The Schoenblog

5 Keys to the Successful District #Edcamp

We worked hard, planned well, and adapted the model to meet my school’s needs. But in hindsight, here are some of the most important reasons why our day was successful.

1. Thoughtful Session Planning

Instead of the blank board edcamp approach, we asked our staff for input in designing the schedule. It was great to invite ideas and contributions from everyone and this allowed us to plan for high-interest sessions that would have the most meaning. Then, we worked to match the session ideas with facilitators.

The most important idea here is that we took the topics and found facilitators who were excited by them. We looked for the passions, successes, and challenges in our building and found the right people to facilitate discussions about them. Sometimes tech was involved in the conversation but it was only used to enhance conversations about curriculum, pedagogy, and supporting students and educators, which was our hope all along.

Having a plan in place also eased everyone’s nerves--organizers and administrators alike--since we could make to feature sessions aligned both to district initiatives and staff needs.

@sarroumar great workshop on the hardships of homework #EdcampOHS @KellyKp814 pic.twitter.com/82LvmSvYCv

— Dawn Bayer (@bayerdawn) March 2, 2016

2. Celebrated Our Awesome

#EdcampOHS recognized teacher-leaders and celebrated the great things going on in our school and community. Instead of asking facilitators to plan or learn something new, we asked them to facilitate conversations that highlighted what they already did. The art teachers who do a lot of community outreach led a session about bringing the community into the classroom while a co-teaching pair led a discussion about co-teaching challenges and strategies.

Both of these sessions, and the 18 others, were focused on practical ideas, positivity, and impacting students. We didn’t need consultants; the expert was the room, and we were able to celebrate so many best practices, successes, and achievements in what we already do.

One of the best #edcamp conferences that I've been to. Such powerful conversations, not 'you sit, I teach' sessions #ohspride #edcampohs

— Dani Kennis (@kennisdani) March 2, 2016

3. A Team Effort

From the start, we wanted to build #EdcampOHS as a collaborative effort, not just from the coaches or English teachers, but from our school community. In the end, there were 24 facilitators from every department, including classroom teachers, guidance counselors, and more. We encouraged input from the entire faculty and administration, and built an organizing team with diverse talents and interests.

This helped in brainstorming sessions that appealed to everyone and in finding sponsors, but also in building enthusiasm and awareness for the event. The Edcamp model was new but we tried to seed it well so that everyone knew to expect a different kind of professional day. All in all, this helped build community and morale, which was essential in changing culture.

I wonder how our more introverted students feel about social media use in the classroom - could be great, could be overwhelming. #edcampohs

— Lauren SooHoo (@lsoohoo) March 2, 2016

4. Positivity & Enthusiasm

Speaking of morale, a focus on positivity was essential. We wanted to make sure to use sessions to address problems and challenges, but to have positive and constructive discussions. Instead of spending time complaining, we hoped to see educators find solutions to make change and impact professional practices and most of all, our students.

From the start of the day, the positivity was evident. Whether it was breakfast, t-shirts, stickers, prizes, or just good old learning, people were smiling and sharing. And honestly, this was a welcome surprise. Seeing the support of building and district administration, many of whom participated in sessions, really helped, too.

Our educators were excited about the learning and time for meaningful conversation, which unfortunately is lacking in a lot of PD. Hearing a dozen educators share in the demo slam and a handful ask why we didn’t do it more made the day even more important. #EdcampOHS brought some positivity into our world, and was a great step in changing the culture of collaboration and PD.

#edcampohs #ossiningpride
This was like therapy for teachers! I needed to let it out! Thanks, Mrs. Munzer!

— oumar sarr (@sarroumar) March 2, 2016

5. Embraced #Edcamp Culture: Food, Sponsors, and Social Media

The edtech conference culture is a special one. The idea that a conference could be filled with food, prizes, raffles, and even more food is a surprising one for many educators. For some, this model seems like the norm but without the edcamp culture and connected learning, many still think about the sit and get, sage on the sage PD models.

We went all in with this conference culture shift, embracing social media to tell our story; feeding our staff with breakfast, coffee, and snacks; and giving away almost 20 t-shirts, loads of stickers and pens, and a handful of fantastic prizes.

Educators shared on a Today’s Meet chat room, which was embedded with the schedule on our web site, and were also encouraged to give Twitter a try. Over a dozen new-to-Twitter educators became connected, and many more Tweeted throughout the day, sharing pictures, video, and learning.

Goldberg waxing on eloquently about the benefits and evils of social media in the class. #EDcampOHS, #OssiningPride pic.twitter.com/CeID1G9Tm7

— Marco DeLeon (@deleontv) March 2, 2016

What’s Next?

