#EdCampCT

I was very nervous attending my first #EdCampCT on Friday but like most things I worry about it it was GREAT!  I really had no idea what to expect...Lisa told me that it was going to be fun and laid back and she was right!  I was one of the first people there and thankfully Josh was there early too so I didn't have to sit by myself.  As it got closer to the 9AM start time I was happy to see my classmates from UNH.  Seeing the giant board of sessions empty was overwhelming.  I had planned to present a session about Using One iPad in a K-2 classroom, I wanted to pick a room that wasn't going to have 100 people and was in the afternoon so I would have the morning to see how the sessions ran.  I decided on right after lunch in a room that would have up to 15 people.  After the brief introduction about EdCampCT and the promise of tasty chips at lunch I was off to start the day.

For the first session I worked with three peers helping Ian lead the LED name tag fun.  It was a lot of fun using batteries and lights to add some spice to the usually boring name tags.  Ian said he did this with his son's preschool class and the kids enjoyed it.  I would like to try it with my Kindergartener's when I have some extra adults in my room and feeling brave.  The second session was about using Google sites.  It was geared towards towards high school teachers but I did learn a few things about Google sites that I might use for my classroom website this year.  For my final morning session I joined a session talking about how Technology Educators are used in various districts, buildings, and grade levels.  The presenter used a slideshow creator Kizoa that looked like a lot of fun and not to hard to use.  I'm thinking about using it for my Kindergarten Open House presentation.  Once the morning sessions were complete it was time for lunch.

The lunch had a lot of hype surrounding it and it certainly delivered.  The chips were great and they even had milkshakes!  It was nice to talk to other people from UNH discussing presentations they had seen or be apart of.  After lunch it was time for my Using One iPad session!  There were less than 10 people which I liked and my fantastic classmates, Laurie and Lisa joined in.  As a group we shared various apps that are helpful and usually cheap!  Overall it went well and thanks to my IT&DML classmates for their support.  The final session for the day was discussing an Internet Bill of Rights.  I was looking forward to a lively discussion about what peoples thoughts about the subject are.  People had a lot to say about the subject and it made me realize I'm glad to be a part of the group working on it.  Finally there was an end of the day "Smack Down" were people shared useful apps and there was a raffle!  I didn't win but overall my first #EdCamp was a SUCCESS!  I'm looking forward to attending many more in my future.  Thanks for the opportunity to join in on the FUN!!!

This work by Anne Marie Lanning is licensed under a

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.