Reflections from EdCamp San Diego 2014

These are my random reflections from EdCamp San Diego 2014. They're very much from my own perspective as an organizer, not as an attendee. I'm hoping they will be useful to organizers of other EdCamps.

• They started coming about 7:45. Up until that time, I still had the "pre-party jitters": What if nobody comes? By 7:50, I didn't have to worry about that any more; instead I had to go find more people to work the registration desk.
  
• This was our second EdCamp and easier by FAR to put together than the first one. We probably did about a quarter of the work this year as compared to the previous year. Which makes sense, since we were really feeling our way along last year, with no one in the group who had put on an EdCamp before. By this year, we were seasoned veterans. We had set up a Google+ community to organize our resources and discussions. We had a total of two Hangouts to discuss planning; most of the discussion happened in the G+ community.
• We also had control of our own website this year, which saved some work. Jo-Ann had experience with Eventbrite, as well, making that part easier. And we were more confident about attendance (or lack thereof) than we were last year. In 2013, we were very conservative about the signup page, because we did not want to exceed the capacity of our venue. This year, we knew that we wouldn't get more than 50% attendance (if even that), so we just put out 300 invites at the beginning and didn't worry about it. All 300 were taken by a few days before the event; we ended up with about 130 people actually attending.
• I would very much like to know how many people who attended this year had also been there last year. I think we should include that in our pre-survey in the future.
• Our session board went well. I liked having two colors of cards, one for "What I want to learn" and one for "What I want to lead". How I think we handle it next year is to NOT put the "learn" cards on the session board, but instead put them off to the side. The idea would be that people could read the "learn" cards, pick what they might be able to "lead", and then put that on the board. By putting the "learn" cards on the board directly, it was a little confusing, and I think may have discouraged some people from putting their own sessions up, as the board appeared to fill up.
  
• I didn't get to see the introductory session, but I heard that Jo-Ann and Jeff did a great job. This is the second year I've missed the intro session, because I've been entering session descriptions into the website and mobile app so they're ready for session 1. I'd love to think of a better way to do that, but haven't been able to come up with one yet.
• During session 1, I finished entering session descriptions into the mobile app while Leigh Murrell helped me out by doing the web side of the task. Then I dropped in to a few sessions and took some pictures. Everything seemed to be going well, and I noticed what seemed like a better balance in session turnout than last year. In 2013, it seemed like there were some sessions that were packed, and others with only 2 or 3 people in them. I didn't see anything like that this year; most sessions (that I saw) were well attended but not overcrowded.
• In session 2, I spent most of my time in the ToSAs brainstorming session. I went to that room only intending to stay for a few minutes, but got drawn in to the discussion and didn't leave until I had to go check on the lunch trucks. It was really interesting to hear different districts' models for ToSAs, and the various responsibilities. I offered an invite for our ToSAs Unite Google+ community before I had to leave.
  
• Lunch trucks should have been a great idea. Apparently, it was more difficult than it needed to be. Joe Hartmann was our lunch truck wrangler, and he's already called "not it!" for next year. We were concerned about timing: could everyone get their food in the hour that we had set aside for lunch? To help with that, we tried to take "pre-orders": when you check in, look at the menu and write down what you want on an index card. According to the lunch truck workers, that didn't really help at all. In any case, there did not seem to be any problem with timing. We had 3 trucks to feed 130 attendees, some of whom either brought their own lunch or had already left, so let's say around 100 people purchasing from trucks. I get the sense that we're kind of on the low end of the numbers these trucks want in order to make it worth their time to show up. Maybe next year we only get two trucks? Or maybe we go back to the "donated pizza" model. We'll have to see.
• In session 3, Krystle Miller and I led a session on professional development. It turned out to be more popular than I thought it would be (probably 25 people or so), and an easier topic to discuss than I was afraid of. Krystle had said that the ideal EdCamp session leader introduces the topic and then doesn't talk at all for the rest of the session. That's exactly what happened in our session, so I think we have to count it as a success!
• For the last session, I was in the Board Room helping Jo-Ann and Krystle get ready for the prize giveaways. Jo-Ann had suggested (based on seeing it at a different EdCamp) that we do the raffle tickets differently than we had in the past. Instead of one big bin that everyone puts their ticket in, getting selected for a random prize, we had individual containers labeled for each prize. Attendees got to pick which prize they wanted and put their ticket in that bin. That way, no one would get a prize they really didn't want. It seemed to work very well, and quickly, which is important for the closing session at an EdCamp.

I absolutely loved getting to see my friends and colleagues from other districts, as well as getting to meet many of them face-to-face for the first time. Every time I go to an EdCamp, whether or not I'm one of the organizers, I meet more great educators, get more great ideas, and become a better professional. Thanks to everyone for helping to make EdCamp San Diego 2014 a success!

UPDATE Oct 24: Apparently, our attendance was closer to 150 than 130. Great to hear!

