They came and didn’t “vote with their feet!” #SOL17

I don’t know what possessed me, but I posted a session at EdCamp Boston yesterday. If you have never been to an EdCamp before, this means that you have something you want to talk about with others, and you’ll agree to at least get the conversation going. After scanning the board, and noticing there was nothing related to science, I decided to go for it and post “Place-based education/Outdoor education.” I picked the smallest room (it said 8 people) and the last session of the day. There was even an aptly named room available: “Loon,” after a NH ski resort.

Breathe.

The room’s name turned out to be a great ice-breaker. When I kicked things off, I mentioned that I intentionally chose a room named for a favorite bird (and the first place I ever skied, BTW), because of the connection to our discussion topic. One attendee started playing loon calls on his laptop, which  got everyone laughing.

Breathe.

The interactive conversation stretched out over the next 45ish minutes and many wonderful anecdotes and suggestions were shared by all. The most exciting part for me, though, was that:

• people came — all 12 chairs were filled and several folks were standing at one point.
• people stayed — nobody “voted with their feet” to leave and move on to another session, an acceptable practice of all Ed Camps.

Breathe.

 

This post is part of the annual month-long Slice of Life writing challenge organized by Two Writing Teachers. Join us! It’s my first time slicing and apparently I’m an “Early Morning Slicer,” too!