The Unconference and how you can better yourself for FREE this year!

There are some great opportunities this summer for fantastic, FREE PD. This summer, join me for some EDcamps, Padcamp, and TeachMeet NJ.

If you have never heard of an ‘unconference’ it is something wild and great. It takes what you love about PD and removes what you hate about PD, which are things you don't care to learn about, expensive upfront charges, and speakers who have no authority to be talking about ed issues. 

Wikipedia describes them - “These are generally called Edcamps and they are designed to provide participant-driven professional development for K-12 educators. Edcamps are modeled as free participant-driven conferences with a primary focus on technology and computers. Educational technology is a common topic area for edcamps, as are pedagogy, practical examples in instructional use of modern tools, and solving the problems technology can introduce into the classroom environment.”

NJEA Review just had a great article about them as well in their latest magazine. I have copied the article for you to read.

Here is a list of them that will be in NJ in the next months:

Edcamp STEAM - Wednesday, July 31 at Linwood Middle School in North Brunswick, New Jersey!  S.T.E.A.M. stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Math (a variant of "STEM") - http://edcampsteam.org/

PadCamp - PadCamp is a FREEunconference devoted to exploring the use of tablets, e-readers & other handheld mobile devices in K-12 education. It will be held at Galloway Township Middle Schoolin Galloway, NJ on August 8, 2013!. - http://www.padcamp.org/

EdCamp Leadership - Join us at Kean University's gorgeous STEM center on Monday, August 12, 2013! Its goal is to assemble forward-thinking school administrators, board of education members, classroom teacher leaders, parents/community members - http://www.edcampleadership.org/

     TeachMeet NJ - TeachMeetNJ is an "unconference" devoted to K-12 educators sharing different aspects of technology in education. Where: The Richard Stockton College of NJ When: August 22nd, 2013 – http://www.teachmeetnj.com

EdTechNJ 2013 - Coming to#Edison #NJ 10.12.13. Mark your calendars! http://www.edison.k12.nj.us/cms/lib2/NJ01001623/Centricity/Domain/58/save_the_date_edtechnj2013_official.pdf

EdcampNJ – November 22nd, 2013 - Linwood Middle School in North Brunswick, New Jersey - http://edcampnj.org

I will be at all of these this year. Thanks to my great friends at #njed for helping me understand just what these are all about. 

This include, but are not limited to: 
+TeacherCast +Brad Currie +Bill Krakower +Scott Rocco