edcamp philly

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Name: Ann Oro

How are you involved in education?
I teach computer class to students in Kindergarten through eighth grade at a small private school in Cranford, NJ.

What’s your ideal classroom or school like?
My ideal classroom has space to move around and have a variety of studios for different types of work. It has up-to-date iMacs with all the tools for creativity. It has a speedy Internet connection that would allow me to connect any where any time. My students would have time to explore concepts and build movies and podcasts to explain those concepts to others.

Have you ever attended an unconference before?
No

If you were to lead a session at Edcamp, what would it be about?
I would lead a session about the monster project I’ve been working on for the last few years with second grade students around the country. We explore adjectives, draw monsters, and reflect on the similarities and differences. There are many projects such as this out on the Internet. My students enjoy the work and we have built a nice set of resources for teachers.

Do you have a website or a blog?
http://www.mrsoro.com

Are you on Twitter?
@njtechteacher

If you’d like to be featured in our Meet the Edcampers series, fill out this form!

Name: Debra Finger

How are you involved in education?
I am the computer technology teacher for children in kindergarten through fifth grade in a K-12 private school in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Additionally, I teach fourth graders in an after-school synagogue religious school. During the summer I run a health center at an overnight camp. To put it mildly, I am with kids 24/7 365 and I love it.

What’s your ideal classroom or school like?
My ideal classroom is one that fully integrates technology in a purposeful and meaningful way; one where technology is embedded in the curriculu, not an add on. Kids would create work that is valuable to others outside their classroom. Like Alan November says, what kids do should live on.

Have you ever attended an unconference before?
No, this is my first and fortunately for me, is fairly close to home.

If you were to lead a session at Edcamp, what would it be about?
Maybe something that involves using Flip cameras and digital storytelling in the elementary grades but as this is my first, I need to test the water and see what else is out there.

Do you have a website or a blog?
www.learning-spaces.wikispaces.com

Are you on Twitter?
@teacherdebra

If you’d like to be featured in our Meet the Edcampers series, fill out this form!

Name: Frank Williams

How are you involved in education?
My ideal classroom is not a dream, it is a reality. I am proud to say that the Integrated Studies Program (ISP) reflects my vision of the ideal classroom and it echoes my philosophy of education. Our constructivist design enables students to learn with a great deal of freedom and independence. They work on projects that are relative to their interests and abilities while also addressing New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards in the process. Teachers are facilitators and students are the ones making the decisions as to what is important to learn and how they are going to learn it. Students devise their own rubrics and dictate their own levels of achievement. There are no deadlines, but instead time lines that are established for the completion of work. It’s a cross-content model that allows for students to mix and mingle with students in other classes and other grade levels, allowing for collaborative efforts that would not be possible in the traditional model. Technology is a huge component of the ISP, and thus it is essential that there be many computers available to the students; each with internet access to utilize web gems such as Moodle and Project Foundry. To most educators, this may seem like a fantasy. For me, it’s just another day in the ISP.

What’s your ideal classroom or school like? I believe in one-room schoolhouses, that is, multiage classrooms which are fully inclusive and contain multiple teachers in large non-rectangular rooms. I believe in information and communications technology at every hand, but in whatever forms meet the student’s need of the moment. I believe in universal design, in the elimination of grade levels and grade level expectations, in project-based cross-curricular learning, in classrooms linked globally. I don’t believe in tests, highly enforced schedules, print-centric curricula, assessments via multiple choice, labelling children, or ranking them numerically.

Have you ever attended an unconference before?
I have never attended an unconference, but I am really excited about EdCamp Philly!

If you were to lead a session at Edcamp, what would it be about?
I would lead a session about one of the many web tools that I use with regularity, projects that cross the lines of content, or perhaps a session on how to explore and execute the curriculum through use of different media. I have a lot of ideas!

Are you on Twitter?
@fronk2000

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Name: Sarah Daly

How are you involved in education?
I presently teach high school Spanish at Camden County Technical School in Sicklerville, New Jersey. I am also a certified school counselor and in the midst of a Master’s degree in Criminal Justice.

What’s your ideal classroom or school like?
I live it every day! I work in the Integrated Studies Program with other talented teachers, and we collaborate to create a project-based learning environment for more than 80 students. We act as both teachers and “advisors” for students, tending to their educational and personal needs. Best of all, they are always engaged in their learning, have a constant voice in when, how, and where they learn, and have helped to create the ideal learning environment.

Have you ever attended an unconference before?
Never! This will be my first time! SO EXCITED!

If you were to lead a session at Edcamp, what would it be about?
I hope to present with my colleagues about the Integrated Studies Program and hear ways we might improve upon our ideas.

Are you on Twitter?
@irishasian05

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Name: Larry Theuer

How are you involved in education?
Teaching 7th grade English in Philadelphia, coaching basketball, introducing technology and web 2.0 learning gradually in a traditional bricks and mortar environment, running community service program, spelling bee–watch our school and Philadelphia champion on ESPN next month.

What’s your ideal classroom or school like?
A one-to-one classroom, fully online, with opportunities for f2f discussion, as well as world-wide interaction.

Have you ever attended an unconference before?
Looking forward to my first.

If you were to lead a session at Edcamp, what would it be about?
Ways to move bricks and mortar students (and recalcitrant administrations) into the web 2.0 world.

Are you on Twitter?
@LGTenglishteach

If you’d like to be featured in our Meet the Edcampers series, fill out this form!

