Edcamp North Shore

Last weekend, several educators from Tri-Town schools attended Edcamp North Shore at Lynnfield HS, MA.

• Edcamp is a form of unconference designed specifically for teachers and their needs.
  
  What makes Edcamp an unconference? 
  Unlike traditional conferences which have schedules set months in advance by the people running the conference, Edcamp has an agenda that’s created by the participants at the start of the event. Instead of one person standing in front of the room talking for an hour, people are encouraged to have discussions and hands-on sessions. Sponsors don’t have their own special sessions or tables, all of the space and time are reserved for the things the people there want to talk about. People could pay hundreds of dollars to attend another conference, or they could go to Edcamp for free.
  
  Built on principles of connected and participatory learning, Edcamp strives to bring teachers together to talk about the things that matter most to them: their interests, passions, and questions. Teachers who attend Edcamp can choose to lead sessions on those things that matter, with an expectation that the people in the room will work together to build understanding by sharing their own knowledge and questions.
  
  Edcamps are:
• free
• non-commercial and conducted with a vendor-free presence
• hosted by any organization interested in furthering the edcamp mission
• made up of sessions that are determined on the day of the event
• events where anyone who attends can be a presenter
• reliant on the “law of two feet” that encourages participants to find a session that meets their needs

Source

Click on the video to see what an Edcamp is all about.

My colleagues and I attended classes on Student Help Desks, Google apps, Collaborative Learning, etc.  We had an opportunity to learn about Makerspaces and how to implement them in an elementary school.  There were so many great ideas that ranged from how to get a designated space and supplies to teacher buy in and implementation.

Tri-Town Educators

We attended an amazing presentation from high school students in the Lynnfield HS Makerspace.  They told us how it is staffed and showed us all of the projects that are done throughout the year.  Included in this picture are some of the stations that students can work in as well as a prom dress made of duct tape.

Edcamps are always a great professional development opportunity!  We had a blast!