EdCamp is a grassroots effort of professional development for teachers by teachers. It adopts the unconference format in which participants are allowed to pick and choose from a variety of topics or opportunities that they would like to learn or share about. Sessions are not pre-planned or pre-assigned as in traditional conference formats.
The EdCamp movement has been present in education around the world, but on June 2nd it came to the Cherokee County School District. The staff requested this powerful form of professional development after learning about it through social media and through the Georgia Educational Technology Conference (GaETC).
Teachers and staff members attended the inaugural EdCamp Cherokee event on a voluntary basis. Debbie Childress, Supervisor of Instructional Technology for the district, shared that EdCamp Cherokee focused on technology integration and 128 staff members came out for this event.
There were a total of five sessions that participants were able to attend. Throughout the duration of the sessions a total of 22 topics were presented and shared. Teachers and staff were able to learn and share about student driven portfolios with Seesaw, digital citizenship, Google Lit trips, green screen in the classroom, and more! Just take a look at the backchannel of EdCamp Cherokee using the #edcampcherokee hashtag and you’ll see the teachers and staff raving about their professional learning from the day. Needless to say, the first EdCamp Cherokee was a success. Feedback from EdCamp Cherokee participants was overwhelmingly positive, and with the success of this year’s EdCamp, another one is already in the beginning stages for 2016.
Find out more about EdCamp through the EdCamp Foundation. If you would like additional information or are interested in donating to help support the local 2016 EdCamp Cherokee, contact Debbie Childress at debbie.childress@cherokee.k12.ga.us.
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