Edcamp with a Side of Encore

Chattanooga, Tennessee had its 6th annual Edcamp GigCity in January. Every year, at the end of the edcamp, participants are asked to give feedback in order to qualify for the door prizes that will be given out next. The planning team has always taken that feedback seriously. Due to feedback, the entire event was moved to January instead of May two years ago. Due to feedback, the edcamp changed a bit. Every year there was always a bit of feedback that attendees wished there were some choices to just attend led sessions to learn things. Our team has always held tight our desire to truly model the edcamp philosophy of participant-driven discussions. We realized that many edcamps also have people truly "presenting" but we liked the simplicity of everyone being seen as an equal in sessions and didn't choose to have sessions with presenters.

That being said, if you truly value feedback, then you must consider what it suggests. Hearing 3-5 people each time we had edcamp say "I wish I could have learned more about (blank)" or "I didn't know enough about a subject to take part and I wish someone could have just presented" kept blaring through to me. I was less concerned with the feedback where people just wanted the opportunity to be presenters and more concerned that some of the attendees wanted to be presented to. We talked back and forth about what we could do to accommodate this request and finally, I reached out to Hadley Ferguson of Edcamp USA and had the following conversation:

Julie Davis <jdavis@ccsk12.com>	Sat, Jan 20, 2018, 10:00 PM
to Hadley

Hadley,

I have been the lead organizer for Edcamp Gigcity for the last 3 years and today we had our fifth annual event. I’m currently sitting here reading responses from the feedback form we asked attendees to fill out and I wanted your opinion on something.

It was always my understanding that Edcamps were to be organic in nature with facilitators but not presenters. We have some other area Edcamps that have adopted the model of having presenters/leaders but we have stuck with the more organic sharing model. Is there a right or wrong way? What’s your opinion on this? 

As I read over the responses I see requests for sessions that are led as well as requests for being allowed to lead sessions. I see the benefit of both ideas but I just wanted an Edcamp opinion. 

And FYI, it was an amazing day with 80+ educators attending and an overall positive response about it. I’m thankful to be a part of the unconference movement! 

Julie Davis

Hadley Ferguson <hadley@edcamp.org>	Mon, Jan 22, 2018, 4:33 PM
to me

Julie,

This is such an interesting issue, and one that happens all the time. The longer edcamps go on, the more this is an issue. It is behind our strategy of having Encore Days as well as Edcamps. The Encore day provides a time for those with specific knowledge to share it with people who are interested in the topic, which has surfaced during the Edcamp. Perhaps there is a way to combine them, so that part of the day is organic and then part of it is targeted. 

I worry about becoming too much about people presenting their slidedecks, though if the Rule of Two Feet is firmly in place, then teachers can choose. My guess is that people are going to do it both ways. 

I'd love to hear more of your thoughts on it,

Hadley

Well Hadley, here are my thoughts! We sat down as a committee and we decided that part of the day would remain the traditional edcamp but the last session of the day would look like the Encore model. While it wasn't necessarily organic in nature because who knew what people would actually want to know more about, it seemed to work! Several members of our planning team volunteered to lead sessions for the last time slots of the day. That way if edcamp purists wanted to leave after lunch, they could. The feedback seemed to lend itself to positive in nature. Perhaps next year we will even change it to the last 2 time slots of the day and open it up to all attendees to have the opportunity to truly present on a topic? The truth is that with the rule of two feet, one doesn't have to worry if it isn't worthwhile or not. Attendees will decide by their actions. 

Does any other edcamps do something like this? 

Connecting School Learning with Local Businesses...even for elementary students.

I'm thankful for Chattanooga and how it supports education in the Tennessee Valley. I'm thankful for local businesses that support the learning happening at Chattanooga Christian School. Recently we have been blessed by support from Bridge Innovate to allow our students to participate in a design thinking challenge. This is the second year that we have had a team to participate in this wonderful opportunity. This year the theme is "Transportation of the Future."

We have 6 fifth grade students that are participating in the challenge. These 6 students are using the design thinking process to dream about the future of transportation in the Chattanooga area. They have brainstormed and were broken up in groups to look at rural, urban, and waterway transportation. They have looked at feasibility at what seems like outlandish transportation of the future. They have thought about transportation from the viewpoint of the users.

As part of the design thinking process it is always good to get feedback on your idea. That's where our partnership with Chattanooga Area Regional Transportation Authority (CARTA) came into play. CCS dad, Brent Matthews, is the Director of Parking and Security for CARTA. He graciously volunteered to speak with our students and answer some questions they had about transportation in Chattanooga. After a bit of planning, Brent and I soon realized that taking a field trip to the CARTA Shuttle Park South location would be very beneficial for our students. Cue last Friday! We loaded up on a CCS bus and we went to visit not just Mr. Matthews but also CARTA Executive Director, Lisa Maragnano. The students were wowed by the board room, the huge Chattanooga image on the wall, and the swag that Mr. Matthews shared with them. 
Our students had created questions in a Google Doc and this had been shared with Mr. Matthews and Mrs. Maragnano before our visit. Mr. Matthews immediately called the meeting to order and answered the questions on the document for the students. He then gave the students time to ask more questions and share their concept ideas. They were using their brand new mini notebooks given to them by Mr. Matthews to take notes during the meeting. We ended with a brief trip upstairs in the parking garage to see one of the 20 electric cars that Chattanooga has available as part of the Green Commuter Car Sharing program.

