Why Attend an EdCamp?

I just got back from my second EdCamp (EdCampMadWI) and wanted to share a few thoughts and ideas about what makes an EdCamp such a great format for professional development!

What is an EdCamp?

The EdCamp was designed to be a different type of professional development: an "un-conference." Rather than a formal event, an EdCamp is a spur-of-the-moment creation. Attendees suggest sessions, either topics that they'd like to present about or ideas about things they'd like to learn more about. Organizers swap those topics into the rooms and time slots for the conference, and attendees can then use that schedule to plan their day. (You can read more about some of the earliest EdCamps here.)

Why Attend an EdCamp?

• $ (Cost). Part of the EdCamp philosophy is that these professional development opportunities should be free. Many EdCamps attract sponsors who help off-set the costs of the event (sometimes even the inclusion of breakfast and lunch) and/or ask attendees to consider a small donation to defray costs. Compared to the high costs of regional and national conferences, you can't beat free. 

• Personalization. EdCamps usually offer a wide-range of topics related to teaching and education (often, but not exclusively, with an emphasis on technology). You choose the sessions that work for you, and if you don't like a session, find another one.

• Time for discussion. The more open format of an EdCamp allows plenty of time for interaction and discussion during sessions as well. The fourth session I attend today, for example, was on Project-Based Learning Projects for Primary Grades and had been suggested by a third grade teacher looking for ideas. We ended up with a room half-filled with third grade teachers, and it was a great chance to see inside each others' classrooms and hear about what works and what doesn't in other schools and other districts.

"Pro" Tips for Attending an EdCamp

• BYOD. Bring your own device (or possibly two). EdCamps are big on technology and technology-integration. Because the schedule is put together that morning, you will want to have a smartphone or computer to access it. Bringing your own laptop is also a great way to take notes and contribute ideas directly. For example, this year's EdCampMadWI set up a shared Google Doc for all session attendees, which resulted in an incredible, collaborative trove of knowledge created by the attendees. A laptop also comes in handy if you decide to present a session or if the laptop of your session's presenter(s) decides not to cooperate. (This year, my laptop ended up filling in at two other sessions when presenters' computers refused to play nice with the ceiling-mounted projectors.)

• Vote with your feet. Another tenet of EdCamps is that you should be free to leave a session at any time that isn't working for you. As teachers, educators, or administrators, we know how valuable our own time is. Why waste an hour on a topic when you can find something else of value just down the hall?

• Live Tweet. Twitter is a great way to connect with other educators, and following the camp's hashtag as well as contributing your own thoughts is a great way to build connections.

• Propose a Session. Go ahead, make the leap! You may not feel like you are an expert on a topic, but chances are there are others out there who could learn from what you are doing in your classroom. Proposing a session is also a great way to get direct feedback and suggestions from real teachers about what works for them.

Looking for an EdCamp near you?

There are many places to find out when and where an EdCamp might be happening in your area. Check out this huge list of upcoming events from the EdCamp foundation. Or, do a Google search for EdCamp and your city or state. (Just watch the details carefully. Turns out EdCampMadison is in Alabama, for example, not Wisconsin!)

I am thrilled to be attending my first nErDcampMI this year (July 11-12th in Parma, MI)! nErDcampMI is a two-for-one: a two-day professional conference with one day of scheduled sessions and a second EdCamp-style day. There are also a ton of wonderful authors and educators coming. You can read more about it on the official nErDcampMI site. Maybe I'll see you there!

Assessment and Communication in the Digital Age

This summer I am again joining in the amazing community and discussion of #cyberPD hosted by Cathy Mere of Reflect and Refine, Michelle Nero of Literacy Learning Zone, and Laura Komos. This summer's book is Digital Reading: What's Essential in Grades 3-8. Click here to read more about #cyberPD or click here to join the Google+ discussion group!

Digital Reading: Reflections on Ch. 6

These end of the book, Digital Reading: What's Essential in Grades 3-8, turns our attention back to assessment. Now that we have integrated digital skills and digital reading into our classrooms, how can we not also begin to think about digital assessment? This also gets to the heart of the second professional development book club I have been participating in this summer, studying the eBook Digital Student Portfolios. (Join that Google+ Community here).

 

I appreciate how Bill and Franki pay attention to multiple times and forms of assessment, from the questions we ask at the beginning of the year to our on-going formative assessment to more summative projects and student reflections. Franki also shares examples of her personal goals.

