  It's all grassroots, so I just help provide the forum.


Interviewer: Man. So, basically you just open the doors, hope people show up, and that's it.


Me: There's a lot more to it than that.  In fact, I'm working off this list right now....

A month before Edcamp

• Follow up with building principal
• Follow up with donations
• Create work order for tables and chairs, go through details with head custodian
• Create training opportunity for student council representatives to act as greeter/ushers
• Ensure building access and alarm codes

A week before Edcamp

• Organize donations
• Copy map of building
• E-mail staff regarding the use of the building and their rooms
• Make signs for Wi-Fi passwords and instructions
• Make signs for rooms presentation/collaboration (USE SPONSOR LOGOS)
• Find these supplies
• Dry erase markers for every room
• Post-it notes for student center (is this for the board?)
• Extension cords for every room
• Powerstrips for every room
• Table cloths?
• Name tags for tweetup, event, happy hour
• Sharpies
• Who do I call if there is a WIFI Emergency? _________________________________
• Who do I call if there is a Fire Emergency? pull the alarm
• Who do I call if there is a Medical Emergency? 911
• Who do I call if there’s a custodial Emergency? ________________________________
• Who do I call if there is an Emergency? _________________________________
• Start gDoc with everyone’s name/ school/email/twitter, etc
• Ensure heating work order went through
• Make sure “Things You Can't Do in School With Kids in the Building” activity is set up
• Determine activities
• Determine materials
• 8 markers
• 8 people needed
• Determine spaces
• Make signage
• Who’s running check in? _________________________________
• Who’s setting up breakfast? __________________________________
• Who’s cleaning up breakfast? __________________________________
• Who’s running LATE check in? _________________________________
• Who’s setting up lunch? __________________________________
• Who’s cleaning up lunch? __________________________________
• Acquire projector and laptop for tweets
• Write welcome talking points
• Sponsors
• Signage
• Wifi
• phone numbers
• from the rooms
• Presentation rooms
• Gathering rooms
• leave the school better than you found it
• Find out how to work the intercom
• Make box for FORMS: Things You Can't Do in School With Kids in the Building

The night before Edcamp

• GET THE MASTER KEY
• Make boards for entrance and directions and set it up
• Check Wi-Fi
• Get microphones for N.Gym
• Have signs up for Wi-Fi passwords and instructions
• Mark rooms with signs that will hold sessions
• Walk through and check out the technology hook ups, projectors, etc.
• Set up post it board
• Set up projector and white wall
• Coolers? Ice?**
• Ensure spaces have supplied we need
• Dry erase markers
• Post-it notes
• Extension cords
• Powerstrips
• Table cloths?
• Name tags
• Create post edcamp survey...possible question include
• What did you think of the physical location?
• What did you think of the date of the event?
• What did you think of the length of the sessions?
• How did you first hear about this EdCamp?
• Do you have any suggestions for publicizing the event next year?
• What was your favorite part about the day?
• What do you think could be improved upon for next year?
• Would you be interested in being on the organizing committee for next year’s EdCamp?
• Bring sharpies and name tags to TWEET-UP
• Ensure breakfast room set up
• Ensure welcome table is set up
• make sure there are enough name tags and sharpies
• Print check off sheet from MLP and eventbrite
• Set up electronic sign outside of building.
• Take a before picture of every room.

Morning of edcamp

• Check list with names or Eventbrite Ipad/iphone App
• Ice down drinks
• ASSIGN Greeters
• Check Wifi

During Edcamp

• Who’s running check in? _________________________________
• Who’s setting up breakfast? __________________________________
• Who’s cleaning up breakfast? __________________________________
• Who’s running LATE check in? _________________________________
• Who’s setting up lunch? __________________________________
• Who’s cleaning up lunch? __________________________________
• Take lots of pictures
• update wiki often
• ensure a record of the days events OUTSIDE of twitter
• Who/Where will collect “Things You Can't Do in School With Kids in the Building” FORMS for prizes
• Set up table in gym with giveaways and prizes

After Edcamp

• Empty trash in every room
• Shut down computers in every room
• Room set up okay?
• take down all signage
• Send follow-up thank you e-mail
• Send e-mail thank you to all sponsors.
• write a post event report
• compile all resources by going through twitter stream
• Send out survey

Interviewer: Oh, so you are busy.

