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This is a late post, but its definetly worth sharing.. so here it is (no new developments from class today .. SIM Math testing all day.)
This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend EdCamp (#EdCampAwesome) in Royce City, TX with one of our districts IT Specialists. I was hesitant at first to attend, because it meant ANOTHER early morning on the weekend.. boo. But I did decide to go and I'm so thankful I did!
When I got to EdCamp (click for more info) I had no idea what to expect. If you've never been to an Edcamp before, it's quite different than any other conference I've ever been to. The schedule is not premade, but instead made as people sign up / request training sessions first thing in the morning. At first I wasn't sure how I felt about scheduling in that way, but I quickly grew to love it.
After walking into the auditorium we signed up for the two sessions, Jaime and I originally planned to train on, Augmented Reality and MovieMaker. As we were signing up I quickly browsed the topics which people wanted to be trained on, and noticed that there were several available on Google apps such as Docs, Drive, Classroom etc. I decided to spontaneously sign up to host a training on Google Docs / Drive for beginners. As I was writing it down I didn't really think the session would make but what the heck right?
We went back to our table we began to converse with a few people at our table from Plano ISD and surrounding school districts, which took my mind off of the schedule for a few minutes. Jaime and I started to set up her iPads for the trainings which she signed up for and try to log them onto the wifi which was a nightmare! So many people with so many devices.. the wifi wasn't having any part in that...
Once the schedule was posted it turned out that I was training with Jaime on AR in the morning, then I would conduct my OWN session on Beginner Docs and Drive, then after lunch we would do a second session on AR together.
During our first session I was so thankful to be working with Jaime, though I had helped training on this topic before and felt much more comfortable this time around, it was nice to see how she facilitated the learning and allowed them more of a hands on experience throughout the 45 minutes. I loved the conversations that I was a part of and that were going on around me. I could tell that people truly were excited about the things that we were showing them. Experiences such as these make me so proud to be able to share my knowledge of such wonderful resources with others. All the creativity in the room was remarkable, people from all areas of education, diverse populations, grade levels and subject areas were working together to come up with applications of these devices to best meet their own student needs.
After our first session I hosted my own Docs and Drive session in the computer lab. Once we went through the hassle of downloading Google Chrome onto all the computers being used and I was able to avoid the crisis of not being able to log into the computer connected to the projector, all went quite well! At first, as I was introducing myself and getting a quick feel for the audience and how the training should go I was quite nervous. However once I gave them time to explore and ask questions I started to feel like this was where I should be! At the end of the time while checking the documents they shared with me through Drive, their "assessment" I guess you could say, one of the participants sent a message with hers. It said, "Thank you for taking the time and having the patience to teach us today!" It's the little things that make someones day.
After lunch and the last two sessions ended, we met back in the auditorium for giveaways (which I recieved none of :( ) and shoutouts. During the shoutout time participants were given the opportunity to share the most "awesome" thing they learned during the sessions... it was called "EdCampAwesome" after all.... I was elated when someone from my training gave me a shouldout about all that she learned in Google Drive... my day was once again made! Jaime and I also received several shoutouts for the Augmented Reality trainings which we did, because we're awesome like that of course.
The day was quite a success, and I immediately went home to see when the next EdCamp would be hosted nearby. You can bet that I'll be there for sure!
Because I was training most of the day, I was unable to attend any sessions as a participant, but I was still able to take away so much from the day.
See the link below to view a document listing all the resources which were highlighted in the various sessions.
Some of the resources which I'm already implementing into my class curriculum are Classflow and Plickers. I'm also interested in finding a way to use the Lime app with my kiddos as well... but that will take a little more time.
My next goal is to attend TCEA (which I also discovered at EdCampAwesome. I am currently in the process of posting a DonorsChoose project to be able to purchase my tickets when they come available in .... September. So needless to say I've got some time to wait. But I'll be ready!!
Leave me a note with any questions!! I'd be happy to share.