I won't share the secrets and plans for moving forward but I am thankful for CARTA and their willingness to invest in the lower school students at Chattanooga Christian School. Team work makes the dream work. The open attitude of area businesses coming alongside our students to give them opportunities to see real world STEAM jobs is a huge positive investment in the future. Anyone that knows me knows that I am passionate about our students having STEAM opportunities in an authentic setting. Chattanooga's innovative community makes it easy for educators to tap into ways for this to happen. 

If you look at the ISTE Standards for Students or the Essential Points of the Tennessee STEM Designated School program you will see that this type of opportunity isn't just seen as a perk but as essential to next generation education. With the connectedness of today's world, it's easier than ever before to get students figuratively and literally outside of their school box. Looking for opportunities to make that happen becomes the job of the educator. Becoming a well connected educator opens the door for you to be proactive in this. 

I will leave you with this, these 6 students spent approximately 45 minutes off campus in a boardroom asking questions, there was nothing magical about this trip but the sense of excitement on the way over and the sense of accomplishment on the way back was amazing. I will continue to look for more ways to give my students more amazing. 

What if Chattanooga's Connected Educators Were Even More Connected?

                                                            

In the last 3 days I have posted 3 tweets that look a lot like the one below. In the 3 different ones I have tagged #CHA #hcde and #ccslearns in hopes of getting a few more noticed. So what were the results?

I had 17 unique educators notice the tweets and respond- three of them were superintendent level educators, a few were edtech edus, at least three were principals or assistant principals and the majority seem to be classroom teachers but I do not know for sure. I know for a fact that we have more connected educators in the Chattanooga area but for whatever reason the tweets weren't noticed. Which leads me to the WHY of my postings. 

Lately I've been wondering just how many connected educators were in the Chattanooga area and how I could make sure I was connected with them on Twitter? I've been wondering what these educators are doing that our school might benefit from seeing? I've been wondering who in my area is leveraging the learning ability of social media for their school practices? I've found myself wondering if the teachers in my city know about the upcoming Edcamp Gigcity and how could I make sure they know about this awesome opportunity?

Last week I had the opportunities to co-lead a session at the Administrator's Technology Academy (ATA) sponsored by the East Tennessee Education Technology Association (ETETA). While speaking to a packed out, standing room only crowd I realized there were only two attendees that I recognized - Allison Fuller-Mulloy and Amy Myhan. It dawned on me that there might be quite a few more educators from Chattanooga in the room but I just didn't know them.

What if there was a way that connected educators in Chattanooga could connect more readily? At Edcamp Gigcity last spring there was a session about citywide collaboration. Many in the room wanted it to happen. To be honest I took lots of notes, had grand plans and they all fell through in my lack of vision. But what if we all started following and creating locally based tweets that might be of interest to other educators with the hashtag #eduCHA? With #eduCHA we could let each other know when opportunities for learning are taking place, we could check to see if there is truly enough interest to create "lunch and learn" opportunities in the summer, or #CoffeeChatCHA opportunities at that cute little donut shop on Frazier Avenue one Saturday morning a month. We could connect and share triumphs, dissect failures and learn from each other more.

What if I knew that a local educator was doing something that I want to see be done at my school? We could hop in my car and head over and see it in action.

What if more educators in our area were using social media for professional development opportunities? One thing that keeps coming back to me over and over in my very small "test" was that almost 30% of the educators that responded to my tweets were administration level. What does this say? I think it tells us that many school system leaders at least see the value of Twitter for professional development. They may not expect connected educators but I think we can make the assumption they notice them.

What if more of those teachers that clicked that like button became more than "lurkers" on Twitter and actually shared things? I was a lurker for a long time before I started adding things to Twitter. There is nothing wrong with lurking and learning but each educator has a voice to share. Take a chance, model good digital citizenship skills (don't bash others or your school) and bump up your twitter involvement to see what you can add to your PLN (professional learning network).

What if more administrators took part in Twitter conversations? Some of my favorite twitter chats to participate in include Dan Lawson, superintendent of Tullahoma City Schools. Dr. Dan adds a viewpoint to chats that many teachers overlook. I am thankful for his use of Twitter because it has grown my own personal views as I have listened and learned from his viewpoint. That being said, administrators should make sure that Twitter is a safe place for teachers to be transparent and real in their sharing. Voicing opinions should be allowed. Obviously if someone is bashing the school or an individual that has to be addressed but teachers shouldn't be scared to share their fears and discouragements safely. There is too much goodness to glean from Twitter, Google +, Voxer, etc not to give teachers the power to feel free to discuss!

I am not trying to start a movement or create a subculture. I just want to be able to look beyond the four walls of my school for support and my global community starts the moment I step out of the front door of the school. Let's connect and collaborate!