One of my personal goals for next year is to incorporate on-going digital student portfolios that collect real artifacts of a child's learning, process, and progress. Right now I am working on determining what types of ongoing assessments I want to incorporate (starting with the list on pg. 90 as well as assessments I have used in the past). Then I want to establish a schedule and process to ensure that these artifacts are collected regularly.

Student reflection seems like an easy piece to transfer into the digital sphere. In the past, I had students fill out a self-reflection worksheet when they finished a major project, and this type of directed-response seems quite easy to move into a Google Doc or Google Form (like the example on pg. 94). I also like the idea that kids could then access their previous projects and reflections to do more direct comparisons of their growth and progress. Matching kid-work to kid-reflections and making them easy to refer back to would be a great improvement over paper versions!

Digital Reading: Reflections on Ch. 7

I also really appreciated this ending chapter on parents and home-school communication. My current classroom communication plan involves a print newsletter sent out every-other week in the students' homework folders, as well as a weekly summary of upcoming assignments that appears online on Thinkwave (the online gradebook program our whole school uses). Parents were also invited to comment on the kids' Kid Blog posts during the year.

I have so far resisted the urge to make my classroom newsletter digital, because I really want parents and kids to get into a weekly habit of emptying and returning the homework folders. Without the lure of the newsletter possibly drawing parents' attention, I fear I would have even more third graders who simply pull everything out of their folders, stuff the papers into the bottom of their backpacks, and let them linger there for weeks until someone happens to notice!

As our school transitions to a 1:1 school at the middle school grades, I think we will need to continue to expand our digital outreach to parents. I loved the metaphor of a "digital petting zoo" and having a BYOD (bring your own devices) night for parents to learn to harness the digital tools their children and teachers are using. Digital stewardship needs to start early and start often, and bringing in parents can only help those efforts.

#CyberPD: Digital Reading, Ch. 1-2

This summer I am again joining in the amazing community and discussion of #cyberPD. This summer's book is Digital Reading: What's Essential in Grades 3-8. Click here to read more about #cyberPD or click here to join the Google+ discussion group!

Digital Reading: Reflections on Ch. 1-2

The opening chapters of the book focus on how to define digital reading and how to incorporate it into your current reading workshop. What I especially appreciated about these chapters were the vignettes - especially the comparisons between two example students. This really helped me visualize how digital reading could work well in a classroom setting - and how it could work less well.

There is a great multi-page questionnaire to get teachers thinking about the role of digital texts in the classroom. For myself, I have not yet made many strides towards using digital texts. In past years, I have had the occasional student bring in a device to read a book during read to self time, but that has been about it. We started blogging this past year, but mainly used our blogs as a way to share writing and book recommendations with a few partner classes.

The only time I have used digital texts with students has been displaying excerpts on the SmartBoard during writing workshop or sharing Love that Dog. (Because the book is written as a poem, I wanted students to see the words as well during our read aloud.) We are not a 1:1 or BYOD school, so I have not yet done any work with students on how to use programs or apps for annotation, etc. during digital reading.

I am looking forward to learning more about how others incorporate digital texts and digital reading into their classrooms, as I seek to figure out what fits best with what I want to accomplish with students.

Digital Student Portfolios - Ch. 1 Reflection

As part of my summer professional development, I am joining Matt Renwick of Reading by Example along with many others in a month-long book club study of his Digital Student Portfolios ebook. (Read his overview intro post here.) We will be sharing and discussing the book as part of a Google+ Community. I hope you'll join us!

Digital Student Portfolios, Chapter 1

Chapter 1 details the "Purposes for Portfolios." I liked the concept of the portfolio as the answer to those who would choose to rely on a standardized test score to "judge" a student. Portfolios can bridge the gap towards celebrating student achievement in many areas and across a wide span of time.

In the discussion of "Education 3.0," I found the infographic about the concentric circles helpful to visualize the differences: 1,0 being access to the Internet and content, 2.0 being creation of that content for a purpose, and 3.0 being the relational and collaborative piece as audiences develop around your created content. I appreciated this quote,

Without an audience, the meaning of their work in school is diminished.

I am sure there are many bloggers out there who would loudly disagree or claim that they create their content solely for their own learning or edification, but how many of those same people thrill at the sight of each new comment or social media ping? We all love an audience.

