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EdCamp Still Rules

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  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
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Getting Started with Pear Deck

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I’m excited to announce the release of a handbook I co-authored with Mary Alys Foutz called Getting Started with Pear Deck.

Get access the eBook by clicking here!


I have been using Pear Deck in my classroom since 2015. I’ve watched the tool grow dramatically in its functionality but also its easy to be integrated into the classroom from a teacher and student perspective. The new book is an amazing guide in terms of how to get started with Pear Deck and even introduce you to features that I didn’t know existed until we started work on the book.

But for those who are new to Pear Deck or have several other tech tools that they are using in their classroom, I want to share with you why I continue to come back to it as my number one classroom tech tool for learning.  That reason is the feedback I get from my learners. Since I began using it, Pear Deck has consistently been the number 1 thing my students say helps them learn in the classroom. So rather than me preaching about Pear Deck, here’s what my students have to say in their own words.



The book itself is divided into different chapters associated with a different aspect of Pear Deck. Lots of people know about Pear Deck as a presentation tool, but there is so much more to discover!

  • Collaborate as a class to create flashcards with multiple representations with Pear Deck Vocabulary
  • Encourage students to increase their digital citizenship with Google’s Be Internet Awesome curriculum powered by Pear Deck
  • Search for answers to questions in the Knowledge Base
  • Find ready to use decks in The Orchard
  • Learn how to share your decks with colleagues and the world!
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