#meetandsharecamp

It all started with this Tweet...

Four days later it had happened.  The first version of #meetandsharecamp was a small group of passionate educators that cared enough about expanding their learning to come and share what has worked for them in their classrooms.  @Mandery @MrsCoover @hcallihan and @bmowinkel joined @JenBadura and myself last night for some good food and learning. 

There wasn't much planning that took place.  Just a tweet here and there.  Participants each brought a covered dish and the Badura's provided the Brats and Burgers.  After some great conversation over dinner, the sharing began.  I was a little leery of my wireless network holding up especially after I noticed @hcallihan had FIVE devices going at once, but soon realized that all was well on the wireless end! 

This meet and greet may not seem like a big deal to some.  But you have to realize that for the most part all of the participants were complete strangers with only some limited interaction via Twitter.  Yes, there is that word again.  Twitter!  I have blogged a couple of times about the power of building a PLN on Twitter and what it has done for me as an educator.  Last night solidified my thoughts on using Twitter even more. If you are an educator, and you are not on Twitter, I am so sorry that you are missing some amazing opportunities to not only create a greater learning environment in your classroom, but to grow yourself as a professional.

In looking at the Google Doc that we created it may not seem like we shared that much. But we did! There were so many authentic conversations dealing with education!  I will admit that I didn't share a thing.  I was so enthralled with what I was learning from @ShellyMowinkel and her expertise with the iPad and totally flabbergasted with the knowledge and ways in which @Mandery uses Evernote as an Elementary Principal at Exeter Milligan Public School.

There was discussion of doing our #meetandsharecamp on a monthly basis this summer.  I really think that it is going to happen!  I look forward to learning from these, and hopefully more, educators in June.

Perhaps you would like to join us?  Stay tuned for dates and a time!