EdCampDetroit

I love EdCamps!

If you've never been to an EdCamp, you are missing out.  Yeah, they all happen on Saturdays, but you know what?  There were over 300 educators registered for yesterday's event.  300 educators eager to give up a Saturday to go to PD.

Saturday + PD + 300 educators = come again?!

Oh, did I mention that EdCamps are FREE?  Yep.  That they are.

With all that, how can you not at least give it a try?

The session board for the day.  SO many choices!

The format is generally the same - morning registration and brainstorming the day, followed by a brief kick-off given by one of the volunteers (no keynotes!) before everyone scatters off into one of the session rooms for the first slot.

Sessions.  Created for the attendees, by the attendees.  This is why even though #edcampdetroit was my fourth EdCamp, they're never dull!  The sessions are created by those in attendance who want to share.  Some sessions may be created by those who want to learn about a specific topic.  There are panel discussions, round tables, traditional sessions, and everything in between.  There are no vendors trying to sell the latest craze, no solicitors, just educators sharing what we like, and learning from each other.

Here are my highlights from #edcampdetroit:

• Kahoot is even more fun than I thought it would be!
• I.  Love.  Plickers.  All you need is one handheld device (apple/droid) to make it work!
• There is so much more to Augmented Reality than I realized!
• I need to reconsider using Edmodo - thanks @TeamBond!
• Cardboard Challenge.  SO amazing! (read more about it here)
• I love EdCamps.  I love them more when my BFF goes with me! 
• Twitter is an amazing resource for connecting with educators.  Face to Face meetings with said educators make it even more amazing!
  (Pictures: top - exploring genius hour with Jennifer Bond, bottom- Playing with AR with Drew Minock and Erin Klein)

More to follow about individual tools discovered, but for now, here's some pictures of the day!  Enjoy!

Had a blast taking a Kahoot Quiz!  Super engaging! (and free!)

Paper + Clicker = Plicker

Wrap up with the one and only NerdyTeacher

AR holds limitless possibilities for learning!

Love Letters

A HUGE component of the PYP is the action piece - the one where kids take action because of something they learned.  This really comes into play during Exhibition, the culmination of the PYP, which in our school, is at the end of fourth grade.

And it's one of my favorite parts of the whole year.

To model different ways to take action, I try to involve the class in as many service projects as possible.  We've done a lot of different ones over the years, and it is always an uplifting experience.

However.

The project we participated in this year, Love Letters, was by far one of my favorites. 

I found it through the website DoSomething.org (check it out if you don't know what it is!) and loved it as soon as I read it.  The project involved making Valentines and sending them to designated Meals on Wheels locations, where said Valentines would be distributed with meals to seniors on Valentine's Day.  Many of these seniors don't have family, and are quite alone, which always feels worse on Valentine's Day.

Anyway, I sent an email to my colleagues, and many of them jumped on board, too!  We sent nearly 200 Valentines, made by kindergarteners through fourth graders, all hand made, all personal and festive.  I liked this project because it was relatable for all the kids - even the little kinders understood that they were making cards to send to people who don't get happy stuff very often.  It was an eye-opening experience for all!

Hour Of Code

Teaching our 2nd grade buddies!

Coding.  Computer programming.  Not something you'd think that elementary aged kids could do.  If that's the case, you'd be wrong.

My class participated in something called Hour of Code, sponsored by Computer Science Education Week.  What started out as something just my class was doing, happily spread to the other fourth grades.  And, even more exciting, once my class completed their "training hour" we collaborated with our second grade buddies so THEY also experienced hour of code.  Second graders!

Teamwork and patience were needed.

But it doesn't stop there, no, it kept spreading, and we ended up collaborating with our Kindergarten buddies too, who had a blast telling the computer what to do during their coding time!  That was one of my favorite things about the Hour of Code - how, once my class started, it organically spread where it needed to go.

Exploring Scratch.

Coding.  Basically it is telling the computer what to do.  In the case of the tutorials set up for this experience, the kids started with something familiar - Angry Birds - and were able to manipulate several levels of code there.  The tutorials (which are still up, by the way!) walked kids from Kindergarten through High School through the basics of coding.  It was so neat seeing how some of my kids really, really clicked (pun intended!) with the coding concept, and went on to try other tutorials, and taught each other the more complicated programs, such as scratch, which we'll be using later in the year (hopefully!) when we play with the MaKey MaKey….. but that is a whole different post!

Anyway, I highly encourage you to take an hour out of your week, sit down with your class (we started whole class before moving to individual laptops) and play around with coding.  This is one of those skills that I don't think we realize how much it will be used in the future!

A mash-up of Vines taken during our class coding experience!