It has been a few days now since EdCampTo and there are posts pouring out from different participants on how the day went. From those enthusiastic about stories they heard, to people bursting with new ideas and to people who picked at the process from afar. Now, I am sitting down to try and put my thoughts into one place.
I got lost on my way to EdCampTo, from the parking lot to the building, I wandered through York Campus, stopping at a few wayfinding signs and asking students along the way and saw a squirrel carrying a whole bagel to itself, finally I arrived and was greeted by a few smiling faces. I think this journey set the tone for my day. I had a general direction for the day and while there were times I felt disoriented, I knew that I was surrounded by people available to redirect me and yet I felt humorous and excited all day.
I had a few wonderful conversations, found new resources to research and I gained a sense of what is happening in the classrooms of today. For me the greatest take away was that there are so many voices interested in education and from every angle we can make changes. I really enjoyed the conversations about creativity, experiential learning, failure, alternative schools, free thinking, engaging students in the planning and design of learning spaces. I did exercise the law of inertia a few times to move from conversation to conversation, as to get the most of out the day. I also left with some great questions.
- Does someone have to be wrong for someone to be right?
- How do you build the confidence to get through failure?
- In problem solving, how often do you get information & formulas directly given to you?
- How do we have more experiential learning inside the school?
- How do we prepare students for life?
I love ongoing learning and so should you!
Inspire Yourself!
Jenn