Thoughts From Edcamp Seacoast

I had the pleasure of making the drive down to Portsmouth, NH yesterday to attend EdCamp Seacoast. This was my first Edcamp, though I've been following the movement for a while, so I was really excited to attend.   While in each session I took notes using Evernote so that I could update them via my laptop or mobile (and boy did I feel out of place without an iPad, it seemed like everyone had one!).

The day's schedule

Here is a run-through of the sessions I attended:

An Open Conversation About Middle School

Chris Sousa helped lead a discussion of what it was like to be a middle school teacher. It was  wide-ranging discussion, with a few common themes. It was nice to hear that everyone seems to be going through the same budget problems right now, but Chris made a great point that more money wasn't necessarily the answer. We need to find ways to help kids that are cheap/free and not just assume their struggles will end if only we had more cash.

Another theme we kept hitting on is that communication is key (sound familiar?), in terms of both advocating for funding and making sure the importance of the middle school model isn't lost. It seems like every year another local middle school is shut down and the kids are sent to whatever other building in the system has more room, and this is a real tragedy.

The last big discussion we had was on school climate. I'm not sure if it was Chris or another one of the veteran teachers who said it, but the advice given was to ignore anyone who is being a "Stick in the mud," because you will never change their mind. Instead, focus on fostering relationships with those who are open to change but maybe feel uneasy. During this session I also was encouraged to revisit last year's peer observations, and add more of a "clinical" focus to them in order for us as a staff to get more out of them. These are all things I took to heart and can't wait to continue working on.

Standards-Based Classrooms

Even though I had nothing prepared (including having no handouts, presentation, or even a dongle for the Mac), I took the plunge and offered to lead a session on standards-based classrooms because I felt that's what I needed to get out of the day. I was surprised that about a dozen other people were there, and we were able to get a conversation going about what this looks like in our classrooms and school districts. Much of the focus was on the Common Core, and it made me realize how lucky we are that our cohort's curriculum has already been aligned for us. I had the chance to plug the Educate program, though I don't expect a check in the mail for the publicity anytime soon.

Communicating change with the community was a huge point I stressed to the group, along with building grassroots support before making the switch. I used what has happened at RSU #2 as an example of how things can go wrong if you aren't deliberate with your implementation and communication.

I think the best part of leading this session was to see that our cohort in Maine is not the only group making this change to our educational system! It's nice to see that you're not alone.

Promethean Board Basics

I have a Promethean board in my room, and I never have received real training on how to use it, so I thought this might be a good session to attend. It was more geared towards those who had no experience with them previously and for the younger grades, but I chose not to leave because I still picked up some helpful pointers, and used the time to figure out how to import old Keynotes into flipcharts.

Open Educational Resources & Game-ifying Your Classroom

This was the final session of the day. The first half of the conversation was about the growing number of free, online resources for students to use in pursuit of higher education. It's truly amazing what can now be learned at places like Coursera and Udacity, and to think it's all free! This isn't all just about our students though, there are also some great opportunities for professional development too.

The second half of the session was devoted to talking about turning your classroom into a game, specifically the idea of awarding students badges for achievements they earn. I'm not exactly thrilled with the idea, mainly because I think we run real risks at narrowing our students' goals and losing the intrinsic motivation for learning. One thing brought up was that the real potential may be in helping students create a 21st-century resume that visually displays what they've done.


A big thank you to the un-staff who helped pull off this amazing event and all of the sponsors who donated! It was a great time and I look forward to the possibility of attending Edcamp Maine in the spring!