EdCamp Elk Grove: A Teacher-Led Professional Learning Day

By the Collab Lab Team

Check out the Professional Learning Day we enjoyed at Elk Grove High School and Across District 214!

EdCamp Elk Grove: 

Who: All staff
What: Teacher-led Professional Learning. Professional Learning that responds to staff needs.
When: April 4th, 2016
Where: Theater, classrooms, labs
Why: Build our professional learning networks within and across departments and the District. Take next steps in our own learning to impact student learning.
How: Ignite Sessions, EdCamp Sessions, Content-Alike Sharing sessions, PLC time, and crowd-sourcing our resources on Google Docs and Social Media


Our EG EdCamp, planned by our Collab Lab team in collaboration with our colleagues, was a kind of a hybrid of the traditional EdCamp format.  Like EdCamps, staff had the opportunity to propose sessions the same morning of the In-Service day, but we also pre-planned some workshops based on prior feedback from staff about their needs and interests.

Overview of the Schedule

Sample Ignite Presentation

EdCamp Schedule

Feedback from staff was positive.  The ignite presentations were quick, just 90 seconds, sharing a variety of strategies that staff could learn more about in the EdCamp sessions that followed. We also followed the EdCamp format of using Google Docs for shared notes. 

A new twist to our In-service day was to add Content-Alike sharing sessions for our final EdCamp time slot. Staff were invited to come back together in course alike groups or PLCs to share highlights, questions, follow-up needs and feedback for future in-service days. Here is an example:

Check out this link to the resources shown above.


Professional Learning across District 214:

All of the District 214 School ITF teams planned similar teacher-led professional learning experiences, in collaboration with their colleagues, for the April 4th In-Service Day. Check out this Storify to learn more about what those professional learning experiences looked like!

Energizing the Mid-Career Teacher

By Kim Miklusak

We have all perhaps seen a variation of this chart during our teaching career: phases of first-year teachers' attitude toward teaching.  It makes sense, and it makes new (and veteran!) teachers feel less isolated in their attitudes as the year goes on.  There is a natural progression to things, and it is something we can be conscious of and try to address and prevent.  See this image here:
Graphic from http://www.newteachercenter.org/

There has been a lot of talk in the past ten plus years--but again recently--about new teacher retention: its costs, its causes, its remedies.  I think it's vital to have these conversations about new teachers.  However, I think another conversation we need to be having is mid-career teacher retention--or, more specifically, mid-career teacher re-invigoration.

I wonder what the above chart looks like across the span of a career.  I'm sure there are many peaks and valleys for a variety of reasons both internal and external to each individual.  I wonder how we can support mid-career teachers as we do new teachers to help them connect to other educators, to continue to grow as experts in their field, and to help them find new avenues to learn.

One way is for teachers to make those connections on their own whether that be through Twitter, conferences, EdCamps, etc.  I think another way is for teachers to start finding ways to publish their own writing and reflection be that in journals, websites, or their own blog!  Another way is for schools to facilitate this re-invigoration.  This past week our school held Spark Sessions and a Mini-EdCamp at our first In-Service day in addition to the teacher-led sessions held at our Institute Days.  In addition, administrators both in-building and at the district are working with many mid-career and new teachers to branch out into new roles and help guide new and existing initiatives.  I hope that all schools follow this lead and spend their resources in some of these ways as well in order to connect to new and veteran teachers.  While it's true that teachers can hit a groove in mid-career and be left on their own, it's also a time to be sure to find ways to remain energized and constantly reflect and grow!

Professional Learning by Teachers for Teachers

by Linda Ashida

Today was a great day of collaborative professional learning at Elk Grove High School! It was an In-Service day intended to give staff time to enhance their knowledge of technology to transform student learning.

To take advantage of this opportunity, our Collab Lab team facilitated Spark Sessions and EdCamp-style workshops, that teachers could opt to join in on, to build connections and multiply our learning.

This portion of the In-Service day was completely teacher-led. The Spark Sessions were led by 10 staff from various disciplines. They each gave a 3-5 minute presentation on an educational technology strategy they use in their classrooms.  These sessions were designed to quickly share many examples, learn, and spark ideas for more in-depth learning in the EdCamp Workshops.



This was the first time we had EdCamp-style workshops at Elk Grove High School, so we first explained the concept of EdCamps. We then invited staff to propose workshops related to interests, passions, or questions they have. They wrote their ideas on PostIt Notes which a team of teachers used to build the schedule. After just ten minutes working on the schedule, we were ready to go!

Check out the schedule of Spark Sessions and EdCamp Workshops in the Google Doc we created and shared with staff with a tiny URL:  http://tinyurl.com/eg1to1 . We created this doc to not just to share the schedule with staff but resources as well.  You will notice that the EdCamp schedule includes links to separate Google Docs for each Workshop to curate our learning and resources.  Teachers can refer back to the docs to access resources, or learn from the notes on sessions that they did not attend.

We also used #EG1to1 on Twitter to share and curate our learning from the day. Check out this Storify of Tweets to get an even better idea of what our day of learning "looked like": Professional Learning By Teachers for Teachers

Did you participate in the day at EG?
Have you participated in a similar professional learning experience in another school?
Do your have resources or ideas to share?

We'd love your feedback! 

Please leave us comments so that we can extend our learning even more!

In-Service Day Preview: Spark Sessions & EdCamp

This Monday the CollabLab will help facilitate a portion of our school's In-Service Day focusing on instructional technology.

First, we will be offering a 45-minute session of "Spark" Presentations. A Spark Presentation is a 3-5 minute presentation of an educational technology strategy that teachers employ with their students. These are not formal presentations;  think of a "spark presentation" as a kind of "show and tell." For example, Gary Alperin will share how he uses the student-response app Kahoot and Dean Burrier Sanchis will share how he uses his Weebly Website. We are planning to have Spark Presentations by 8-10 staff members. We already have several teachers who have volunteered, but we want to open this opportunity up to everyone. 


After this we will move into a mini-EdCamp.  EdCamps are "un-camps," free professional development for teachers and by teachers.  There are EdCamps hosted in many areas around the world.  Our local one is EdCamp Chicago, and the next meeting will May 9, at Bednarcik Junior High School.  Elk Grove will host its first "mini-camp."

At the start of the event, teachers come up and suggest a session they are interested in.  This does not mean that you are running it or presenting it; it just means that you are heading there to start talking about it.  The idea is you vote with your feet.  If you go to one session, and it is not what you need, or if there is more than one session you want to see, you simply get up in the middle of the session, and go to another one! Another aspect of EdCamps is the sharing of information. There will be an open Google document available for each session to share out ideas with those in and out of the workshop time.

Check out this site next week for reflections from the day!