Looking Back at 10 years of EdCamps Oh how the time flies, EdCamp Madison is turning 10 this year! It will be held Saturday, February 3rd at Sun Prairie West High School. Which can be found at 2850 Ironwood Drive in Sun Prairie Wisconsin from 8:30 am - 3:00 pm. Get more information and register here: https://sites.google.com/sunprairieschools.org/edcampmadwi/home I will always remember sitting in my first EdCamp opening session at the very first EdCamp Madison and having no clue what I was in for. So, I’d like to take this space to go over some of the basic rules of EdCamp. No One Will Pitch It for You EdCamps are unconferences. By this I mean that they have a blank slate of sessions for the day. There may be a few predetermined sessions, but ultimately the session topics are determined by attendees during the pitch & plan session that opens the day. If an idea gets pitched there will be a session on it. If a topic doesn’t get pitched, there won’t be a session on it. So, it i
It’s nearing the end of term 3 here and I have a little time for reflection. As a part of their final exam, students are working on their digital portfolio for my class. As I reevaluate everything that I am doing, I am struggling with the “why” and “so what of ” of the portfolios. So it’s time to revisit the why of the portfolio in my class and let that inform what the function of it in my course. Currently in my class, the portfolio has become a vehicle for students to catalog and present summative assessments. Each page is categorized by objective. On a given page, students state the unit objectives and embed their summative assessment. In addition, they provide reflective feedback on the unit in terms of what helped their learning and didn't help their learning. The portfolio has become a place for these student artifacts to be curated and organized based on learning objective. The fact that it’s organized by learning objective prescribes the artifact th