#edcampNJ: Why I love Education.

Education has a bright future.

If November 23rd, 2013 is any indication of the state of education, we are in excellent hands. It was a day I won't forget anytime soon. #edcampNJ rocked Central Jersey, with nearly 300 educators. I have been fortunate to attend a few edcamps before (#edcampSTEAM and #edcampLeadership being two of them) but yesterday was something special. Yesterday, I felt what I #Ehad known for quite some time, that there isn't something wrong with education and that there doesn't need to be major overhaul in what educators do. Yesterday, I felt PASSION. I felt it as soon as I walked in. 

Opening remarks of #edcampnj from Linwood MS in North Brunswick, New Jersey.

When I walked in, I was greeted by +Cassie Gorombey and a few others, who gave us some free swag and let us know how the day would go. Then it was over to the Big Board and the photobooth (yeah, they pulled out all the stops!) to see what sessions were coming and what I could look forward to. To be 100% honest, there could have been nothing put on that board and I would have been fine. Not to say the sessions were terrible but my primary goal yesterday was to meet and talk, face-to-face, with some people in my PLN who I had established these online relationships. It was a strange feeling, looking for people based on a 150x150 picture, but I was determined.

Learning about Standards Based Grading.

After the opening remarks, which were awesome and led by +Bill Krakower, +Scott Rocco, +Dana Sirotiak, +Jeffrey Bradbury and a few others, it was off to the first session. What is always great about the Edcamp model is that if the doesn't pertain to you or it wasn't what you thought, you can leave! (The rule of two feet, thank you very much!) I didn't find myself leaving because the sessions were not what I thought but I wanted to see SO MANY great educators that I found myself walking from session to session just to get a feel of what was going on.

The morning went by in a blur. By the time the second session had come to a close, my head was spinning (and that is a good thing.) Another great thing about #edcamp is that if you are sitting in on a session and the people in the room are on a device, that is a POSITIVE sign that they are engaged. Just like I was, there were many people who were tweeting, taking pictures, and writing down notes. Of course, I had my trusty analog tablet along for the ride (yellow legal pad, anyone?) but most participants had a digital device of choice. WiFi was free and abundant, as was the breakfast and coffee. As +Jay Eitner always says, if you feed them, they will come!

(Another thing I noticed? That some of the best conversations happened AFTER the sessions ended. After one session led by +Bruce Arcurio, a few of us stayed behind to talk about where education was going and the differences some states have. There was someone there all the way from Virginia. We continued the conversation right into the lunchroom!)

An emphatic Jay Eitner speaking passionately about education and new teachers.

After lunch, I have made sure to meet up with all of my fellow twitter tweeps that I had formed professional relationships with. Whether it was the #edtechchat crew of +Tom Murray, +Alex Podchaski, and +Sharon Plante, or it was finally talking to and meeting +Sandra Paul, I was happy to extend a hand, or outstretched arms, to these people I hold in such high regards.

I mean, I talk to these people a few times a week, lean on them for some advice and truly consider them colleagues. I think out of all of the things I will take from #edcampnj, it will be the impact that these people have on me and the continued relationships I will have with my #PLN. 

Overall, I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, that yesterday was about the best professional development I have ever attended. And do you know what made it even better? That it was FREE and I got to choose what I did. I would gladly give up another Saturday every month if there was something like this. It was unlike any conference I have ever attended. It was authentic, passionate and organic.

When you hear people talk or write about the negative state of education and how we are lagging behind and blah, blah, blah... do yourself a favor and ask them come out to one of these unconferences. I KNOW that their tune will change and that they will see and feel exactly how I do:


Education has a bright, bright future.

Some of my fellow edheroes - Tom Murray and Sharon Plante, along with Alex Podchaski, make up some of the #edtechchat team. Alex and Sharon met Tom for the first time yesterday as well!

Check up time - First two weeks

Well. That was a whirlwind. 

The fact that two weeks of school are already over is mind boggling. I feel as if I just read 10000 books back to back to back. 

In any event, it has been an up and down few weeks. While the students and teachers are learning, we are hard at work, keeping the infrastructure up-to-date and making sure everyone has what they need. Even when we do room checks over the summer, there are always a bunch of little things that we need to fix - and that is okay with us. 

The media centers are bustling with students at all times of the day. Since our office resides right in one of the media centers, we get to hear and listen to the learning and excitement that is going on. We have over 50 iPads in the Media Center and students are always using them. They are using them to take Accelerated Reader quizzes, access their Ebackpacks, check out information, or just play a game or two. It is really quite something and it makes me feel great that we are going to embark on a BYOD initiative pilot program later on this year (but more on that later).

We held two, really great training's this week for our staff as well. One for OnCourse and the other for E-Backpack, which has been in our district for now going on three years. 

I love the team over at https://www.ebackpack.com/ . They are helpful and always willing to lend a hand when it comes to how to use the program. 

Our students love using the iPads with eBackpack and the integration with Google Drive and Dropbox make it so that students can truly access their items anywhere, at anytime. 

Finally, there are some really good conferences (or unconferences) coming up. One such is:

This PD event will be held on October 12th - more information can be found at http://www.edtechnj.com/

Check it out! Really great keynotes by +Jeffrey Bradbury of Teachercast and +Angela Maiers of the Passion Driven classroom are planned, so make it a priority to come!

Are you are "Connection" Educator?

I for one, will not, and will never, bash an educator for not being on a certain program or doing a certain thing. That's just not sound leadership. Telling everyone that they need to be doing something for afar may be effective in the short term but in the long term, what is lost?

The same can be said when it comes to connected-educators and those who are not (let's call them, non-connected educators). Telling everyone that they need to be on Social Media is not sound leadership. But all too often, I have seen it recently.

It goes something like this:

Connected-Educator - " I don't get why more people aren't on such and such, they need to be or they will get fired." (BTW, that was said on Twitter, in a tweet).

Non-Connected Educator - "I don't get or have the time to go on these sites. I have all the resources I need and my school will provide me with everything I need." (Said in Lunchroom).


So you have these two sides nuking it out in forums where their only audiences are those who have similar feelings and interests. Its like an echo chamber. No one can reach the other side because we are speaking in places where they aren't.

Instead of doing that, we need to be leaders and we need to be CONNECTION Educators. These are people who connect with one another is many different areas, in person, online, in small groups and in large groups. They know how important face-to-face interactions are. They know and understand that PD opportunities happen all the time, whether LIVE, Recorded, or archived.

They reach across the aisle to both sides and bridge the gap. They are CONNECTION Educators. They make the connections with staff on all fronts. They share the wealth on information they have, instead of keeping it to themselves or re-posting it in a place where only those who know the info already are. When presented with two extremes, the middle is often the best bet and most reliable option.

Let's be that for our colleagues. Let's be that for our staff. Let's be that for our students.


FYI - Just in case you do want to join an online chat, check out this list of hashtags!

List of Twitter Hashtags For Students and Teachers - EdTechReview: List of Twitter Hashtags for Students and Teachers. As monitoring the hashtags and getting the needed information easily, is simply a gift in the age of knowledge bombardement.