Edcamp Chicago: Despite what some of you may think, I can be lazy on weekends. Yesterday I had signed up for a conference called "edcamp Chicago" to be held at Stevenson HS in Lincolnshire, Illinois. When I woke up, I had the feeling that I have been having a lot lately. I would like to BE there but I don't want to DRIVE there. I almost didn't go. What got me in the car driving northward was the opportunity to meet two people with whom I communicate quite often via twitter. Some people call this subset one's "tweeps." I refuse. They are colleagues and becoming friends and I looked forward to the chance to meet them in person. So thanks Shawn and Heather for getting me out of bed to get to edcamp. It was great meeting you and the experience of edcamp and the conversations we shared (with others as well) gave me new ideas and insights, but most of all it gave me energy. 

Lindblom: The origins of LMSA allowed for a loose structure and an aversion to meetings. The staff was small and informal conversations were easy to strike up making meetings often superfluous. As we have grown, that looseness has its limits. We are meeting more (i.e. House meetings, department common assessment/curriculum alignment meetings, faculty meetings, etc) because sometimes meetings are more efficient and more meaningful than email conversations. Our freshman academy would be nowhere near as successful without our weekly meetings. Emails are easy to ignore and it's hard to connect the patterns and themes that are so clear when we are all in the same room talking. Sometimes meetings matter. 

Since we have laid the foundation of less is more, it is hard to push for more but I am going to propose an idea for PD days that models the experience I had yesterday. 

The edcamp concept: In the edcamp model, teachers get together at the beginning of the day and present topics that they would like to discuss. Topics that are similar are joined and times for conversations are created. The most powerful part is that teachers decide the topics (principals could create a topic of their own to add to the list, attend the conversations of others, or step out of the way and watch the magic). Once the schedule is created, meetings begin and people make their way to the room with the conversation that most interests them. The conversation can last an hour or ten minutes. People can move to another conversation whenever they want--it's not personal. 

The value of the edcamp model: It is stunning to me that much of the PD world is presentation based leaving little or no time for teachers to talk. This is the value of edcamp. It is all talk. It assumes that we are professionals and that we won't wander into a discussion about "Housewives of Atlanta" (unless it is relevant to the pedagogical conversation). Not only is it respectful of our dedication to and knowledge about our craft but it also holds us accountable to participate and lead. This is a powerful difference from most CPS PDs where teachers fight for the back row so they can grade papers without being seen while the presenter reads off the power point. 

Lindblom edcamp PD Days: In conversations throughout the day, people talked about the problems they would face in bringing this model to their schools. Administration runs PD. Teachers are resistant to share. I kept thinking...Lindblom teachers would LOVE this model of PD. It is often what we do in the lunchroom or when we stop by colleagues' classrooms. This would formalize it a bit more to make sure everyone knew about the conversation and could chose to attend if he or she wanted. So my proposal is simple. On our PD days, we should spend part of our faculty meeting time generating a list of topics (or it could be done before the meeting using a google doc/form) and creating a schedule for the day. Teachers then can make a plan for their day of which topics to attend. The sessions would be optional and could be scheduled around department meetings and personal time for grading or planning. 

What this might look like for reals: We arrive to the faculty meeting with some ideas of what we might like to discuss. A place is set up to allow people to write down their idea(s) and a discussion ensues about what might be joined together. With the final list, a schedule is made and teachers create a personal schedule for their day taking into account other meetings and grading/planning time. One teacher writes, "After-school hallway issues" while another writes "teaching readers to think." And on and on it goes. All driven by our needs and interests. 

More topics might include:

• Finding/creating authentic audiences
• Using technology to advance learning
• Planning interdisciplinary units
• How to manage grading so I still have a life
• Building school culture
• Writing grants
• Using the library resources effectively

The list is endless. Teachers choose which sessions to attend and they stay in the session as long as it is useful. 

Reflection: I see this as an important part of accountability and building community. Whether it happens on-line or face to face at the end of the day, I think reflection is a critical part of the learning process and we often push it off for lack of time. Today, the day after the event, edcamp participants are writing and posting reflections about the event in blog posts or comments. It is partly for the reader but, perhaps even more for ourselves to help us make sense of what the experience of edcamp meant and why it matters. 

What do you think? Do you want to give it a try next year?