#EdCampSCSD (EdCamp St. Charles School District) - 4/14/18

Yesterday we attended the St. Charles School District EdCamp.  First of all, we love Edcamps! If you have never attended one of these “unconferences” it is a must.  St. Charles did an excellent job putting this Edcamp together. There were so many great sessions to attend from (written by the participants) it was hard to choose! Yet, the thing about Edcamps is there is a note section for EACH session (as long as someone in the group takes notes).  So, if you can’t make it to a session you like, you can go back and look at the notes and learn some more. Also, St. Charles had AMAZING swag and giveaways. Everyone who attended walked away with something. Steph received a professional development book and Jess received a Kahoot t-shirt.  Here is an overview of our awesome day of learning!

Today at the edcamp there were four sessions, and within the four sessions there were multiple sessions to choose from.  

The first session we both attended was “How to TLAP your classroom”.  Now, to say I we are Dave Burgess fans is an understatement - We may have fangirled when we met him! He is an amazing speaker and SUPER inspirational.  We discussed his book “Teach Like A Pirate”, what the acronym “PIRATE” stands for, and ways we #tlap our classrooms. It was awesome sitting in a room full of such dedicated teachers who had such great ideas to hook their students and engage them.  One of the ideas Jess took away from that session is to get a box that says “Don’t Open Until _____ (insert date)” (the date will be after state testing) and basically in the box will be a party in a box for completing MAP testing and giving it 100% effort!  Steph is also thinking of doing this for her juniors to open a gift after their EOC test, but the gift will have to be a bit different.

My second session, we both went our separate ways.  Jess was in a session about how to juggle everything on our plate as teachers and received a really awesome template for planning next year. THANK YOU! Steph went to a session about using PBL in High School as that is something she is looking to implement in her classroom next year. She spoke with two other high school teachers (English and Social Studies) about implementing PBL in our content areas and the struggles that can come with it.

The third session, was how to gamify your classroom using Classcraft.  We both talked about Classcraft and how we use it in our classrooms (since we are Classcraft Ambassadors and all).  There was a participant in the classroom who uses the site, so it was great having another perspective. (Don't worry, we'll be posting about Classcraft soon enough!)

The fourth, and final session, we chose was how to check in with your kids in the first 10 minutes.  O-M-G = life changing! A teacher from SCSD has the students fill out a google form every morning with their name, how they are feeling that day, did they eat breakfast, did they get good sleep last night, and anything else they want to share with him.  What a cool and simple idea, right? We are completely implementing this...like tomorrow!

Overall, it was a fantastic day of learning! We met more amazing educators in the area to continue to build our PLN.  We can’t wait to see what they are doing in their classrooms via Twitter.

If you have edcamps in your area, we suggest you go and try them out.  The best part about them is they are usually FREE to attend! Yet, you walk away with a wealth of knowledge.  Go out there and learn from other educators, be a part of the discussion, and build your PLN!