“Ed Camp”, as PA Distance Technology Coaches, Mrs. Katie Heiles and Mrs. Victoria DeRoner have dubbed it, is a mini one-day conference designed to personalize professional development for staff. Now in its fourth year, Ed Camp has gained traction within the PA Distance staff as a unique way to provoke thought and encourage internal collaboration and discussion.
Mrs. Heiles and Mrs. DeRoner first came up with the idea back in
2018, when they realized that PA Distance students shouldn't be the only ones benefiting from a personalized learning model.
“We wanted to facilitate an outlet for our teachers and staff to share the unique things that they know and what techniques they find successful within their classrooms and respective roles,” Mrs. DeRoner said. “We work with all of these brilliant people who, sometimes, don’t realize what they know and what they are good at.”
“We wanted to encourage a culture of knowledge sharing,” Mrs Heiles explained. “Every year, there’s something new to be learned and shared.”
Dedicated as an entire day for professional learning, Ed Camp is designed so that PA Distance staff members can both present a topic in which they are knowledgeable or attend a session to learn about something new. Weeks before the scheduled Ed Camp, Mrs. Heiles and Mrs. DeRoner reach out to the PA Distance staff to collect proposals for presenters. Then, after receiving a variety of proposal topics from staff members, they approve topics for the upcoming Ed Camp.
“We encourage all members of the staff to submit proposals to present, not just the teachers,” Mrs. DeRoner said.
After presenters and topics are officially chosen, Mrs. Heiles and Mrs. DeRoner give the rest of the staff the opportunity to sign up for sessions that interest them. This way, each staff member's Ed Camp session schedule is personalized and designed themselves. Presenters and attendees also have the chance to win prizes like PA Distance logo gear and gift cards.
“Anywhere between five and 50 people attend a session. The staff really takes an interest and actively participates, too” Mrs. Heiles said.
Since Mrs. Heiles and Mrs. DeRoner planned the first Ed Camp in 2018, it's been growing ever since. “Now that we have been doing it for a few years, there’s a lot more staff members stepping out and volunteering to present than when we first started,” Mrs. DeRoner explained.
Due to the internal success of Ed Camp, Mrs. Heiles and Mrs. DeRoner presented an outline for how to plan an in-house professional development conference, for others to follow, at the Pennsylvania Educational Technology Expo & Conference (PETE&C) in 2019.
“Katie and I have developed a timeline and organizational map that we follow for each Ed Camp” Mrs. DeRoner said. “We used that as a way to help others at other educational institutions in case they're interested in replicating it for their staff.”
However, this year, Ed Camp was carried out a little differently than in the past due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Normally an in-person event, within the PA Distance office building, this year's Ed Camp was unable to be organized in the traditional fashion. Instead, Mrs. Heiles and Mrs. DeRoner opted to carry out Ed Camp, virtually, instead of cancelling it altogether. After all, as a cyber school, PA Distance is no stranger to, unique but high-quality, virtual instruction.
“Our staff talk about it all year, not just when it happens,” Mrs. Heiles said. “So the planning for this was a long-time coming and they were looking forward to it. We had to make sure it still happened.”
Mrs. Heiles and Mrs. DeRoner adapted to the change in plans and successfully carried out a week-long virtual Ed Camp complete with 21 different sessions and 38 staff member presenters. Each session presentation utilized the same live-instruction technology that PA Distance teachers use on a daily basis with their students, allowing for attendees to ask questions and interact with the presenters as they would in years past.
“Our staff exceeded our expectations this year, especially with everything that was going on,” Mrs. Heiles noted.
Better yet, because it was done virtually, this year’s Ed Camp sessions were recorded. After the week was over, the recordings and presentation materials were made available to all staff, regardless if they were able to attend them live or not. That way, they are able to view any sessions that they may have missed whenever it is convenient for them.This year, session topics ranged from Materials Lead, Mr. Bill DeJoseph explaining what happens behind the scenes of shipping/receiving to an overview of the new Computer Science Program.
Also among presenters was high school music teacher, Mr. Bill Hart, and social studies teacher, Ms. Katie Hartmann who explained the versatility of music as a holistic application to any subject. Their hope is that the session will lead to future collaboration and engagement opportunities inclusive of the music department among other core subjects like math, science, social studies, etc.
Mrs. Heiles notes that Ed Camp is special because it’s organized exclusively within the PA Distance staff. “Our teachers and staff are excited to share their knowledge with other teachers and staff members,” she said. “They really want to give the best to the people that they work with.”