I love everything I wrote above. The day made me happy as an organizer, educator, and coach. It was a success, and I saw an enthusiasm and positivity for professional learning that I hadn’t seen in years. But...now what?

How do we take advantage of this momentum, enthusiasm, and these discussions moving forward? What are the lessons we learned that can improve our PD? How do we balance the careful planning of the district calendar with the newly revealed passion for the unconference? How do we continue to move forward?

I have so many questions but only a few answers. I think I need some time to really reflect, but I wonder about how to use this day to build for the future. I’m not sure if that could mean a fall Edcamp next year, more smaller unconference opportunities, or just more teacher-led PD. I know that I want it to mean more choice, more application, and more fun, but I need to time to consider the how.

For now, here is what I know and what I’ll plan:

• Data: We need to survey the participants about the day to learn for next time. The data might help us make more change the culture of professional development. Informal conversations or smaller focus groups might be most effective in our form-exhausted culture, but a Google form would reach a wider audience. As long as it’s clear and simple, the form will get more data.
• Follow Up: Most weeks, we run all day Tech Tuesday drop-in PD, usually focusing on a specific tool or strategy. This week, we ran an #EdcampOHS follow up, asking people to bring their questions, ideas or inspirations related to technology post-edcamp. Let’s see how it goes. 
• Building #PLN: The number of educators on Twitter in this building easily tripled last week, and this deserves recognition. We need some PD and informal collaboration with the teachers taking this step. I want to follow up with them and recommend uses, chats and more, as they’re ready. This is a huge step that we need to capitalize on to connect and grow. 
• Small Wins: We need more choice and teacher voice in professional learning, but #EdcampOHS was a huge endeavor--and a huge accomplishment. Now we need to set up future successes by learning from what worked and adapting it regularly. Not every event needs to be Edcamp-level, but we need to keep moving forward. 

Dawn & Jillian thanks for the open invite - I look forward to stopping in your classes #edcampohs

— Debbie Jacoby (@dmj723) March 2, 2016

Today w #edcampohs and #ohsmodelun I feel once again the joy of the best job in the world. Such a great day!

— Occh (@Occh2) March 2, 2016

This is What PD Should Be

In my opening remarks, I told my colleagues that the Edcamp model is what professional development should be. I quoted the Edcamp Foundation, describing it as “Organic, participant-driven professional learning experiences created by educators, for educators.”

I hope this is the start of a shift in culture and learning, recognizing that all of us are smarter than one of us and that we all have something worth sharing. #EdcampOHS was a success, but I can’t help wonder about what comes next to make this the norm for professional learning within schools, rather than the exception.

Share your experiences with Edcamps and the unconference model in school districts. How have your or would you like to make it work for you? Share in the comments below or on Twitter!

In this post, I’m going to reflect on the journey to get to this point in an effort to shift culture and make professional development more meaningful. I’ve written about the #edcamp model and my experiences before, but this one’s different because we’ve adapted the edcamp and unconference model to our school building and staff. Following the lead of many great districts, we’ve designed a day of professional learning and conversation that honors the unconference model and meets the needs of our staff and administration for this first experience.

For more of my writing on edcamps, be sure to check out “This is the Most Exciting Time!” Reflecting on #EdCampNJ & #NYSCATE15, My Big #edcamp Weekend: From #edcampMville to #edcampHV, or Crowdsourcing #Edcamp Advice.

Learn more about #edcampOHS at tinyurl.com/edcampOHS and follow along on Twitter on March 2!

The Journey

As a coach, I’ve spent a lot of time this year thinking about the professional development opportunities offered in my school, and in most schools. And too often, the best opportunities are those that are “opt in”: classes, conferences, after school trainings, connected experiences, and the like.

Another problem is that we often ignore the things that good educators know in planning professional development. If we know that people learn better when they are engaged, can collaborate, have choice, and can understand the “why” of the learning, why are we ignoring the principles of best teaching and learning in most professional development?


In my district, we’ve made efforts to shift this paradigm by offering choice and inviting ideas from both teachers and administrators to help guide the work that goes into PD offerings. Still, a lot of it happens during drop in hours and by appointment, and more of it really isn’t as open to choice as we may think. I’ve learned this year that no matter how hard you work, it isn’t easy to balance schedules, plan for variety, and meet every departments’ needs.

In many ways, #EdcampOHS was my plan to change all of that. I proposed the plan to a colleague back in the fall, and my principal and administration jumped on board. Still, when the thought of a professional day is often met with dread and memories of being talked at, jampacked schedules, and leaving feeling more exhausted than teaching days, there was a lot of work to do.

