Today was my first Edcamp (Edcamp Delta), and it was fantastic! I tried to figure out ahead of time what it would be like, but like Tintamarre (a post for another time), it is one of those that can’t really be explained, but needs to be experienced. !

Above you can see the Wordsalad I created (similar to Wordle but an app). The words I included were mainly the types of participants and the types of discussions going on. I included participant terms like students, teachers, superintendents, etc., but you’ll see even larger the term “nonhierarchical”. When I arrived at the unconference one of the things I was told repetitively as a newcomer was that it is nonhierarchical. There were high school students that have attended in the past, and had come back again, saying because it is a time when adults and educators listen to them. I think this is one of the things that made this event so successful – the fact that there was open sharing by everyone, and that everyone’s voices were equally valued.

I really enjoyed the interactive spontaneity of the “things that suck” session by @MsVictoriaOlson. Essentially a topic was put up on the board for with a five minute time limit for discussion/debate, and participants moved to either the “sucks” or “rocks” side of the room depending on their opinion. (Check out her blog post for a further explanation.) I found the variety of participants made this session so interesting. For example, “student teachers” – suck or rock? We had students speaking on experiences with having student teachers, teacher advisors speaking on mentoring teachers, thoughts from parents, student teachers asking how else could we possibly learn? As you can imagine there are a lot of points that can be made for and against.

Other sessions I went to involved:

• a discussion on what do students really need to know
• a chance to speak with student trustees @MayaTreuheit and @NickMilum, from SD46 and VSB respectively
• a huge group on the implementation and assessment of the new curriculum
• ideas on how to best help students with learning disabilities which was well-attended by students with a lot to share

I got to meet so many people at Edcamp – twitter “friends” and new people. Thank you to all the organizers, volunteers, and participants! April 12th is an Edcamp in Langley – Edcamp35. Register now because it’s going to be great – see you there!

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