Monday, April 8, 2013

EdcampCHS

Today was our first day back from spring break and we were right in the middle of a unit.  I knew we needed to review, but knew the kids would be a little tired and groggy and I would need to get them up and moving.  I have read about and have been to several Edcamps for professional development and saw a couple of teachers on Twitter that were using them in their classrooms.   If you have not heard of an Edcamp, it is a conference where there is no schedule until the day of the Conference.  Teachers sign up for what they want to talk about that day and then spend time collaborating with other instructors about those topics.  I decided to do this as a review for my AP Gov kids and was really suprised at how well it went.

Summary of the Class: I created "session" titles that encompassed each standard of the unit we had covered so far including one session for review of the entire course.  Students were given handouts that listed each session, which table it was at, and a list of questions that ranged from "basic" (vocabulary, list, identify, etc) to those that were critical questions requiring more thought and discussion.  Students were allowed to go to whichever table they wanted, for as long as they wanted, but I set the timer at 10 minute increments.   I also set up a todaysmeet.com (Note: I have recently started using Go SoapBox, which I like even more) group where students could share what they were learning in their groups.  The feed from this group was projected up to the front board.

Before I started the students on this adventure, I had posted the packet on edmodo with a short teaser of what was to come.  Kids knew they needed to come to class ready to share.  I also gave them a few guidelines for their time in the groups.  I also explained that they could use notes, ipads, brains, textbooks and that there should not be one person dominating the group conversation.  At the end of the class, we held a "smackdown" where students quickly shared important things they learned (which is now posted on edmodo.

*Note: This year, I grew braver and actually allowed the students to develop topics they wanted to talk about.  I think it actually went better because they felt like they could control exactly what they wanted to discuss!  I drew a grid on the board and gave each group post-its to put up on the board for sessions they wanted to facilitate.

Pro's: All kids were participating.  Some were more focused on contributing by posting to todaysmeet, others vocally.  Kids had notes out and were very focused on the questions at hand.  I heard great conversations about topics like the president versus congress and war powers.  THe time went fast and most groups didn't really notice if I was "hovering" around their groups.  We had a great smackdown at the end with some really key take-aways.  

Con's: The today's meet was pretty superficial and more about recruting other kids to their groups rather than actual important pieces of information.  I need to model this better by showing tweets from actual edcamps.  We needed more than 10 minutes per session . I heard some kids say they really wanted to get to every session.  Some kids still looked to me if they couldn't get something right away rather than going to other students or their notes.  

Would I do it again??? YES YES AND YES!!!!!

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