The Goals

Change is hard, and it takes time. With that in mind, I wanted to be sure to give everyone a clear goal and rationale for the day and how it was run. #EdcampOHS is intended to be a day of teacher-driven professional conversation and learning, where every educator’s time is valued through choice, food, and rewards. Simply put, we do great things in my school and impact the lives and learning of so many; this deserves recognition. Teachers need and deserve an opportunity for honest and meaningful discussions about teaching and learning about the things that matter to them. With this choice, voice, and agency, we can take the ideas and learning to make an immediate impact on our students tomorrow.

#EdcampOHS and all professional learning should be a filled with:

The Plan

To start, I needed a team. Once the day was approved, I worked with the other building coaches to build a team. We wanted educators from all departments who could provide a voice for their departments’ needs and interests. I wanted a real collaboration to build something together and to add checks and balances to my English and tech-focused mind.

We decided that while many sessions would involve technology, they needed to be about more than that. This included best teaching practices, problem-solving, and strategies to help specific groups of students. No session should consist only of an expert presentation; instead, we wanted facilitated conversations.

Next, we put out a call for help from the entire faculty. We knew some compromises needed to be made from the full edcamp model our first time around, but here were the absolutes:

1. Complete choice: there are no restrictions on any sessions because of job title, subject area, or topic
2. The Rule of Two Feet: if you are not learning or contributing where you are, find somewhere else you can
3. Food: a full educator is a happy one--we needed breakfast, coffee, and snacks all day
4. Prizes: let’s reward our awesome with both the typical #edcamp and #edtech sponsors but also local ones from the school community
5. Sharing: our learning needs to be documented and shared to promote and celebrate the awesome, including on Twitter, collaborative notes, and more

With these core guidelines, we had our plan. We found great sponsors in the #edtech world and our community, including local restaurants, the PTSA, and more.

The Compromise

Thinking about the possibility of #edcampOHS, and how far we’ve come makes me proud and excited. Still, we knew that the full unconference model wasn’t a realistic one for the first attempt at anything close to an edcamp. If we did not plan any sessions or topics, it puts a lot of pressure on participants who were not yet familiar with this system, not to mention would have made most administrations nervous. Still, we wanted to provide opportunities to build capacity for teacher leadership while building towards these goals.

Instead, we tried to capture the essence of the model with some careful planning. We solicited topics from the faculty as a whole and through department representatives on our committee. Then we tried to flesh them out with titles and one-sentence descriptions, with the goal of then connecting the premise with an educator. If we knew what people wanted to learn or talk about and could find passionate educators to facilitate the session, we could match passion, choice, and learning.

In the end, we had 20 sessions with over 25 facilitators from across every subject area in the school. With three sessions, this means that all participants could choose from 6-7 different topics and could also use the collaborative notes and social media to learn and review anywhere and anytime.

And in two days, we will see how it goes.

Next Time with #EdcampOHS

This post was cathartic. I thought that by reflecting on the journey in preparation for the big day, I could share some insight with others on bringing the #edcamp model to a school event while reminding myself of how far we’ve come. And I think I’ve succeeded.

Stay tuned next week and I’ll tell you how it went. Or even better, follow me on Twitter @MrSchoenbart this week to see it live. Share your experiences with the edcamp movement and changing PD on Twitter or in the comments below.

Learn more about #edcampOHS at tinyurl.com/edcampOHS and follow along on Twitter on March 2!

Thanks to our #EdcampOHS sponsors!

Questions & Answers

I don’t really have any answers here, but I think I have some of the questions:

• What are the most important shifts in 21st century teaching and learning?
• How should professional learning, development, and coaching shift to help facilitate these changes?
• What concrete strategies can coaches and leaders use to help facilitate these changes?

Without answers, all I can do is start small, and focus on the objective. I want to promote student-centered classrooms, with the purposeful integration of technology and active learning and creation. I want teachers to put their trust in students as self-directed learners, leaders, and creators, and to step back and facilitate their progress. Lastly, I want to see teachers and students communicate and collaborate because all of us are smarter than one of us.

As I thought about these ideas and concepts, I started to do my homework. Below, find a handful of articles that I read today that shed light on these ideas. Over the next few weeks, I plan to continue to develop these ideas and would love for you to add to the conversation.

Ken Robinson’s “Changing Educational Paradigms”

More Reading

• It's Time to Restructure Teacher Professional Development by Mike Schmoker
• 5 Ways to Make Your Classroom Student-Centered by Marcia Powell
• The Student-Centered Classroom: Communicating What Matters by Pernille Ripp
• Becoming a 21st Century School or District: Use the 4Cs to Build Professional Capacity by Ken Kay
• Student-Centered Learning: It Starts With the Teacher by John McCarthy
• Why the Factory Model of Schools Persists, and How We Can Change It by William J Tolley

Yesterday was awesome. A few weeks ago, Chris Aviles, GEG NJ Leader, put out a call to teachers to attend what he called a Lesson Plan Jam at Google HQ in New York City. I had no idea what to expect, but couldn’t turn down a day at Google learning with friends and GAFE teachers. I love any good professional development opportunities but it was especially cool to feel like I was in a room of teachers like me. We all wanted to be there, were eager to collaborate and learn, and everyone brought something to the table besides their devices. 

