EdCamp Birdville - Reflection

What was it like to attend Saturday morning’s EdCamp Birdville?

For starters, balloons and a small tornado of bubbles marked the entrance to the building. Teachers came from school districts all over North Texas to be greeted by Owen who is our very own “bubbly” person. 

As attendees entered the building the atmosphere was fun and upbeat with music and balloons everywhere. Teachers made their way over to the sign-in table where they were assisted by our Digital Learning leader Kelli. Here teachers received a ticket for the door prize drawing as well as their first prize of the day, a MobiMax subscription. 

Cheryl directed teachers to the Omni room for coffee, pastries and Kind bars donated by one of our generous sponsors. Mounds of free swag such as stickers, lanyards, buttons, pens and trial subscriptions covered every table. Everyone was expected to take as much as they like. As attendees took their seats they were asked to write on post-it notes what they wanted to learn that day. Yes, I said that right! The teachers who attended EdCamp Birdville actually determined the session topics for the morning.

As the session schedule was being created, attendees had the opportunity to visit the selfie-station, add their social media handle to the Twitter wall, play the EdCamp GooseChase (for a prize) or build and interactively play at Michael’s makerspace (for another prize). Many took some time to walk up front and explore the over $10,000 worth of door prizes our “swag czar” Shelly helped procure for the event.

 

Around 8:30 am attendees watched a short presentation by Taylor and Jennifer who have been producing swag preview shows on YouTube leading up to the EdCamp. Taylor’s infectious energy and song selections got the crowd pumped up. Since there was a large number of first-time EdCampers on Saturday, Jennifer shared some tongue and cheek videos on what “not” to do at EdCamp. At 9:00 am teachers checked the live schedule posted on large monitors down the main hallways and made their way to the first sessions. For some the experience was a bit unsettling because there were no presenters or pre-prepared presentations. EdCamp sessions are all about collaboration and the sharing of ideas. In order to benefit you might have to step out of your comfort zone or be more willing to share ideas that you might generally keep to yourself at a traditional conference. There are no experts here at EdCamp everyone has value to contribute no matter how big or small. If you selected a session that wasn’t meeting your needs, you were encouraged to leave and find another session where your learning could grow.

As soon as the breakouts began, Cheryl and Rashel began randomly selecting names and posting them on Twitter for app or swag bag prizes.

Those who didn’t have Twitter or felt they needed a refresher, took some time to visit the twitter cafe with Jeff and Toni (more prizes for visiting). Here they received one-on-one support. Some simply updating their Twitter profile (eliminating the egg) or some sending their first tweet!

At 11:30 am all gathered back in the Omni room where some received prizes from the GooseChase game and FlipGrid reflections. The last item was the grand prize drawing where attendee’s tickets were drawn and winners came forward to select prizes like a chromebook, drone, bag of MakeDos, MakeyMakeys and books from edtech innovators like Dave Burgess. Of the 200 teachers in attendance, every single ticket was drawn. Every person who came for EdCamp Birdville walked away a winner. By noon it was all over and teachers had the rest of the day to spend with friends and family. Beyond the massive amounts of vendor prizes, everyone left with new ideas, new resources and lots of networking opportunities to grow their personal learning networks. EdCamp Birdville was the best professional learning conference I’ve ever been a part of organizing. It was a fast-pace, fun day chalked full of learning opportunities. I went home exhausted but with a smile on my face. Nothing makes me happier than to see a bunch of teachers working together to learn something new and excited about sharing what they’ve learned with students.

Oh, if you are wondering about all of the bitmojis in this post….ask someone who was there Saturday. Like me 😀

See you next year everyone!

Rashel Larson