Facing Possible Budget Cuts, Maine Educators Adapt

Maine Public Radio had a story on Friday night about professional development for teachers and in particular, EdCamp Maine.

#EdcampLDRME

#edcampldrme was held today at Hall-Dale Elementary School. It was a beautiful Maine day and 68 people showed up to talk about school leadership. A wide range of professionals attended - including superintendents, principals, members of the DOE, teachers, and technology related fields.  The schedule was built and all of the notes are shared. It was a terrific day of learning. Thanks to the organizers and to the school!

EdCampME #5

We were debriefing EdCampME at the afterparty and everyone agreed this was our best one yet. The sessions were wide and varied and there were so many great tweets and ideas. Along with scheduled sessions, there was a Makerspace with challenges and a Minecraft lab. We had 40 people who were first timers, and 9 who had attended 5 or more Edcamps. We had a large number of pre-service and first year teachers, thanks to @edcampWME who started the wonderful idea of reaching out to that community.

I facilitated two sessions on Google Cardboard. Participants were excited and we talked about ideas for how to use them in the classroom. Feel free to contribute to the ideas shared so far. Here's my collection of Cardboard activities, it's a work in progress.

EdCamp Western Maine

EdCamp Western Maine was held at the Mt. Blue Campus in Farmington Maine yesterday (February 6th). There were quite a number of pre-service and first year teachers attending, which is really exciting!

Session 1) I brought a Google Cardboard. Most of the group hadn't seen it before. We played with a few apps, Cardboard, Street View and the NYTVR. I also showed the group Google Cultural Institute. Thanks to Sonja for taking the notes for the group. My resources are here. I will definitely bring a set to EdCamp Maine to play with.

Session 2) Sketch Noting with Dan Ryder. I was excited to finally learn more about this topic. I loved learning about visual vocabulary and once you have the six symbols down, the possibilities are endless. I have always written things in boxes and in a random fashion, so it was exciting to think about how Sketch Noting might fit into my own work. I also learned about Bullet Journaling which I would like to explore further.

What was also fun was it was the first time I used my Rocketbook. I learned about this from a tweet by Dan Callahan  The Rocketbook uses Frixon erasable pens. You then scan the pages into your smart phone and it sends the page to any of your cloud accounts that you set up ahead of time. I sent my notes to my professional development folder in Google Drive. Example: Page 1. When I am done with my Rocketbook, I can microwave it and it will be erased to use again.

Session 3) Design Thinking with Dan Ryder. I read Creative Confidence this past summer and have tried some of the activities in professional development sessions, so I was excited about learning more about using this method with students. I wasn't disappointed. Dan talked about cultivating empathy in his classes and how he is designing activities so that students learn how to tell about learning. We participated in an activity about how to humanize the process and then participated in a Flash Lab where we had 7 minutes to create an artifact to solve a problem - in this case create something that brings joy. He also shared different ways of giving feedback, for example using legos during a gallery walk of projects to give feedback. A yellow lego is for laughs and giggles, a green lego would be for inspiring, a white lego raises questions. Here's his blog post about using design thinking and empathy.

A terrific day. Thanks to all of the organizers: @jbailey8 @WickedDecent @MsRedmanEnglish @johannaprince @texastheresa @MichaelisMath

#Edcampgift 2015

Give the gift of Edcamp using the #edcampgift hashtag over the next 10 days!

This December, get in the giving spirit with Edcamp. The Edcamp Foundation knows that each and every Edcamper is generous with their leading, learning, and sharing. So, have some fun this holiday season giving to other Edcampers around the globe! Whatever you celebrate, please join in the fun! It's as simple as Tweeting or Instagramming with the #edcampgift hashtag! Each day, we'll be choosing one tweet. That tweeter will get to give a $100 donation from Remind to the Edcamp event of their choice! Find out what each day's tweet topic is by going to the #edcampgift poster

#Edcamp5Challenge

It's been 5 years since the first EdCamp. It's amazing how the idea has spread and how many people EdCamps have impacted. I know how much I have benefited by learning from so many interesting, smart people! 

So now it's time to give back. The Edcamp Foundation is kicking off a campaign on #GivingTuesday, December 1st. The information below is shared from Hadley Ferguson on the Edcamp blog. I hope you will consider a gift. 

We are kicking off a campaign for #GivingTuesday, which is the Tuesday after Thanksgiving! December, 1st! It follows Black Friday and Cyber Monday and is a time to pause and give back. We want to have everyone who has ever been to an Edcamp to donate $5, that’s all, to show the world how many educators have been touched by Edcamp.

$5 for Edcamp Year 5; #IsupportEdcamp5,  #Edcamp5Challenge

So mark the date: Dec.1, 2015, and make a donation! Of course, if you want to do it ahead of time or afterwards until the end of 2015, that’s fine too. And after you have made your donation, contact your Edcamp friends and encourage them to donate as well.

It is a quick and easy process. All it takes is going to the bottom of this page, and clicking on the Donate button. Remember that we are a non-profit, so any money donated to the Edcamp Foundation is fully tax-deductible. 

#EdcampGift 2014

This is a really fun way to participate in an EdCamp, when there is not one happening in your area. It's the holiday #edcampgift feed. Each day, there is a different activity. Just post to Twitter, Instagram or Facebook with the hashtag #edcampgift and you could win a $100 donation from Remind to your favorite Edcamp.  It's really fun!

And see you on March 7, 2015 for Edcamp Maine in Portland, ME at Waynflete School. Details will be out in the next few days!

EdCamp Maine March 8, 2014

EdCamp Maine Site
Yapp App
Schedule (Click on Day of Details)
Twitter Curator
Storify
TagBoard
Smackdown
Facebook

Edcamp Organizer Hangout on Air

Want to learn more? Have questions about starting an Edcamp?

• Edcamp Foundation webpage
• Edcamp Community on Google+
• Edcamp page on Facebook
• The Twitter feed from tonight's conversation

EdCamp Organizer Meeting : Hangout on Air

February 20 at 8PM EST 

An experienced panel of Edcamp Organizers will share tips, tricks, and guidance about creating an environment centered on teaching & learning, not tools. We will be answering YOUR questions via interactive backchannel at #edcamp

For more information

EdCamp Maine 2013

Kudos to the fantastic Tech Team at Waynflete. A great day for everyone. "Engaging", "high energy" and "invigorating" were some of the comments I heard. Thanks to everyone who came!

Resources

• EdCamp Wiki
• Edcamp Blog
• Smackdown

EdCampME is almost here!

EdCampME is a free Unconference for Educators and it's finally happening in Maine. This Saturday, March 31st, over 150 passionate educators from around New England will gather together for a day of learning from one another. Sessions are created at the beginning of the day and are flexible.

If you still want to register or just want to know more about EdCampMe you can go to the wiki.

Follow us on Twitter @edcampme

Reflections, notes and pictures will be on our Posterous blog.

If you want to learn more about putting on your own edcamp, there is information here.

EdCamp Maine is Coming!

An Education Un-ConferenceFree Professional Development for Teachers by Teachers

Saturday, March 31, 20128:30-3:15 pmWaynflete School, Portland, ME

How Do I Register?

Visit the website (http://edcampme.wikispaces.com) and click on the Register Now button to reserve your space. Registration is limited.

#edcampMe