Totally Worth It!..

So as I've started to utilize Twitter more this year in my own learning, something wonderful happened as a result of my Twitter obsession. I saw tons of tweets about Edcamp and had no clue what it was all about. My instructional technology coach told me more about it so we registered to go. All we knew was that it an "unconference." We didn't know what to expect. We were so intrigued that we found  one that was happening the soonest and registered. It was in Missouri and we thought "oh, 2 hours away is perfect." Yeah, total geography fail. It was actually in Springfield, MO which happens to be 6 hours away but we didn't let that stop us.

So Saturday morning after a long drive on Friday night, we headed to Willard High School for our first Edcamp experience.When we arrived, we made name tags with our name and twitter handle. We then received tickets. The tickets were used to enter into drawings for prizes. What I really liked about this was the choice aspect. Chrissie (follow her @techiechrissie) and I saw that one of the prizes was a Nearpod Gold Membership. We were stoked! Our teachers use Nearpod and we have been toying with the idea of purchasing a membership. I put every ticket into Nearpod with no hopes of winning because I never win anything. We then had breakfast (Panera, my fav). We heard announcements encouraging people to facilitate a session on a topic. Chrissie and I decided to #bebrave and facilitate a discussion about 1:1 development and implementation focusing on instruction and technology. After all of the sign-ups we were all able to choose sessions we were interested in attending. My first session was awesome with @kdgteach_123. It was about using Google Drive to track progress monitoring data in the primary grades. It was just what I needed and an answer to a teacher need at my school. The next session was facilitated by Chrissie and I. It was a great discussion. It really provided the opportunity to connect with other schools on the 1:1 journey and see the difference in PD, procedures, tech, etc. We attended lunch, an app shootout, one last session, and a Super Session.

They always say save the best for last. Well the best was prize time. Not only did I win the Nearpod Membership I wanted so badly, but I won the biggest prize, a Samsung Chromebook! Not only was #edcampsgf one of the best professional development opportunities I experienced, it was totally worth the 6 hour drive to come back with awesome prizes. Everyone was so welcoming and I made tons of new twitter friends.

I encourage everyone to attend one of if you can. Google it to find more info. We are already looking into how can we use this and where's the next (closest) edcamp. Maybe we will head on over to #edcampstl.

6 hour drive....new twitter friends...wonderful experience...new ideas..tons of learning...great prizes

It was totally worth it!