It's Going to be a Busy Fall

Here are some of the professional engagements I have between now and the end of the year:

• October 4 & 5 - GAFE Summit Coronado
• I have applied to present about Add-ons for Google Docs and Sheets, specifically Flubaroo, Doctopus, and g(Math). I expect to hear whether or not I have been accepted in early September. Either way, I hope to get a team from our district to attend.
• October 18 - EdCamp San Diego
• I'm one of the organizers for this event. Last year was our first, so since we (presumably) know what we're doing this year, I think the planning will not be nearly as arduous as it was last year.
• October 24 & 25 - Fall CUE, American Canyon HS
• I will be presenting about Blackboard Summer Academy, but broadening it to the use of any LMS, so I've re-titled my talk "[Insert LMS Here] Summer Academy". It will be very similar to the talk I gave at the Blackboard workshop in Chula Vista last year.
• November 15 - SDCUE Tech Fair, La Costa Canyon HS
• I will be presenting (again, hopefully) about Add-ons for Google Docs and Sheets. And, since it was my suggestion to bring the SDCUE Tech Fair to LCC in the first place, I will also be working closely with SDCUE as a liaison for the district.
• December 12 & 13 - eSS Symposium, San Mateo
• Here I will be reprising my [Insert LMS Here] Summer Academy talk.

Whew!

EdCamp Palm Springs

I spent Saturday in Palm Springs at EdCampPS. I've written about the EdCamp movement before, including plans by several of us to bring an EdCamp to San Diego. Those plans have continued apace, to where we find ourselves currently three weeks away from EdCamp San Diego, on October 5, in Escondido. We opened registration in June, and all the spots were filled in about 2 1/2 days. We now have a long waiting list, which I hope means that we will have good turnout.

Four of us who have been organizing EdCampSD rode up to Palm Springs to participate, observe, learn from, and support our colleagues. Along with me were former SDUHSD teacher Holly Clark, Ryan Archer from San Marcos, and JoAnn Fox from Escondido. I spent much of my time examining their organization, layout, and logistics for their event. I talked with several of the organizers about what they had done, why they had done it that way, and how they would do things differently in the future. EdCampPS was a bit smaller than EdCampSD is expected to be; they had 140 signups, of whom about 85 showed up. We currently have 225 signups for EdCampSD and another 60 on the wait list. If we get the same attendance rate, we should be in good shape.

The sessions at EdCampPS were typical of what I have seen at other EdCamps: great discussions among educators with all levels of experience and expertise. Very few had been planned ahead of time; most were spur-of-the-moment, truly collaborative discussions. I attended a session on using Twitter for professional learning or with students, one on managing Google Apps with Chromebooks, and one on having students contribute to and comment on blogs. In each of the sessions, I feel like I learned something from colleagues as well as contributed what I have learned from my experience.

The next three weeks are going to be hectic, as we finalize arrangements for EdCampSD. In the end, however, it will work out to be a great day. The value in an EdCamp is in the conversations among colleagues, not in the session board or logistics!

EdCamp!

I spent Saturday in Los Angeles at EdCampLA, an un-conference.  This was a professional development opportunity put on by a group of teachers and sponsored by various companies.  What makes it an un-conference is that there was no pre-set program of presentations.  In the morning, there is an empty session board and a pile of index cards.  Participants decide what sessions they would like to present (if any), then write it up on an index card and post it on the schedule board.

I rode up with Holly Clark, formerly of Carmel Valley Middle School, currently an administrator at San Diego Jewish Academy.  The session was held at the Center for Early Education, in West Hollywood.  We got there a little before 8:00, and the schedule board was empty.  By 8:45 the board was full and the organizers had opened up another room for sessions.  After a few introductions in the gym (which served as the central location for the day), we chose the sessions we wanted to attend and moved out.

The first session I attended was a discussion about flipped learning; the second was a more traditional presentation by a group of four teachers who had prepared their ideas ahead of time.  The third session was one that I had come up with about 8:15 that morning.  I didn't think I would host a session; I knew I hadn't prepared anything.  But as I was talking with people in the morning, I realized that I had a question that I wanted to discuss with colleagues.  So I posted the session, emphasized that it would be a discussion, not a presentation, and started off with "I hope you're not here for answers!"  It turned out to be great having about a dozen dedicated teachers and administrators sitting around talking about effective ways to present professional development.

The last session I attended was about a tool that works with Google Apps to allow you to easily distribute files to students.  I appreciated that the sessions I attended were a nice mix of high-level, thoughtful discussions and immediate-gratification tools-you-can-use-tomorrow.  The other great part about this conference for me was that it was conducted by teachers, for teachers.  There wasn't a vendor in sight, nobody selling a book, just teachers who wanted to talk about their profession and think about how we can all make education better.

Holly and I had already kicked around the idea of bringing an EdCamp to San Diego, specifically to North County.  At lunch, we sat with four or five other San Diego-area teachers who are also interested, and we decided to start planning.  If you're interested in attending, or interested in helping out, let me know!