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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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Product Creation Day 1

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One of my most formative video gaming experiences from childhood was playing one-on-one with my friends.  I don't mean outside on the court, I mean on a computer.  Yes, for those of you who aren't familiar with it one of the classic basketball games from the early 80's was a one-on-one game that pitted Larry Bird vs. Michael Jordan.  I honestly don't have any great insight here tying the game to my classroom, just had to mention the game.


This week, my student in physics are putting together their final video project which is the culmination of the last 8 weeks of study.  All the data has been collected and the concepts have been covered, but they need to create a text which will summarize their work.

Today was a day in which I spoke with groups about which concepts they would address in their video.  A day like today is one in which I hate the phrase "guide on the side."  I don't mind the idea of guide because in each of my conversations today, I was guiding students as through the information they found and the best concepts to include in their video.  Students were expected to complete the following document to help guide the content of their video.







Think of this as an outline.  If you don't expect students to write an essay without an outline, why should they be allowed to create a video without one as well.

At the end of the class period today, students had to complete a check in quiz on Canvas asking them 2 questions.
This quiz is similar to an exit slip.  It will allow me to keep track of student progress, but also initiate conversations.  I plan on adding another question in the quiz asking what issues/questions students have.

I look forward to seeing where we go as a class and as individual groups on day 2.


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