EdCamp Delta 2012

Delta Secondary School (My Twitter Acct is @ChristineYH)

On November 17th, I attended my first EdCamp in Delta.  EdCamp is a hat-trick of professional development I participated in last week.  What can I say about EdCamp?  I have been in the business of public education since 1994 as a high school teacher, parent, and school trustee.  I am also a doctoral student at SFU and I continue to love learning about “teaching and learning.”  EdCamp is probably one of the best, if not the best, professional learning events I have engaged in.  Conference participants could be teachers, students, trustees, principals, vice-principals, superintendents, support staff, teachers-on-call, or parents.  At the conference, no one had a title.  You were just you.  The conference begins with participants putting forward possible workshops or discussion groups they would like to see at the conference.  These ideas are posted and conference participants have 4 post-it-notes to VOTE on which 4 workshops they would like to attend.  Guess what?  All 4 that I voted for were offered and I was able to attend all 4 workshops/discussion groups.  That in itself was absolutely amazing.  It did take some time to organize the framework of the day, but it was an excellent opportunity for participants to network face-to-face or via Twitter.  I chose the latter.  The day begins and one workshop after the other I was engaged, stimulated, and inspired.  All 4 sessions I attended were absolutely amazing and personally relevant.  What was more amazing… the day started with approximately 250 attendees and the day ended with approximately 250 attendees.  That is something to acknowledge about EdCamp Delta 2012.  We are all learners.  We are all teachers.  We are all leaders.  At the conference, I learned about BYOD (bring your own device) schools, philosophized about connected leadership, enamoured by students facilitating a candid conversation about quality teaching and 21st Century Learning, and discussed with like-minded individuals about how to organize our own EdCamp.  The workshops I attended modeled 21st Century Learning with use of technology and face-to-face discussion.  At the conference, there were 28 workshops to choose from and I loved every workshop I voted for with my two feet.  The conference is free.  It is corporate free.  Lunch was donated.  It was paperless.  And, anyone is welcome.  All I can say is… I’M INSPIRED.

Look out… EdCamp Sechelt is coming… professional learning at it’s finest for all those interested in public education.