Me: Oh, and I graduated with my doctorate. So, yea, a little busy, but I have great help.... Are you coming to EdcampSTL?

Interviewer: I am now.

Me: See you there!

2/11/12

http://edcampstl.wikispaces.com/edcampstl 

Personalized Learning for Every Student - What I'm learning...

I'm learning a TON about personalizing learning for every student as my classroom begins to be more and more personalized for each student's individual needs, interests and readiness.


Where I'm working from:

• Utilizing backwards design,
• Having rubrics for each objective,
• Understanding differentiation,
• Understanding growth mindset (more on that later),
• In a standards-based graded classroom,
• In 6th grade science.

What I'm learning:

• Using the phrase: "Acquiring new knowledge" for things like notes and readings makes that process less painful for students
• Using the phrase: "Practicing" for labs, worksheets, and activities makes them more intriguing for students.
• Being able to ask the students: "Are you ready to assess?" and being okay if they say no, is powerful.
• Being able to prescribe specific lessons, notes, readings, activities to improve student performance on specific topics is POWERFUL!
• Hearing my students talk about Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose and understand my role in this process is enlightening for all of us.
• The phrase: "You just need more practice" is a lot less threatening than a poor grade and a you don't know this.
• Without trying, I've set up a growth midset where my students all believe they can achieve the objective and don't stop practicing until they do.
• There are some students that need to sit near me to stay focused.
• Size of the room makes a HUGE difference in the ability to do this style of classroom management.
• Asking students to check in with me, or show me an assignment or quiz after it's complete cuts down on my grading and increases my feedback.
• There are some times lines that students have to wait in while I help another students that needs my attention. (Gotta work around this).
• Students work independently much faster, get more opportunities and are more accurate than when working with me.  At times not to the depth I'm able to take it to though.

What my students are saying:

• I think it was awesome because we could do experiments for making a poster
• I think it was fun that we get to pick our own practice, partners, and what we get to do.
• I liked it, because we had more freedom to do what we needed to do in our own way
• I liked it because we worked at our own pace.
• I liked doing what I want to do when I want do it.
• I liked how we could watch video, practice, and take the test...
• I liked how you could work ahead easier.
• I liked going at your own pace.
• I didn’t like it, partners who said they were going to work go ahead. (Sometimes students want to work with someone without the realization that every student works at their own pace).
• I still kinda needed you to tell me what to do...
• I liked it, but its harder... we really had to read the procedure for the lab instead of you telling us what to do.
• It was harder, I felt off schedule.
• I didn't like it, too easy to get distracted.
• I liked it because with the group i could focus more.
• I liked that I got a lot more stuff done.
• I like getting to choose when we take our tests.
• I liked being able to figure out how much practice we needed.
• I liked how we worked at our own pace.
• I liked how we got to work in groups.
• I liked the schedule.
• I didn’t like having to turn the quiz in to you. (No place to hide!!)
• I didn’t like the organization of the room. ( I need to think about ways to roganize the room.)
• If someone is doing something more interesting it might be distracting. (We had laser pointers out that distracted many 11 year olds.)
• I didn't like people around you distracting you
• I think it's hectic because people were doing different things
• I didn't like how loud the room gets.
• I didn't like how some students were not focused on what they needed to do.
• I liked how everyone was so relaxed and doing what they wanted.
• I got a lot done
• I liked not having to wait for the other person to finish, I could move at my pace.

What's next?

