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An Empowering Solution to Wasted Teacher Professional Development

How many teachers feel that professional development days are a waste of time? It is well known that most teachers dread professional development days. 

How many teachers feel that professional development days are a waste of time? It is well known that most teachers dread professional development days. 

EdCamp, a powerful teacher professional learning program, provides opportunities that model what lifelong learning should look like.  What started in Philadelphia in 2010 as a handful of colleagues who met to exchange educational ideas, has grown into a multi-country movement with hundreds of Edcamps organized every year. They’re free, non-commercial, and participant-driven. Over 750 Edcamps have impacted more than 50,000 teachers and their students in over 25 countries and 140 cities across America. To engage even more teachers in this powerful unconference learning model, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded a $2 million grant to the Edcamp Foundation.

Edcamps have always been about educators running their own show. Each event is locally organized, and the people who show up decide what they want to talk about. An Edcamp creates both time and space for all voices to be heard. Professional learning becomes a personalized experience that allows every educator the autonomy to select his or her own learning pathway and connect with like-minded colleagues.

“I have heard more positive feedback on this day than any other professional development I have ever been a part of. I keep wondering why we didn’t take our professional development in this direction a lot earlier. If we want classrooms where we are teaching students to be collaborative and more proactive in their learning, don’t we have to set up a culture where we trust teachers to do the same?”

                                              —Patrick Larkin (2010), assistant superintendent

Learn more or start an Edcamp in your school or school district?

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i.b.mee.