EdCamp Montgomery Recap

On Saturday, April 2nd the first ever EdCamp Montgomery was held at Montgomery Academy.  I was a part of the planning team for this event and overall, everyone agreed it went great.  We had a smaller than expected turn out, but in some ways that was better.  In fact, well over ninety percent of those in attendance indicated that this was their first experience with EdCamp.  That is a great thing.  The EdCamp experience is different than other conferences and I believe word of mouth will have a positive effect on next years event.

Once the crowd gained an understanding of how things worked, the activity level and excitement really began to grow.  Even with such a large number of first timers, the session board filled quickly.  Members of the planning team were prepared to jump in to lead multiple sessions in case the participants were hesitant to lead sessions but as it turned our, some of us had to hustle to the board just to lead one!

I heard multiple positive comments and many sessions had standing room only.  The Google Classroom session was packed and all of the sessions I participated in were well attended with eager participants.  Davina Mann (@DavinaMann), Instructional Technology Coach from Owens Cross Roads Elementary School, lead a great session on Nearpod (@nearpod) and I hosted a session on Participate Learning (@participatelrn).  Mark Coleman and I joined up to facilitate an EdCamp tradition by hosting a "Things That Suck!" session that had the attendees debating a variety of education topics in the boisterous way that proves just how passionate today's teachers are about their jobs, their schools, and most of all their students!

Just check out a few of the Tweets from the events:

Happy Sunday!! Still excited from @edcampmgm I am making plans this week incorporating some new ideas I learned yesterday! #edcampmgm Thanks

— Deana Elmore (@DeanaElmore) April 3, 2016

Having a discussion "Things that Stink" regarding hot topics in education. For > Against #edcampmgm #telluswhy pic.twitter.com/PgyUnOcvYq

— Davina Mann (@DavinaMann) April 2, 2016

#edcampmgm standing room only for Google Classroom #edt602una pic.twitter.com/f39C6yv3J2

— Barry Wiginton (@bwiginton) April 2, 2016