(Originally posted on amytragg.com on Nov. 29, 2013)

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.

(Originally posted on amytragg.com on Nov. 20, 2013)

Last week I participated in a Hangout-on-air iPad art lesson, was in another Hangout with art teachers I had never met f2f, and went to my first EdCamp in NYC. (And met some Twitter Rock Stars!)Really!Well, how did that happen???  I reflected upon it last week.

I have been teaching for a pretty long time. I don’t even want to admit how long. I started as a classroom teacher, beginning my career in kindergarten and first grade. After I got my Master’s in Art Education, I landed an art job in an elementary school. My teaching and personal art work really bloomed after that.

I have always loved learning something new about teaching and I love going to various conferences: art education, HOT Schools Institutes, technology….

So, about two years ago, I attended a full day technology conference for teachers with a few colleagues, went to a session named “Twitter for PD and your Classroom” (or something like that) and the teacher presenting told us how she used Twitter with her students, and , uh, by the way, you can use it for PD too. Hmmm. So when I got home (or perhaps it was on my way home in the car, I was a passenger) I opened an account on Twitter and poked around a bit… did not see what was in it for me. Twitter was waaaay too complicated.  Ok, maybe I used it to spy on my teenagers to see what they were up to, but that was it.

Fast forward to sometime this year at the end of May. I was reading “THE Journal” or some other techie publication and came across #EdTechChat …..and the whole concept of educators talking about stuff on Twitter. Huh? Now that was something I had to try.

June 3, 2013 was the day I participated in my first #EdTechChat. And that is where I learned about the power of the hashtag: by using one!  And I learned how welcoming other educators on Twitter can be, thanks to @s_bearden and @iplante, two of the founders of EdTechChat!  If they had not been so welcoming that night, I might not be so connected today.  I certainly wouldn’t have EVER had my awesome connected week…which I still cannot believe really happened.