Friday, November 1, 2013

Our First EdCamp




Last weekend, Mrs. Yollis attended EdCamp Online. It was the second EdCamp she had attended. She enjoyed the EdCamp idea so much, she decided to bring it to her third graders.

At the beginning of the week, students posted ideas for sessions. A discussion about the EdCamp started in this EdCamp Online blog post. Here is a screenshot of a few comments written by the third graders:









There were several sessions offered. Throughout the day, students put tally marks next to sessions they'd be interested in attending in the afternoon. 


Like in other EdCamps, students were told that if a session wasn't meeting their needs or wasn't what they expected, they were free to move to a more appropriate session. 

When our EdCamp open up after lunch, everyone made a choice. It was very exciting!


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Learning about looming!



Several EdCampers were drawn to the drawing session!



One group explored our new World Book Online Encyclopedia!






Cursive lessons were a real crowd pleaser. 
Mrs. Yollis' animated cursive site was useful!




A couple of students explored shortcuts on the computer!




We ended our EdCamp with the tradition slam. Student stood up and shared something they learned from the session they attended. 






The EdCamp was a great personal learning event! The class decided that we would hold them every Friday!


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What do you think of the EdCamp model?

What did you learn in your session?

What session will you propose for future EdCamps?




11 comments:

  1. Dear Mrs. Yollis and Class,

    What an amazing idea! I've been to a couple of EdCamps, too, but I never thought of bringing it into my third grade class. I'm going to introduce the idea to my students next week. I predict that they will choose to learn about many of the same things you did!

    Sincerely,
    Mrs. Hamman

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Mrs Hamman,

      What is Edcamp like?
      I was the one with the rainbow loom.
      When you do Edcamp in your class,please tell me.

      from,
      Cance

      Delete
  2. Shayna, Sheila, and NizmaNovember 4, 2013 at 10:05 AM

    Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    What fun we had last Friday!

    We especially adored the story writing and the Rainbow Loom groups. In Rainbow Loom, we learned how to make a bracelet called the Fishtail. In story writing, we started to brainstorm for a fantasy story that we made up called The Thanksgiving Story. We talked about the characters and named them. We came up with Timmy the turkey, Penelope the pilgrim, and Nara the Native American. This Friday, we will write the story!

    What group did you join? Did you join a group that we mentioned?

    Your pupils,

    Sh♣yna, Nizm♥, and Sh♣la

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Shayna, Nizma, and Shelia,

      I agree we had a lot of fun!

      I was in the story writing group as well, and I enjoyed it. This Friday, we will indeed write the story as well as brainstorm a few more characters. When we are done, we might be able to read the group's story to the class.

      If I were to choose another group, I would choose the drawing group. I would join the drawing group because I love to draw. In the drawing group, I would draw a picture for Mrs. Yollis.

      I hope we have another EdCamp soon!

      Warmly,
      Keira

      Delete
  3. Keira, Clare, and RoxyNovember 4, 2013 at 10:16 AM

    Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    Thank you for letting us have an Ed Camp!

    Clare was in the drawing session, and she enjoyed it. In the drawing group, she drew balls that you use in sports. For example, she might have drawn a basketball.

    Roxy was not here on this fantastic day, but she would like to be in the Rainbow Loom group. If Roxy was in the Rainbow Loom group, she would have helped people make a triple single.

    Keira was in the story writing group, and she thought it was fabulous. Keira and the rest of the group were writing about Thanksgiving. A good tip the story writing group learned is to brainstorm first.

    Which group would you join? Why would you join that group?

    Your Ed-Camp-loving-friends,
    Keira, Clare, and Roxy

    ReplyDelete
  4. Echo (Heather's mom)November 4, 2013 at 9:32 PM

    Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    I like the idea that you brought EdCamp to the third grade classroom. It looked like that students were happily learning and participating different activities. It seems like they had a lot of fun. I hope I was in your classroom when I was in a third grader :)

    Sincerely,
    Echo (Heather's mom)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love this idea and I can see the students had fun learning. You had some excellent sessions and I am curious what was the criteria for posting a session idea? Were students free to post anything? Also, this is similar to something I just heard about called EdCafe, have you heard of it? http://whatisanedcafe.wordpress.com/

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dear Mrs. Yollis,
    I’m Erin, and I’m an EDM 310 student at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama, United States. I have never heard of an Ed Camp, but after reading this post I sure wish I had! This is a really cool way to get kids interesting and wanting to learn! It looks like they had a lot of fun in getting involved in the different activities you had for them. My blog is here if you want to look at it. Thank you for sharing with us!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Mrs. Yollis and students,
    Hi! My name is Brylyn Cowling. I am an elementary education major at The University of South Alabama. I am commenting on this post as an assignment in Dr. Strange's EDM310 class. After viewing this post along with the pictures included, your first EdCamp looked like so much fun! Mrs. Yollis, I really like how you gave your students a voice and a choice in this EdCamp. Students, I would love for you guys to teach me about looming! I read in your post that the class will now hold EdCamps every Friday. Will the class create all new sessions each week?

    Check my EDM310 Blog!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Dear Mrs. Yollis and Class,
    My name is Linda Check and I am a student in EDM310 at the University of South Alabama. I have never heard of an EdCamp, but it seemed like so much fun! I love that the students were able to have a voice and choose what they wanted to learn during the EdCamp. I really liked that if the session was not meeting the student’s needs or was not what they thought it was, they were able to move to a different station. In addition, I thought the idea of a slam, to show what the students had learned, was very cool! I wondered if the students will vote each Friday on different EdCamps? Thank you so much for sharing! I look forward to hearing more about these EdCamps! If possible, please check out my EDM310 Blog!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Dear Mrs. Yollis and students,

    Greetings! My name is JR Ginex-Orinion. I teach science in Orange County not too far away from your school. I just say this post about your EdCamp day. Have you still been doing EdCamps every Friday? What's the best thing about participating in an EdCamp? It sounds like so much fun that I would like to do the same with my 9th grade science class.

    Take care!

    ReplyDelete

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