I attended my first Edcamp last weekend and I’m ready for another one now!

Yes, I spent my Saturday learning after a full week of leading, learning, supervision, class, and everything else that goes in to being a father, husband, and principal.

Yes, I spent it with people I knew only from Twitter and other educators I had never met before that morning.

Yes, it was FREE.

Yes, it was inspiring, rejuvenating, and refreshing to be with fellow educators with a passion for learning, leading learners, and all with the same goal of becoming better educators and adding more tools and knowledge to the repertoire.

What is Edcamp?

Simply put it is a day of FREE learning with dedicated teachers and leaders who have an infectious desire to share what they know. No agenda, no prepared presentations, pre-registration, fees, or other red tape or bureaucratic policies to maneuver in order to attend or present knowledge. Just come as you are and share what you know.

Krissy Venosdale (@ktvee) described Edcamp Springfield as PD – Passion Development in her passionate follow-up post!

Topics ranged from Flipped Class to BYOD, Google Apps to Pinterest, Evernote to Twitter, and STEM to the Smackdown when everyone had a chance to share tips, tools, and strategies to close out the day!

The bottom line was everyone had one desire and goal – learn from and share with one another. Collaboration at its best. No preconceived notions or ideas. A great day with great people from as close as Willard and as far away as Harrison, Arkansas and St. Louis and several cities in between including our gracious hosts and Edcamp planners – The Summit school here in Springfield.

In fact, Edcampsgf was the senior project of a Summit student! A handful of Summit students also participated in the sessions as well. Wow! Created by students and for students.

It’s Contagious

This passion for learning is contagious from the student level, to the teacher, to the principals, to the curriculum directors, to the assistant superintendent in attendance. We are all equal with one goal and one passion – students!

Todd Whitaker (@ToddWhitaker)  says “when the principal sneezes the whole building catches a cold.” I found the educators attending Springfield Edcamp last weekend are contagious educators. They are spreading the learning like a cold and I am glad I was there to catch it! Now I hope to continue to be infectious by sharing my learning as well via this post and Storify I used to curate the tweets from campers using #edcampsgf.

Now I can go back and review all the ideas and notes shared throughout the day via Twitter and those unable to attend can too. We can relive the day in tweets, photos, notes, and links to items shared.

We have been trying Edcamp-like staff led professional learning since late last year as a way to individualize and Personalizing our Professional Learning.  Edcamp is one of the perfect ways to individualize and personalize and connect with others with the same passion for learning. My PLN grew after Saturday and now I have even more educators to call upon to share and learn.

Plan Your Own Edcamp

So, how can you plan and develop an Edcamp for your community or school district?

Peter DeWitt (@PeterMDewitt) does an excellent job explaining in his post about Edcamp for Professional Development.

Now that I have been to one Edcamp I’m ready for another opportunity to grow with passionate educators Edcamp style! If you have an opportunity I strongly encourage you to attend one too. However, if you can’t attend you can still follow the action via the #edcamp hashtag via Twitter or Tweetchat.

Check HERE  for locations and dates of upcoming Edcamps and follow along and learn from the comfort of your home or hop in your car and make the drive. It will be worth it!

Happy Ed Camping!