I attended my first EdCamp in NYC earlier this month. I was so excited to meet and learn with educators from all over the tri-state area, and I finally got to meet some educators I follow on Twitter. During my one hour drive home, my mind was swimming with creative ideas to use in my teaching, and reflection of all the connecting that happened that day.
Fast forward to two weeks later. EdCampNJ was coming up fast. The location was a two hour drive for me. Ugh. I wasn’t able to convince any of my colleagues to come with me to NYC, so I knew it would really be a stretch to ask anyone to drive for TWO hours, on a Saturday, for another EdCamp. A mass email and a Facebook post did not generate one response. But I knew in my heart that I wanted to go. I needed more connections, more learning to keep me going. My fire had been lit and now I needed to keep it going!
So, I got my ticket for EdCampNJ. I was lucky enough to drive to down with @iplante, my local Tweep and one of the #EdTechChat founders. She wanted to leave really early so we could make it down for a live #satchat at 7:30 am. Yes, I guess I really am that crazy about connecting, because that sounded ok to me! That is when I knew I had been sucked in by the connecting bug and the EdCamp experience.
I had lurked a bit during a few #satchats, but had never participated. Being there and watching them do a live HangOut and talking and Tweeting with the audience at the same time was a trip! As the morning went on, the schedule for the day started filling up.
What a great day: Meeting other people, making more connections. Educators of all kinds taking control of their PD, collaborating and learning. Even though I only knew a few of these people through Twitter, it felt like a get together with 300 of my closest friends.
Special thanks to all who shared with me at Ed Camp NJ: Edmodo and My Big Campus with @jantechnj, Minecraft Learning Blocks with @knowclue and @peggysheehy, Google resources with @rkiker, and Podcasting and broadcasting with @teachercast.