The SUM of an Amazing Summer

This summer has been amazing, revitalizing, evolutionary, and ... and ... and... for my professional development. I could have written 20 posts about the events this summer, but I had no time to write! So, I will just sum it all up here.... I'm still having trouble slowing down my brain to get the thoughts on this page. Stop me in the hall, catch me on Edmodo, tweet to me, and I will just start gushing out of control.

Between attending FlipCon 2013, EdcampHome, EdmodoCon 2013, Google Apps Training & TeachMeetNJ, working with the Gobstopper folks, AND having the release of my first ever contribution-to-a-third-party-published-book (Flipping 2.0) AND meeting face to face with some amazing folks from my PLN, I couldn't have asked for a better summer.  Seriously.

When I look at how much I have evolved as a professional educator in the past year, I am astounded at the exponential rate at which I have learned so much from the talented educators I've had the pleasure of collaborating and interacting with on Twitter, Edmodo, and this blog. Sounds redundant, "professional educator," but really it isn't--everything I have been doing has been outside of the classroom, yet still grounded in my teaching practice.

I constantly get asked, "When do you sleep? How do you have time for all of this?" I make time because I love it, and I honestly go to bed at 10 pm every night.

EdmodoCon 2013 Guest Post #6: L. Butler

Guest post #6 is submitted by Lisa Butler, a middle school Spanish and Social Studies teacher in Hershey, PA. Lisa has been using Edmodo for 2.5 years and hosted an EdmodoCon viewing party, and "enjoyed both learning from the passionate speakers and the parallel discussions we had because of the sessions." In addition to creating Animoto videos, Lisa is active on Twitter (@SrtaLisa), writes about educational technology topics on her blog, and enjoys attending educational conferences.  Lisa and I were lucky to connect during EdCamp Philly this past Spring!

Check out Lisa's Animoto video on EdmodoCon 2013

EdmodoCon

#EdcampHOME is Where the Heart is... for Learning

EdcampHOME demonstrated the power of organized mulitple Google Hangouts and educators' desire to learn. In the 3+ hours of the un-conference, I can honestly say I did not move from my seat. Despite all the amenities at home & ability to multi-task with housework, I sat glued to my spot the entire time. I did not want to miss one second of the action. And I was sad to see the organizers' GHO end.

I remember attending my first Edcamp in November and being awed by the session board: its masking taped grid on a cement block school wall and the giant post it notes used for session creation; the organizers on laptops furiously copying the schedule to a Google spreadsheet. Seeing the big session board for the first time showed me the power of messy, home grown, do-it-yourself professional development. I had been trained for years that teaching and learning was neatly and purposely sequenced in lesson plans and prepackaged by professional third-party developers....by the way, I always had the hardest time writing lesson plans because I felt like I was predicting the future and the students' demeanor (some days just aren't made for group work) and mandated professional development workshops were never my thing either because I like to pursue things on my terms, but I digress... That big huge wall of post it notes at EdcampNJ became a symbol for my epiphany to intentionally pursue my own professional development and my colleagues to do the same. As William Ernest Henley wrote in his poem, Invictus, "I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul" or this case, my education.

When I saw EdcampHome first popped up on my Twitter feed, I did not hesitate to register, but I couldn't help but wonder if the power of the session board would be lost online-- boy, was I wrong. The website design and organization and using http://en.linoit.com/ for brainstorming sessions was mesmerizing to see-- the sticky notes appeared and covered and covered and covered each other. And despite the time it took to get the sessions organized, it was evident the participants had much they wanted to learn. As we all know and experienced today, learning is messy and we learn more from facing an obstacle, adjusting and adapting. To quote that English proverb, "A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner."

I did have a few frustrating moments when trying to sign up for the first session and not being able to do so on the log jammed Google doc (Karl saved the day!), but unfortunately the session didn't get going due to technical difficulties on the moderator's end. I was bummed to miss out on discussing class blogging, but I hope to connect with Elizabeth Buckhold via Twitter and can learn from her. Getting my Elizabeths mixed up, I did pop into the Global Collaboration Hangout with Elizabeth Goold for the last 5 minutes of session 1. Not realizing I wasn't where I intended to be, I launched right in chatting with the other ladies in the room and probably confused Elizabeth Goold with my explanation of why I was late. But my error was really a gain once I realized that now I can add 2 more Elizabeth's to my PLN.

I moderated session 2, talking about Creating Digital Workstations for Readers Workshop with Markette Pierce and Steph Hardinger which evolved into a conversation about digital tools for the English classroom. Can't complain about that! I hope to connect with these ladies more! Here's our conversation:

Wrapping up the day, I took the lead for contributing first for the SmackDown sharing one of my favorite tools for the English classroom, Gobstopper. During TeachMeetNJ in August of 2012, when I first heard the word "smackdown," I didn't think it was very complimentary: I had visions of people bad mouthing apps and really smacking others down, little did I know that it was a quickfire way to share resources. EdcampHome's smackdown really became a lifting experience with the participants sharing their initial trepidation about [Google] hanging out in an unconference and praising the organizers, David, Kelly, Shawn, and Karl for creating such a homey event. I'm awed by the experience and to be part of something that will revolutionize professional development.

Thanks again!

#EdcampHome Promo

On Saturday, July 20th from 12-3 pm EST, the very first EdcampHome will be held.  You DO NOT want to miss this FREE professional development event.

You can attend in your PJ's, bathing suit, or other attire via Google Hangouts and/or watching the live action on the EdcampHOME site. Everyone can participate via the backchannel following #EdcampHOME on Twitter.

For those of you not familiar with the Edcamp Foundation...

About the Edcamp Foundation 

The Edcamp Foundation is a Delaware non-profit, which was started to promote organic, participant-driven professional development for K-12 educators worldwide. The foundation’s mission is to support free edcamp unconferences for educators to exchange ideas and learn together. Edcamps offer educators the opportunity to share their experiences and their professional expertise in a collaborative, interactive learning environment. 

Edcamps are organized and attended by passionate, tech-savvy educators who are eager to explore, discover and share new teaching strategies, tools and education technologies. From eight Edcamps in year one, Edcamps now number over 200 a year, in cities all around the nation and the world. One of the staple features of an Edcamp is the “Web2.0 Smackdown,” a lightning round of resource sharing among attendees.

I've had the pleasure of attending EdcampNJ 2012 and attending/presenting at EdcampPhilly 2013. Tomorrow, for EdcampHOME, I'll be one of many to help moderate a session and get in on the action. Major accolades need to be given to the EdcampHome organizers, David Theriault, Kelly Kermode, Shawn White, and Karl Lindgren-Streicher for their forward thinking and innovative design. I'm awed by the work they've put into this so far.

From building the session board to the concluding smackdown, this organic "homemade" professional development is created by educators for educators. So set up camp, stoke your fire, and fill your cup for learning with EdcampHome.