This past weekend I traveled to Queensbury, New York for a day of learning at EdcampUNY (upstate New York). The decision to make the trip was an easy one, after being “bullied” into it by Vicki Day (@VictoriaL_Day), Lisa Meade (@LisaMeade23), and Christina Luce (@ChristinaMLuce).
Conferences
Edscape From Reality (Oh There Goes Gravity)
Here is a reflection of what I experienced this past Saturday at Edscape 2014, an educational technology conference in New Milford, New Jersey. I have attempted to briefly recap what took place, while also supplying the reader (you) with the most beneficial resources and ideas on which I could get my hands.
With the hustle and bustle of the daily school schedule, this conference was a nice opportunity to escape from reality (even for just one day).
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EdcampNYC, Take Two!
This past Sunday I attended EdcampNYC at Avenues: The World School in Manhattan. If you are unfamiliar with Edcamp, a prior post details what Edcamp is all about, while another post describes how we have adapted this model to work with our building-based professional development at the elementary school level.
EdcampNYC was divided into three one-hour time slots.
1 Edcamp and 3 Pizzerias!
1 Edcamp
This past weekend I attended EdcampNYC, at The School at Columbia University in New York City. After hearing promotion for the event at last month’s Edscape Conference, I decided to make the trip. This journey meant heading into Brooklyn straight from my Pennsylvania elementary school on Friday, and then getting up early Saturday morning to take car service up to Columbia.
This was my third Edcamp, but the first one at which I led a discussion. (An Edcamp consists of discussions or conversations, and not presentations. In other words, it is the facilitator’s job to get everyone talking around a topic, rather than standing up in the front of the room as the expert.) In the past, I simply wanted to experience what the Edcamp model had to offer. However, now that I have led my first Edcamp discussion, I will feel more comfortable in doing the same throughout the future, including at Edcamp New Jersey on November 23rd.
Another Edscape Reflection
Last week, despite coming down with a sore throat and a possible fever, I managed to role out of bed early Saturday morning and travel with one of my colleagues to the Edscape conference at Eric Sheninger’s New New Milford High School in New Milford, New Jersey. Last year, after attending the same conference, this was one that I did not want to skip. Although, I was disappointed as I missed out on conducting a presentation as I procrastinated on my proposal and ended up overlooking the deadline. Next year, this will not happen!
Reflection From My First Edcamp
Yesterday, my principal and I attended Edcamp New Jersey at Linwood Middle School in North Brunswick. This was my first ever Edcamp, and I was anxious to see firsthand what all of the excitement has been about. Edcamps are categorized as educational technology unconferences, because they are participant-driven and with no top-down organization. According to the official Edcamp website, an Edcamp has the following features: it is free; it is non-commercial and with a vendor free presence; it can be hosted by any organization or anyone; it is made up of sessions that are determined on the day of the event; anyone can be a presenter; and it is reliant on the law of two feet. (Edcampers are encouraged to get on their feet and leave sessions that do not meet their needs.) While headed to New Jersey, I was just as interested in the format of the unconference as I was in the content that I would be learning from its actual sessions.
Edscape 2012
About two weeks ago, my principal, another teacher in my building, and I attended the Edscape 2012 Conference at New Milford High School in New Milford, New Jersey. “Edscape is the innovative learning conference designed to transform your teaching and learning practices… Edscape’s goal is to explore how learning environments can be established to promote critical though, inquiry, problem, solving, and creativity.” I heard of the conference through tweets from the high school’s principal, Eric Sheninger (who is known to the education world as “Principal Twitter” or @NMHS_Principal), and through tweets from Vicki Davis (@coolcateacher), the keynote speaker for the event. During the conference, I attended Vicki’s keynote and four different sessions.
Google Teacher Academy
On April 4th and 5th, I attended this year’s Google Teacher Academy (GTA), which was held at the Google office in London, England.
“The Google Teacher Academy is a free professional development experience designed to help K-12 educators get the most from innovative technologies. Each Academy is an intensive, one-day event [with an optional second day] where participants get hands-on experience with Google’s free products and other technologies, learn about innovative instructional strategies, receive resources to share with colleagues, and immerse themselves in an innovative corporate environment. Upon completion, Academy participants become Google Certified Teachers who share what they learn with other K-12 educators in their local region.”