#gegnj pic.twitter.com/HjPGREkuNj

— Jeffrey Bradbury (@TeacherCast) August 10, 2015

• Jeff Bradbury led us through a Google Apps Iron Chef challenge, which I loved. We were grouped by subject area and then assigned a different subject area and a Google App to use to develop a lesson plan. It was fun, creative, and engaging, and is the kind of activity I want to use with my students and my staff.
• Do you use the goo.gl URL shortener? If not, check out the site and extension. Did you know that if you add .qr at the end of a shortened URL, it brings to you to a QR code image? Neither did I.
• One group shared how you can use Google Forms, Sheets, and Maps together to have students plot locations or track events. You can download a .csv from form results--for example, track number of sculptures in different cities, and import them into maps. Students can then add images and descriptions to the event. I’m considering using idea to track Elie Wiesel’s travels during the Holocaust in Night with my students.

The day took place in Google’s Model Classroom, which was a modern and tech-savy version of most of our classrooms--rows of desks and a projector. What made it so cool, though, was the details. The desks were comfortable, with wheels, and swiveling desk tops. The room had dual projectors and sliding white boards, so there was a lot of space to present, project, and take notes. The doors were a part of a full glass wall, so there was a lot of transparency to the hallway and outside, which I liked. I want one.

Love the learning space at today's #GEGNJ Lesson Plan Jam. Would love a classroom set of these desks. pic.twitter.com/f1chA3RQqc

— Adam Schoenbart (@MrSchoenbart) August 10, 2015

We also had a Q&A with Googler Matt Kam. Matt works for the research team on tools like Classroom, Forms, and Chrome. He told us about his background, job, and 20% Time Projects, and it was really cool to hear from him. He shared some of the perks of working at Google, like bringing pets to work, being awarded perks for doing favors for coworkers, and annual free massages on your anniversary at the company. 

Matt also talked about the development of Google Classroom, sharing that Classroom really came about because of research into Google’s user base. They realized that so many of their users were in education--both students and teachers--and that they spent a lot of time managing document workflow. He wouldn’t go into too much detail--understandably--but he said to expect new features soon, which I’m excited about. Touching on 20% Time Projects, he explained his view on the company’s philosophy: “What are the ways we can continue to add value?” 

The Big Take Aways

I really enjoyed the conversation, the collaboration, and being at Google. Thanks to the GEG NJ organizers; it was a great day of learning. But I also had two big take aways to focus on for the start of the school year.

1. My Classes Need a Homepage. I’ve branded my blogging with the SchoenBlog; I need to brand my teaching as well. In the past, students have navigated Chrome on their own to find Classroom, Communities, and other tools. Instead, I want to create a homepage through Google Sites so there is one location that centralizes online learning. I’ll link to important sites and tools from there, but one home page makes it all easier. I can embed Google Docs there, so it’s easier to maintain and update, but I want all my lesson plans, activities, and assessments to be online and public this year. I love the idea of adding a Google Hangout button to this for instant extra help.


2. My Classes Should Be Student Centered From Day One. I pride myself on my shifts to a student-centered classroom over the past few years, where my students are leading the learning and creating, guided by blended instruction. However, this isn’t how I traditionally start the school year and this needs to change. One idea that came up during the conversations was to treat our innovative technology-based instruction as a normal part of students’ education. My classroom shouldn’t be the one full of technology; it should be an example of what goes on in my school. I want to get started with collaborative online work on day one.
   
   My students don’t need me to read the syllabus to them or tell them about the classroom rules; they need me to set the tone for how they will manage their own learning this year. I’m definitely looking for ideas about how to do this. I’ve seen some recent Twitter conversations about the start of the year and plan to check them out for more inspiration. How do you start the school year?

Right now, I’m considering a few possibilities. I will likely start with a Google Form to collect student information, which provides a link to the first assignment when student submit it. From the very start, students will be able to work at different paces and always move forward. I think I’ll ask them to interpret a quote or respond to a question through Padlet or another backchannel to lead into analysis and discussion. Another idea is BreakoutEDU or another critical thinking or game based activity. Something where students solve a problem through creativity, collaboration, and innovation, like the Marshmallow Challenge.

Whatever I decide, you can be sure I’ll write about it here. And I’d love to hear your ideas and feedback to help me move forward.