Here’s the link for today’s edcamapNYC session board: bit.ly/edcampNYC16
Another edcampNYC is officially in the books! Many thanks to fellow organizers Ann Oro, Cathy Cheo-Isaacs, and Saber Khan for helping ensure today was another productive and fun day of free PD for educators. The Cathedral School generously hosted us at their gorgeous gothic K-8 school building next door to The Cathedral of St. John the Divine. It’s such a pleasure to trust that someone in my community will help us throw this annual event, and this year Nisha Joshi, Director of Technology at Cathedral, graciously made it happen.
We began the day with a table loaded with coffee, donuts, and bagels generously sponsored by the Edcamp Foundation and Participate Learning. The Edcamp Foundation will help any edcamp by providing an “edcamp in a Box” containing post-its, Sharpies, pens, index cards, stickers, name tags, and $200 to help defray costs. Participate Learning is also keen to help edcamps enhance learning by setting up online courses. As per their explanation on our edcampNYC Participate Page:
Here is where you can earn and share a badge designed to demonstrate your Edcamp learning and experience! Participate Learning is collaborating with Edcamp NYC to bring you a free online course designed to help you reflect upon your Edcamp experience, and incorporate ideas and resources shared throughout the day into your instruction and lesson planning. Upon completion of the course, you will earn a badge that recognizes 12 hours of professional learning. This page will also track every resource and idea tweeted along the hashtag #edcampNYC before, during and after #edcampNYC.
Our session board filled up with 15 great conversation topics (three bands of 5 sessions each). Additionally, Sophia Georgiou of Morphi (@morphiapp) brought an iPad Pro with the Morphi app installed, an Ultimaker Go, and many printed parts and project ideas. She generously led demos and conversations throughout the event for edcampers.
Afterward edcampNYC, Godwyn Morris of Skill Mill NYC opened up her new makerspace to us. We were lucky to explore SkillMill NYC and tool around with 3D printers, DazzLinks, wind-up toys, lasercutters, sewing machines, and more. (Last year, after edcampNYC finished at The Mandell School, we visited Godwyn’s first makerspace location, Dazzling Discoveries, located a few blocks north of Mandell. This year, it was amazingly timely and convenient after edcampNYC at Cathedral, we traveled a few blocks south to SkillMill NYC!)
We don’t often have door prizes, however this year we had a few. We prototyped giving these away to whomever replied first on Twitter to tweets about each item. iBallz provided four tablet protectors, two Chromebook cases, and discount codes for edcampers offering 10% merchandise. BrainPop provided a Moby-printed tote bag, Moby earbuds, a Moby tshirt, and other swag-tastic items like pens and calendars. BreakoutEdu offered a complete education kit for one lucky attendee, and Flocabulary provided a custom edCampNYC extended trial. Thank you to these sponsors for generously helping our participating educators have a great day!
Karen Blumberg 