Name: Ira David Socol

How are you involved in education?
Teacher Educator, Educational Researcher currently at Michigan State University. Have worked in the field of Special Educational Needs and Technology for 15 years, with students at every grade level from K to adult education and universities on strategies and technologies which allow them to succeed independently. I’ve developed “Tool Belt Theory” to help educators help students build lifespan tool acquisition skills and achieve maximum levels of communication and information independence. I study the origins of our concepts of education, technology, and ability/disability, and write and present internationally.

What’s your ideal classroom or school like?
I believe in one-room schoolhouses, that is, multiage classrooms which are fully inclusive and contain multiple teachers in large non-rectangular rooms. I believe in information and communications technology at every hand, but in whatever forms meet the student’s need of the moment. I believe in universal design, in the elimination of grade levels and grade level expectations, in project-based cross-curricular learning, in classrooms linked globally. I don’t believe in tests, highly enforced schedules, print-centric curricula, assessments via multiple choice, labelling children, or ranking them numerically.

Have you ever attended an unconference before?
I think unconferences happen all the time. In person, on Twitter, etc. So sure. But when it is formalized is it really an “unconference” or a “semi-conference”?

If you were to lead a session at Edcamp, what would it be about?
I could converse about Tool Belt Theory or about why we need to challenge absolutely everything we “assume” about education or about lesson ideas in global democracy and cultural comprehension or even about maths and Special Needs whatever, the audience should decide

Do you have a website or a blog?
http://speedchange.blogspot.com

Are you on Twitter?
@irasocol

If you’d like to be featured in our Meet the Edcampers series, fill out this form!

Name: Rita Chuhran

How are you involved in education?
I am a technology integration coach at Saucon Valley High School in Hellertown, PA. I am only on temporary assignment (as long as the grant money holds out). Next year I will be back in the classroom as a Social Studies teacher where I teach Government, Economics, Law & Justice, and Media Studies.

What’s your ideal classroom or school like?
I would love to see radical changes to the classroom setting. I want a school where every student has a laptop and guides their own education, where teachers are merely the motivators and catalysts for learning. Teachers would act collaboratively in teams instead of in rigidly imposed disciplines. (Hey, the question asked for “ideal”)

Have you ever attended an unconference before?
Nope.

If you were to lead a session at Edcamp, what would it be about?
(1) Creating large scale PBL or Challenge based learning in the classroom, an open discussion about successes and failures of such projects.
(2) How technology can be leveraged to motivate underachieving students

Are you on Twitter?
@rchuhran

If you’d like to be featured in our Meet the Edcampers series, fill out this form!

Name: Shelley Krause

How are you involved in education?
I’m an academic matchmaker (aka college counselor) at Rutgers Preparatory School in Somerset, NJ. I co-teach a seminar class related to college readiness. I’ve also taught memoir (Germantown Friends School) and haiku (Rutgers Prep), and would love to work with students on personal knowledge management, media literacy, and/or meta-cognition.

What’s your ideal classroom or school like?
A space where curiosity is rewarded and celebrated. Student-centered, and outcomes-oriented. Supportive of inclusive, ongoing conversations about what we’re learning and what we need/want to learn next. Lots of opportunities for failure and learning out loud, and a culture that is welcoming of a “let’s try it and see” mindset. Teachers who are themselves transparent and passionate learners.

Have you ever attended an unconference before?
Nope.

If you were to lead a session at Edcamp, what would it be about?
I would be happy to facilitate if folks wanted to share their personal knowledge management tips, tricks. & theories. And I’m always looking for folks to engage on the subject of academic matchmaking in the internet age. Or maybe my friend Karen Deaver and I will dream up something completely different on the car ride down! (In all honesty, I think there’s a good chance I’ll be more interested in participating in the conversations than in leading one of my very own.)

Do you have a website or blog?
http://bit.ly/shelleyk

Are you on Twitter?
@butwait

If you’d like to be featured in our Meet the Edcampers series, fill out this form!

Name: Jessica Brown

How are you involved in education?
I am a Principal at The Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

What’s your ideal classroom or school like?
My ideal school is in development and I am proud to be a leader there! However, I do not have an unlimited budget or resources.

Schools should be a place where community inside and outside of school learn together and help each other. Resources should be abundant (an unlimited budget for technology and other resources).

Schools should be an extension of human curiosity and not a series of tasks. Learning should be authentic, and passion should drive students and teachers.

Have you ever attended an unconference before?
No, but I am looking forward to my first unconference. I LOVE that it’s an unconference.

If you were to lead a session at Edcamp, what would it be about?
My staff and I would lead a session about integrating the arts into curriculum as this is the vision at The Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush.

Do you have a website or blog?
http://rushartsonline.org/

Are you on Twitter?
@jessicamolly

If you’d like to be featured in our Meet the Edcampers series, fill out this form!

How are you involved in education?
I am a library media specialist at Arrowhead Elementary School in the Methacton School District in Montgomery County, PA.

What’s your ideal classroom or school like?
My ideal library would have enough computers for an entire class of students plus enough computers for visitors and for library catalog search stations.

Have you ever attended an unconference before?
This will be my first unconference and I can’t wait!

If you were to lead a session at Edcamp, what would it be about?
Picturing America wiki resources.

Do you have a website or blog?
http://arrowheadlibrary.wikispaces.com/
http://powerlibrarian.blogspot.com/

Are you on Twitter?
@congerjan