• Students are finishing my curriculum early with classes left to work on a topic of their choice.  Remembering to focus on "Recovering" topics they weren't totally understanding or "Discovering" a new topic that interests them.
• I will post student work created from their personalized learning plans on my Student tech blog located here.
• Collect summative assessment data and compare to a non-personalized environment.
• Continue to develop new activities and lessons to support each learning objective.
• Continue to "flipteach" and record my lectures and labs for students to work at their own pace.
• I'm presenting on this topic with hard data and results at METC in St. Louis.  You should join me!
• E-mail @stumpteacher to see how I'm doing.  Everyone needs a mentor!

Want to read more? Read about how Personalized learning got started in my classroom here!

@stumpteacher Rocked My World!

I went into the profession to be the best teacher a student could have.

I've done pretty good through innovations in classroom management, data-based decisions, flip-teaching, and Standards-based grading.  I feel like I'm on the cutting edge of educational pedagogy.  Then Josh came along.

I interact often with Josh Stumpenhorst often via twitter.  I watch what he does from afar and support his efforts with questions, praise and support from 500+ miles away.  His blog post changed my thinking process and really ROCKED my world.

First he created a day of innovation then he resigned from teaching.  These two posts started me thinking, why does every kid have to do the labs or activities I choose, on the day I choose them?  Why do they all have to take the same quiz, on the same day.  Were these constructs I put in place for me, or is this truly what is best for students?

So I started infusing choice into my classroom more and more.  I started the year allowing students to choose how they did their homework.  Since I flip-teach there's videos involved.  I also allowed students who don't like that style for learning, I gave them access to my google docs I use for my presentations and linked the assignments to the section of either the online or checked-out textbook.  Basically giving students choice over how they learned the new material.  I called it "acquiring new information."

Since the start of the year I have been including choice in every class and allowing students within my parameters to choose what they do, but not when they do it.  It's time to change that.

Because Josh ROCKED my world I'm worked with my 6th graders to develop a personalized learning plan.  I spent last class helping them set up the plan.

First I helped them set up a plan of action:

We walked through the steps together and answered each of these scenarios.

Then we planned out the calendar:

Students recognized we had 12 classes until the end of the quarter, and they had 4 goals they needed to learn about.

We then looked at a specific goal, in yesterday's case that was Goal 6:

Students used their Goal planning sheet below to plan out how they were going to Acquire new learning, Practice what they learned, and then a time to show me what they learned in the form of a formative assessment.

They then planned that by putting their plans on their calendar.

This whole process of planning took about an hour of class time to set them up with a plan for Goals 6, 7, 8, and 9.

I'm hoping this will increase student performance and free me up to meet and work with those that need my attention the most.  I will need Josh's help, and I'm sure the Illinois Teacher of the year will once again ROCK MY WORLD!

Image adapted from: http://wallsofla.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/img_michael_jackson.jpg

Don't Forget Your Place!!!!

Two things happened to me in the last week that made me connect learning to actual behavior.

In the book above Anthony Muhammad describes characteristics of staff within a school and the process of how to identify, understand, and support all members.  From the review on Google Books there are four types of staff members in a school:

The Believers are those who are committed to the learning of each student and who operate under the assumption that their efforts can make an enormous difference in that learning.

The Fundamentalists are preservers of the status quo.

The Tweeners are members of a staff who are typically new to a school and are attempting to learn its prevailing culture.

The Survivors are those who have been so overwhelmed by the stress and demands of the profession that their primary goal becomes making it through the day, the week, and the year.

Where this connects is to an e-mail I received today.  


I sent out a school wide e-mail advertising an upcoming conference and this is the response I received:

I was caught off guard and angry.  (as an aside: I have not really worked with this colleague of mine and run into them at an occasional faculty meeting.  I've been working at my school for seven years and have been seeking an administrative position for at least four years.)


I am not sure what I did to deserve this e-mail response but it happened.  As the overachiever I am, anything I run across I seek to find ways to understand.  I could play this off as just an ignorant (lacking knowledge) staff member but I refuse to think it's just that.  It must go back to culture of the building and the understanding of how this person must view and interact with the building.


