Meet Alyssa Henley, Technology Integration Coach/ GATE District Coordinator

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What’s your first and last name?

  • Alyssa Henley

What do you teach / what is your ‘title’ at school?

  • Technology Integration Coach/ GATE District Coordinator

How are you involved in education?

  • I bring new technologies and ideas to our district. I help teachers integrate technology to enhance their curriculum. To take away some of the fear of trying new things, teachers schedule their classes with me and I work with the class modeling and co-teaching how to infuse the technology into their curriculum. I also provide professional development for the district and meet with teachers one-on-one. I also coordinate and teach our district’s gifted students.

What does your ideal school or classroom look like?

  • My ideal class is an environment where students are secure enough to build their confidence by taking risks and learning from their mistakes. I want students learning life principles and skill sets that will help my students be college and career ready.

If you were to lead a session at Edcamp, what would it be about?

  • Marketing yourself to your students ( past experience as a Vice President of Public Relations) , new teachers 101, active learning, technology integration, bringing science to life, code.org, or Chris Biffle’s Whole Brain Power Teaching.

Do you have a website or blog?

Are you on Twitter?

If you are attending EdCampOKC, we’d love to feature your information here too! Please submit this contribution form, including a small photo we can use in your post.

Meet William Walker, Director of Music

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What’s your first and last name?

  • William Walker

What do you teach / what is your ‘title’ at school?

  • Director of Music

How are you involved in education?

  • I teach at Mount St. Mary Catholic High School. Music in Society, History of Rock & Roll, Choir, and Drumline. Also enrolled (and over halfway done!) at Southern Nazarene University in the Masters of Educational Leadership program.

What does your ideal school or classroom look like?

  • My ideal school is saturated with acceptance for all types of students. Students that do not come to school to learn, come to be loved and accepted. If we understand that, then the foundation for an educational experience can be had.

If you were to lead a session at Edcamp, what would it be about?

  • Balancing love and acceptance with hard work and expectations.

Are you on Twitter?

If you are attending EdCampOKC, we’d love to feature your information here too! Please submit this contribution form, including a small photo we can use in your post.

Meet Jessica Jordan, Teacher

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What’s your first and last name?

  • Jessica Jordan

What do you teach / what is your ‘title’ at school?

  • Teacher

How are you involved in education?

  • Currently I teach 7th grade geography at Shawnee Middle School. However, I have taught pre-K, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grades- all subject areas in Tennessee and Georgia. I have also taught Ed. Psych and Collaboration classes to preservice educators at Columbus State University. Although I just finished my doctorate degree a year ago at Union University, I still feel like there is so much to learn and advocate for not only in Oklahoma, but throughout the United States when it comes to education.

What does your ideal school or classroom look like?

  • I love collaborative, purposeful lessons that engage students in learning, organizing, presenting, and life skills. In my room I have student work hanging everywhere…when it will stay up!

If you were to lead a session at Edcamp, what would it be about?

  • Vital Parent Communication
  • Parents as Partners
  • Inspiring Educators
  • Behavior Management
  • Starting an Ed Chat (former co-creator of #TNedchat)
  • TweetDeck for Educators

Are you on Twitter?

If you are attending EdCampOKC, we’d love to feature your information here too! Please submit this contribution form, including a small photo we can use in your post.

Meet Katie Ann Wilson, Presenter/Trainer/Teacher/Augmented Reality Guru

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What’s your first and last name?

  • Katie Ann Wilson

What do you teach / what is your ‘title’ at school?

  • Presenter/Trainer/Teacher/Augmented Reality Guru

How are you involved in education?

  • EdTech is my passion. I present on a variety of topics focused on education in the classroom. My favorite topics are augmented reality in education. I love to share the many ways you can use and create augmented reality to use in education. I also love to share how to change a simple story and create it amazing with the help of a green-screen that doesn’t have to be green.

What does your ideal school or classroom look like?

  • The ideal classroom is an active and engaging environment. A place that is safe to explore, learn, and even learn from our mistakes.

If you were to lead a session at Edcamp, what would it be about?

  • I have lead several edCamp session on green-screen, augmented reality, student learning systems, and web tools. I would love to share all day if needed on how to use and even create augmented reality experiences.

Do you have a website or blog?

Are you on Twitter?

If you are attending EdCampOKC, we’d love to feature your information here too! Please submit this contribution form, including a small photo we can use in your post.

EdCampOKC Postponed to Saturday, March 7, 2015

With safety in mind and based on the latest weather forecasts, the organizer team for EdCampOKC has decided to postpone our event at Southmoore High School until Saturday, March 7th. We regret this inconvenience but hope your plans will still permit you to join us in Moore on March 7th for a fantastic day of learning, networking, collaboration and prizes.