The five steps for implementation were a helpful way of thinking about how to start any technology process, and I appreciated the emphasis on how change actual works and the importance of training and support. As a classroom teacher looking to effect change just in my own classroom to start, it does simplify the matter of planning quite a bit.

Chapter 1 Personal Reflection

While the above constitutes my notes and thoughts about the chapter, I also wanted to include a section of personal reflection and application. I thought I would use the categories from the included PDF, Technology Benchmarks of Quality, as a guide to my reflection.

Access

I am fortunate that I have a full class set of (admittedly ancient) Mac Book computers in my classroom. They might be on their last legs this year, but I am hopeful they will still hold up for word processing, Kid Blog, and potential portfolio creation.

Purpose and Audience

This past year I debuted Kid Blog with my third graders (read We are Bloggers for more details), as part of our connections through the Global Read Aloud. We were able to connect with a few other schools in Spain, India, Canada, and Australia. My main goal was to give my students an authentic audience (each other, other students, and their parents) and to encourage cross-cultural conversations and exchange.

(I will admit that I had hoped for a higher level of self-assessment and improvement, as typos continued to abound as students seemed more excited to share their thoughts than to proof-read them, despite their ready willingness to nitpick the proofreading of others.)

Overall, I would like to add more authentic opportunities for cross-cultural activities with our partner schools. Our posting was not frequent enough to build any firm foundations, and I think it will also help make it more meaningful if students were engaging in interactions in smaller groups rather than as a whole class to a whole class.

Portfolios and Self-Assessment

In previous years, I have had students complete paper self-assessments at the end of major units and projects. These assessments asked students to reflect on the quality of their work and contributions and were sent home to parents accompanied by my feedback in the form of a rubric and written comments.

Finished pieces of student writing were saved in a file folder portfolio, and these were turned into finished, published "books" at the end of the school year. Students used these portfolios to write a final writing reflection and to choose their favorite piece of writing from the year for inclusion in a school-wide literary magazine.

Students also set and self-assessed quarterly reading goals. These goals were written in their reading folders each quarter but often not referred back to. (I think seeing their goals at the end of the quarter often came as a surprise to many students who had forgotten them by then!) I am really anxious to learn, as we get into the application sections of the book, how digital portfolios can help with student goal-setting, self-reflection, and self-assessment.

What have you learned about digital student portfolios? What do you still wonder?

Digital Student Portfolios Book Club - Introductions (plus poem!)

As part of my summer professional development, I am joining Matt Renwick of Reading by Example along with many others in a month-long book club study of his Digital Student Portfolios ebook. (Read his overview intro post here.) We will be sharing and discussing the book as part of a Google+ Community. I hope you'll join us!

Introduction

To begin the book club discussions, Matt asked us to answer the following question: "How has technology impacted your instruction and student learning?" We were given the choice to answer in either a written, visual, or oral way, so here is my visual response plus six word story.

Six Word Story: Technology is a challenge worth overcoming.

In brief, this is an image of the Smart Board in my classroom with the end of a poetry-memoir written by a student of mine Photoshopped onto the board. (You can read another student poem, using PowerPoint transitions to add visual impact here: The Power of Poetry Friday.)

The SmartBoard is the most commonly-used piece of technology in my third grade classroom, but for the past two years we have had an in-class set of hand-me-down Mac book computers as well. The computers are used during the drafting, editing, and publishing stages of writing time and are available as a choice during Poetry Friday time.

I love seeing how kids take technology and make it their own. I am looking forward to expanding my technology repertoire and seeing how digital portfolios can add to and enhance what is already happening in my classroom.

Here is the entirety of Ben's poem:

Fear

A pit
In your
Stomach

Strange are
The
Creatures
Waiting
To come out

Fear

Dark
Deep
What we have to

Fear

The pit
That we must
Overcome
When we do
Something scary,
Or don’t do it
At all

Fear

Was what I had
To overcome
To take a
Scary slide
With a
Scary name

THE
MINE
D
R
O
P

That moment
Walking up
The many
Stairs
I was
Terrified.
Push us
She did
A ninety
Degree
Drop.
And I loved it.

Fear

Almost held me
Back.
But it was what
I had to
Overcome,
And I’m
Glad I did.

Carol has the Poetry Friday Roundup at Carol's Corner.