Having the knowledge I have based on the insight from the book above I came to the conclusion that this teacher is a "fundamentalist."  I am not sure what prompted the e-mail but I seem to have struck a nerve about my desire to learn in grow in my profession by attending a conference.  


I am a "Believer."  I know that, for better or for worse, what I do every day makes a difference for one or more students.  I will have a face to face with this person, I hope we can overcome this and rebuild the bridge to transform our school culture.

Learning Timeline

Currently wrapping up my doctoral studies, an assignment was to think back to your educational career.  Remember the things that shaped you, molded you, and created the leader, learner, and educator you are today.  Keeping that in mind I went searching for the perfect web 2.0 tool to create my educational timeline.  I settled on Timetoast.com.

Although I like the interface and the ability to add pictures, links, etc.  I struggled with the inability to PRINT and analoge copy.  It was a fun assignment and seeking the right tool was even more fun.

Special thanks to Bob Dillon (no not that Bob Dillon), Justin Tarte and David Kapular (Top 10 timeline tools was a great resource) for supplying some of the resources and inspiration.

Tom Cruise Solves America's Education Problems

I was inspired to write this post by two scenarios yesterday.  The first was by Angela Maiers.  Her Tedx talk (posted below) on mattering and how much we matter to one another reminded me what's important in education.  Another is by stumbling upon the website/podcast/book/cultural phenomenon "This I Believe..."

Jerry Maguire is a movie starring Tom Cruise as a powerful sports agent living the american dream.  Tom Cruise’s character is traditionally flawed and quickly into the movie he comes to a brilliant realization.  He, after some bad takeout, begins to write his mission statement.  In his mission statement he states that the key to being a successful agent is smaller numbers of clients and personal attention.  For this he was fired from his job, loses all of the success, loses his fiance, loses everything.  At one point he even describes himself as “cloaked in failure.”  By the end of the movie the hero’s resolution is that Tom Cruise’s character realises he doesn’t need the fame, the wealth, and the American dream, his character realizes the American dream lies in how much you matter to another person.  Tom Cruise’s character goes through many trials and tribulations to recognize this fact before he utters the now famous phrase: “You complete me.”  He gets married and as the end of the movie eludes, he begins to build a new business focused on mattering to the client and personal attention.

Education to me is much like Jerry Maguire.  Jerry, like education, is too big as an industry.  Class sizes are too large.  Most politicians and textbook companies are all about "showing them the money." Teachers are produced as if from factories.  Teachers are trained in the art of strategy, standards, and teaching to the middle of the class.  Differentiation is a ploy that is well said and well described but near impossible in rooms of 30.  Teachers make way too much money, oops, sorry wrong industry.  Teachers are too powerful as professionals, oops, sorry again.  Education is focused on as many initiatives as possible to say that our school is doing it all while solving nothing.  Education is the power agent, the sports agent out for itself.  Education is currently “cloaked in failure.”

I believe that the key to education reform, the key to solving the nations education problems is just the mission statement described by Jerry Maguire.  Smaller class sizes, in fact no classes.  Instead of teachers, we apply for the roles of mentor or steward.  We inspire, educate, cultivate, challenge, support, love, play-alongside, and genuinely care for our students.  Yes, we can like them, and then send them home when the bell rings, go back to our own house and our problems and live out our lives, but that doesn't mean we are truly focused on their success.  We seldom put the thought of how much we impact the lives of others into the forefront of out minds.  I believe the key to a successful school, a successful classroom and a successful education system is not standardization, assessments, and due dates.  It’s how much we care about the person in front of us, beside us, around us.  I beleive the key to education is personal attention.

How could we not want to provide personal attention and caring for such a cute face like this! This is our future!

If you are willing, I challenge you to write what you believe about education on your blog, post it to twitter and use the hashtag #thisibeleive.