We need an accurate attendee count for lunch. If you CANNOT attend on this rescheduled date, please directly cancel your free ticket on EventBrite. Note you can only cancel an order on a desktop/laptop computer, not a mobile device. Alternatively, you can submit this short Google form and a member of our organizer team will cancel your ticket. (The Google Form can be filled out on any device.) If you CAN attend on March 7th, no action on your part is needed: Just bring your EventBrite ticket to EdCampOKC at 8:30 the morning of March 7th! See our reminders post from February 25th for more details about getting ready for this great day of learning!

81* 3/31/2008 by peterkreder, on Flickr
Creative Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic License   by  peterkreder 

Weather and EdCampOKC 2015 (Thursday night update)

We emailed this message out tonight via EventBrite to everyone registered for EdCampOKC 2015. (460 at this point!)

A Message from EdCampOKC 2015 Organizers:

Here’s an update on where we are with a weather decision for EdCampOKC on Saturday, February 28th. We know many of you are traveling from out of town and we want to make the best decision to help everyone stay safe.

We will make a go / no go decision for EdCampOKC by noon on Friday, February 27th. We will email out that decision via EventBrite, and post it to Twitter (@edCampOKC) as well as our website, www.edcampOKC.org. We should have a clearer picture of the weather forecast at that time. If we are unable to hold EdCampOKC 2015 on Saturday, February 28th, we will postpone to Saturday, March 7th. Southmoore HIgh School is available for us to use their facility on March 7th if needed.

That said, we will definitely postpone if OSSAA cancels all athletic events in Oklahoma City for February 28th.

Thanks for your understanding! EdCampOKC is coming…we hope on Feb 28th, but if not it will be March 7th. We’ll be in touch tomorrow!

The EdCampOKC Organizer Team

Reminders for EdCampOKC on Saturday, Feb 28th!

Here’s the email we sent out to everyone registered for our February 28th conference today!

A Message from EdCampOKC 2015 Organizers:

We’re looking forward to seeing you this Saturday, February 28th, at 8 am for EdCampOKC at Southmore High School in Moore, Oklahoma. Here are a few reminders to help make your EdCamp experience GREAT!

  1. Weather? We’re a GO! We are planning to hold EdCampOKC on Saturday Feb 28th but are watching the weather closely. If something changes drastically we will notify you via EventBrite email, as well as Twitter (@edcampOKC) and our website EdCampOKC.org.
  2. Bring your printed EventBrite ticket: Doorprizes will be based on EventBrite ticket checkins, so PLEASE be sure to bring your printed ticket or your ticket on your smartphone. A volunteer will scan your ticket upon arrival.
  3. Charge your devices: Remember to bring your laptop and/or tablet computer to EdCampOKC. Fully charge your devices the night before!
  4. Schedule & Maps: Our schedule and maps of Southmore High School are updated and available on www.edcampokc.org/schedule/. Bookmark / favorite / save this web link, along with the Google Doc link to our “session grid” which will be updated the morning of February 28th as we build our schedule of sessions together.
  5. Breakfast & Lunch: Don’t worry about food in the morning or afternoon, our sponsors have donated over $3000 to provide both breakfast and lunch for all participants! Breakfast items will be from Panera and Chick-fila, Lunch will be from Panera. We will also give away most of our PRIZES at the end of lunchtime, so you don’t want to miss it!
  6. Parking: Plan to park on the east or west side of Southmore High School. Approximately 150 spots are available on the east side, more on the west where students park. If possible please enter through the main east entrance. Very limited parking is available to the north. Because of a basketball tourament also happening Saturday, we recommend you do NOT go out for lunch (we’ll have free lunch provided) so you don’t lose your parking space.
  7. Post-EdCampOKC Meetup at Fassler Hall: Please plan to join us for our after-party at Fassler Hall, 421 NW 10th St, Oklahoma City, OK 73103. A Google Maps link is available. If you might come, please submit this short RSVP survey.
  8. App Info Coming: Our volunteers have been working on a special EdCampOKC mobile app this year, and it’s almost ready! Look for a separate email coming later this week with download information.
  9. No Vendor Sessions: Remember EdCamp is all about conversations and not about vendor advertising. if you are a vendor, we are glad to have you participate but do NOT want you to lead a session that is specific to your product/service.
  10. Please Thank Our Sponsors! Please take time to thank our sponsors via Twitter. They are listed on our sponsor page, and you’ll see their Twitter channel IDs on posters as well as digital signage during EdCampOKC.
  11. Cancel if Not Coming: If your plans change and you will NOT attend EdCampOKC, please log into EventBrite and cancel your ticket reservation. As of Tuesday night we have 450 registered and only 30 tickets remaining. We expect to sell out. If you cancel your ticket, someone on our waiting list will be able to get your ticket. (We hope you’ll come though and not cancel!)
  12. App Smackdown / Demo Slam: Our last event of the day will be an “App Smackdown / Demo Slam.” If you’d like to show an app or demo a digital tool, please submit this Google Form. We may not be able to accept all submissions but we’ll take as many as we can, and post the presenter list on our main schedule page. (No vendors please!)
We look forward to seeing you at EdCampOKC on Saturday! For your reference, here’s our schedule from our main schedule/maps page:

Location: Southmoore High School, 2901 S Santa Fe Ave, Moore, OK 73160 (Google Maps link – PDF Map of Meeting Rooms)

8:30-9:00 Registration, Breakfast by Panera, Networking and Session Planning
9:00-9:30 Whole Group Kickoff
9:30-10:30 Session 1
10:45-11:45 Session 2
11:45-12:30 Lunch by Panera (provided by sponsors) and Makerspace Playground Exploration Time
12:30-12:55 Prizes/Give Aways
1:00-1:45 Session 3
2:00-2:45 Session 4
2:45-3:30 SHARE OUT & App Smackdown / Wrap Up / Raffle / Prizes / Give Aways
4:00-6:00 After Party (Fassler Hall, 421 NW 10th St, Oklahoma City, OK 73103 – Google Maps link) * 

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Original photo by Tammy Parks

Meet Regina Kenton, Orchestra teacher

What’s your first and last name?

  • Regina Kenton

What do you teach / what is your ‘title’ at school?

  • Orchestra teacher

How are you involved in education?

  • I teach the love and logic of music. I teach skills both musical and social that enrich and support academics. I teach 4th-8th grade students violin, viola, cello, and bass and have been loving it for 8 years. I teach at Lake Park Elementary and Western Oaks Middle School in Putnam City.

What does your ideal school or classroom look like?

  • Hardware:My ideal class as a state-of-the-art sound system that allows for recording and listening. There are practice rooms with all the amenities (weighted keyboards, cello chairs, and mirrors to guide proper posture technique). I am already blessed to have a Smartboard, document camera, iPad class set, MacBook, and weighted keyboard at my disposal. Access to a computer lab with Smartmusic would be icing on the cake! All that’s missing is the ability to optimize the use of all this technology.Software: my kiddos come in to class ready to work together. They understand there is routine and the expectation that all information must be sought out. I don’t have to lecture or be the only model bcause my students want to share what they’ve learned through private tutors or private practice. We perform, listen, and critique to better ourselves and I am more of a facilitator or coach than the only source of information.

If you were to lead a session at Edcamp, what would it be about?

  • Utilizing arts in the core classroom.

Are you on Twitter?

If you are attending EdCampOKC, we’d love to feature your information here too! Please submit this contribution form, including a small photo we can use in your post.

Meet Telannia Norfar, Mathematics Teacher

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What’s your first and last name?

  • Telannia Norfar

What do you teach / what is your ‘title’ at school?

  • Mathematics Teacher

How are you involved in education?

  • I am a Geometry and PreCalculus teacher at Northwest Classen High School. I also am a National Faculty member for Buck Institute for Education (BIE).

What does your ideal school or classroom look like?

  • My ideal school is one where learning is constant, teachers are guides, students are owners of their own learning and technology is natural and ubiquitous.

If you were to lead a session at Edcamp, what would it be about?

  • I am really into inquiry and questioning right now. I probably would have a session about the Question Formulation Technique (QFT) or project based learning.

Do you have a website or blog?

Are you on Twitter?

If you are attending EdCampOKC, we’d love to feature your information here too! Please submit this contribution form, including a small photo we can use in your post.

Meet Merry Stone, Assistant Superintendent

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What’s your first and last name?

  • Merry Stone

What do you teach / what is your ‘title’ at school?

  • Assistant Superintendent

How are you involved in education?

  • I am an advocate for public education. My job revolves around ensuring students in my district have an effective learning environment and the resources needed to achieve to their highest potential. I’m always looking for ways to make the learning environment the best it can be for our students. I also never miss an opportunity to tell our community the great things going on in our school system. Then when needs arise, we already have supporters ready to help.

What does your ideal school or classroom look like?

  • A student centered, project/ problem based classroom with the teacher as the facilitator

If you were to lead a session at Edcamp, what would it be about?

  • Project/ Problem based learning or Career Pathways

Are you on Twitter?

If you are attending EdCampOKC, we’d love to feature your information here too! Please submit this contribution form, including a small photo we can use in your post.