Sunday, March 20, 2011

Coming July 9th - edcampLouisiana


On Saturday July 9th on the campus of UNO the first Louisiana unconference will take place. As one of the organizers, I proudly present edcampLouisiana. What, no thunderous applause? Oh, you don’t know what an unconference is and you’ve never heard of an edcamp. Well, not so no ago I stood right where you are standing now – with the same confused look on my face too.

Unconferences like edcamp and TeachMeet have been springing up all over the country. I had originally thought I would host a TeachMeet in New Orleans, but when Valerie Burton, another STAR in my district approached me and asked about organizing an edcamp I decided to join her efforts. The rest of our team includes: Brian Mull, Director of Innovation with November Learning; Tiffany Whitehead, Teacher Librarian in Baton Rouge; and Carl Gaines, a high school teacher from Violet.

I will be updating this blog as edcamp draws nearer, but today I just wanted to get your gears turning. I am starting out with a little history quiz. Do you know where the first edcamp was held? Do you know who the co-founders were? Better yet, do you follow any of them of Twitter? Oops, that’s not a history question. Well just head on over here to get the answers. (I cheated and had Dan Callahan, one of the co-founders, email me the answers. It pays to be connected on Twitter.)

Oh, and don’t forget we have a date. Mark your calendars for July 9th. It will be an experience like no other.

(I cross-posted this on the Louisiana DEN blog.)

Saturday, March 12, 2011

A "Tweet" Surprise

I love being able to participate in #elemchat on Saturday afternoons. This chat takes place on Saturdays from 4-5 CST.

Today we were discussing assessment and how we use it to guide our teaching. As I was participating in #elemchat on Twitter today this tweet popped into my Mention column on TweetDeck-




@metrychick, aka Celeste Haar, is a parent of a former student of mine. Several years ago Celeste and her daughters decided that homeschooling was the way for them to go. Celeste, I want you to know that it still saddens me that you are no longer a part of public education. It was so sweet of you to take the time to send out this validation of my teaching. Thank you, Celeste.