Edcamp PCTX 2016

This past Saturday, learners from all over North Texas gathered at Weatherford High School to participate in the 3rd Annual Edcamp Parker County. What was new about this edcamp was that we invited students to attend. Adding student voice and perspective to the conversation was an enlightening experience for educators and empowering for our students.

It was amazing to see the number of people willing to come together on a beautiful Saturday morning to learn & connect. You could tell it was going to be a great day, when at 8:15 someone asked if we had any more name tags because we were out! That meant that over 100 people were already here! The library filled up and there was definitely a buzz of energy in the room as sessions were suggested and the schedule was completed.

Our district librarians set up a makerspace area that was an instant hit! Attendees were able to try out different gadgets that they might want to add to their own makerspaces. Our student attendees definitely enjoyed this area!

A green screen was set up for people to use and discussions centered around how easy it would be to add something like this to a classroom, whether it be a set up with fabric & lights or just green paper on the wall. Great resources were shared for using green screens in the classroom.

As you moved from room to room, session to session, you could hear great ideas being shared. In the virtual reality session, learners of all ages enjoyed trying out the viewers. 

One of the best parts of an edcamp is the connections made with other passionate educators. Some attendees were new to Twitter and others are well-connected, but all were able to find people to add to their PLN.

Edcamps are made possible thanks to community support and generous donations. Our door prize table was overflowing with t-shirts, books, gadgets & gift certificates! The Edcamp Foundation helps support local edcamps with a box of supplies and $200 through their Impact Grant. We used the $200 to purchase a GoPro for a door prize.

Thankfully, the learning doesn't stop with just a one day edcamp. Resources were collected in a collaborative document, which allows attendees to keep learning after they leave. And there is always an edcamp within driving distance! Check out the calendar for an edcamp near you!

A closing note... Edcamps are a TEAM EFFORT and Edcamp PCTX was no different! A special thanks to Natalie Simmons for getting our t-shirts, Jacqueline Rose & Erin Griffith for arranging breakfast, Katy Smith & Pam Conover for all of the little details that made the edcamp run smoothly, Brett Murrey for gathering door prizes, and all of the other people who worked to make this year's edcamp a success!

Creating Future Ready Advocates

For several years, our school district has been using the Visioning Document as a tool to drive change in the way we do things. If you aren't familiar with this document, it involved  35 superintendents in Texas in 2008 who wanted to create a new vision for public education in Texas. It is clearly labeled as "a work in progress" and is meant to start conversations about how public education could and should change. Many of our principals have gone through the Principal Visioning Institute and they brought it down to the teacher level in WISD. 

This past school year, we changed the name to Future Ready Academy, but the premise was the same- helping teachers grow professionally without the expectation of it being a "trainer of trainer" role. Then we heard about the iSchool Initiative and both their Certified Teacher program & iSchool Student Advocate program. I visited with April Riley from Aledo ISD and she shared with me the impact the teacher program had on their district. After discussions with Travis Allen, founder of iSchool Initiative, we secured dates for the Student Advocate program. We eventually added the Certified Teacher program, but that post will come later. 

The Student Advocate program was held late in May, when schedules are crazy and days are already jam-packed! Everyone made the best of it, and we started the application process, which included interviews on three different campuses. Although the process was tedious, it was a good experience for the students to go through, and one that will probably serve them well as the continue along their educational journey. One thing that was clear, Weatherford ISD has AMAZING students! If we had 80 spots, we could have filled 80 spots. Unfortunately, we were limited to 40 students, 10 on each of the secondary campuses. 

After the selection process, students attended a three day training with involved public speaking, problem solving, team building, ISTE Standards for Students, digital citizenship, identifying issues in our district, solutions, and finally a presentation. It was fast-paced and a lot was covered in the three short days, but it was inspiring to see the student presentations on the last day. 

Technology was a natural part of the day, students using their Chromebooks to answer questions and find information without being told. Sometimes teachers feel that they have to come up with an activity to use technology, but really it should be a tool, just like paper, pencils, calculators, or textbooks.

A parent meeting was held after the first day, to share with parents about the program and what it means for the students to be an iSchool Student Advocate. As the meeting was about to begin, one of the iSchool leaders talked to the students who were in attendance and tasked them with facilitating the meeting. The students stepped up to this challenge without even a second of hesitation and were able to easily share what had taken place on the first day of the program. It was great to see the confidence and their ability to verbalize what they learned from the first day. One student said, "If school was like this every day, I would love coming to school!" 

On the 2nd day, District Administrators came in and talked about issues in our district that the students might want to create solutions for during this program. Not all of the issues involved technology, but the solution could. 

Students got busy choosing an issue and then working on creating a solution. There was a lot of discussion and brainstorming during this part of the program. Students had already been working with Google Slides, so this was a natural tool for them to use.

On the third day, the students polished up their presentations that they worked on the day before. One group was so motivated to have a great presentation that they spent an additional 4-5 hours at Chick-Fil-A working on their project after they had already been working on it during the 2nd day. That is an empowered learner!

Then it was time to start pitching their solutions to an audience. We did this jointly with students in Aledo ISD, so the audience was even bigger. The students did such a great job, especially considering the short amount of time they had to work with. 

We are very excited to see this program grow and are looking forward to seeing all that our Student Advocates are able to accomplish this next school year. Their first project will be to help with our Back to School District-Wide Convocation! 

Stay tuned for a post about our experience with the iSchool Certified Teacher program! Creating even more Future Ready Advocates!