Unconference

I attended my first Unconference at PETE&C 2016. I met with some pretty amazing educators! Brooke Mulartrick and Michele Comp were two ladies that took time out of their morning to make me feel welcome and share so much of their knowledge with me. We covered so many topics in that hour or so. We talked about robots, coding, professional learning, edtech, PAECT, growing professionally, and so on.

The one conversation that stuck with me was one that Michele and I spoke about. She talked about how teachers lead their own learning sessions throughout the day. They base it on topics people want to learn about and then others will volunteer their knowledge. It is very informal and low key so teachers get what they need, when they need it, and create new connections.

One tool she told me about was Lino Board. This web-based application allows you to post stickies on a board (similar to Padlet). The color sticky you use depends on what you are doing.

Green Stickies - What topic you want to know more about.

Pink Stickies - A person willing to volunteer knowledge about the topic from green sticky.

Blue Stickies - Who is coming to the session.

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Okay so fast-foward to today. I got my Lino board all set up. Invited teachers from my building. Got ideas posted on the Lino. Chose a date (today) to meet about using green screening & stop motion videos to bring writing to life.

Everyone came in and we started chatting right away. I shared a few student examples. We talked about storyboarding to flush out thoughts. Two other teachers had great free apps to share with the group. Everyone was chatting and getting ideas for their own room. It was a demonstration of great collaboration. Everyone left excited for our next Unconference and ready to try something new tomorrow. One word... synergy

I left my room with the biggest smile on my face. There was no one expert. Everyone shared. Everyone was important to the group. It did not matter that we all taught different grades; we all knew that there was something we could learn from one another. I really hope there will be more days like today. #cloud9

If you want something like this in your school, I suggest you give it a try. Together you can achieve more!