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  ** Are you ready? Your 3rd Annual EdCampMadisonAL is coming! **  ** Please join us on Saturday, February 7, 2015 at James Clemens High School for a day of **

 ** FREE professional development, FREE breakfast and lunch, and lots of FUN! **

What is EdCamp? EdCamp is non-traditional professional development that is a lot of fun! The sessions are about what YOU want to talk about and learn. It is totally participant driven. We are excited to once again be a part of this fun PD experience and hope you will be able to join us. This is a great way to participate in PD on your terms and help you meet the goals of your PLP!

The best news is that it is free of charge - that’s right, **FREE**! Breakfast and lunch will also be provided. All educators are welcome so please tell and bring your friends from other districts.This is going to be an exciting day and you don’t want to miss it! Due to the high demand our first two years, we have increased the number of tickets that will be available. Only the first 350 people to register will be able to attend. Be sure to register now so that you can reserve your spot for this free teacher/administrator/educator professional development!

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Follow us on Twitter: @EdCampMadisonAL

Registration: [] or scan this QR code.



Want more information about EdCamp? []

Thank you, and we look forward to seeing YOU at EdCampMadisonAL! The EdCampMadisonAL Board of Directors: Angie Bush, Carmen Buchanan, Jackie Flowers, Sandy Brand, Jennifer Butler, Krissy Malone, Joan Comer, Kipp Cain, and Leah Faris

___

Are you ready for EdCampMadisonAL? Here is more new info! :-)

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">EdCampMadisonAL is just a week away and we are so excited to see everyone. We thought you may have a few questions, especially if you have never been to an edcamp before. We completely understand- we've been there! Here is some great, general information about what to expect and we thought we'd pass it along to you. Some of our other EdCamp friends from around the country have put together this information, so we thought we would share!

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> **What to expect** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> An Edcamp isn’t your traditional conference. In fact, there’s really nothing traditional about it at all. Our sessions for the day are not published, or even known, ahead of time. That’s right, you’re going into the day not quite sure what you’re going to learn about. Stay with us here, don’t back out just yet! <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">Since the day is 100% driven by the attendees, this is where the session (conversation) ideas come from. You (plural) are our leaders (facilitators)! What does this look like you ask? When you arrive in the morning we’ll begin with breakfast and some networking time (meet and greet). You’ll notice a session board and general "schedule". This will have on it our shell of the day’s structure. You’ll see what classrooms we’ll be using as well as the different session times for the day.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> Do you have an idea for a session you’d like to lead or a conversation to facilitate? Simply head up to the chart and write it in for the classroom and time slot you’d like. It’s as simple as that. In a very short amount of time, the session board will be filled with an entire day full of sessions.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> Now, don’t worry if you don’t have a full blown presentation with slides, handouts, and the like ready to go. That’s not necessary. If you do, great! If you don’t, that’s probably better. There will be a projector in each room for anyone to connect their device to if needed for showing supplemental material. Just because you added the session/topic to the session board doesn’t mean you have to be the only voice during that entire time slot. In fact, we don’t want you to be. This needs to be a learning conversation around a particular topic. We need you to facilitate and give us focus and let the other folks in the room take it from there. Throw together a wiki or a google doc of information resources as you learn together. As a group do whatever you need to do to make the learning relevant during the time (and to help make it stick after the time).

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> So you might be thinking, what if I start in one session and after a few minutes discover it’s not for me? Here’s what you do: vote with your feet. If you’re not getting out of it what you need, go to another session. That’s OK to do during an Edcamp! Traditional conference settings this is usually frowned upon or seen as rude. Not here! We want you to get the most out of your day of learning. It’s your day. If you need to, go revisit the session chart and head somewhere else.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> You’ll likely see conversations continuing during lunch and throughout the day. Some may carry over into other sessions, some folks may skip a session to head to the commons area to continue a conversation. Again, while informal and non-traditional, it’s all acceptable.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> **What to bring**

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> Here are some things you might want to bring with you: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> 1. An open mind <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> 2. A laptop, tablet, smart phone, or other preferred device. These come in handy for needing to email, tweet, blog, Google doc, etc. during a session. OR, just bring a pencil and paper! <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> 3. Your passion for education and desire to make it better for kids. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> 4. A plan for sharing what you learned. We must take these new ideas, information, and conversations back to those that weren’t at **<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16pt;">EdCampMadisonAL **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"> 5. A friend, colleague, or an administrator! The more the merrier!

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> Dress comfortably and casually! And, remember, breakfast and lunch are provided. During lunch, we will have a technology Smackdown where we share our favorite tech tools so, if you have a favorite website, app, etc., feel free to share it - no "presentation" needed, just 1-2 minutes about what it is and why you love it!

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> We are so excited and can't wait to see all of you next Saturday!
 * [[image:https://ebmedia.eventbrite.com/s3-s3/marketing/emails/top.gif]] ||
 * || <span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms',geneva; font-size: small;">[[image:https://evbdn.eventbrite.com/s3-s3/eventlogos/27830853/edcamplogo5x5-1.png width="100" height="103" caption="logo"]]

<span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms',geneva; font-size: large;">** Happy New Year Edcampers! ** ** We are so excited that EdCampMadisonAL is 31 days! ** <span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms',geneva; font-size: small;">We are working behind the scenes to make sure our Edcamp is successful again this year. <span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms',geneva; font-size: small;">If you are on Twitter, would you share your twitter handle with us please? Here is the link to the google doc. http://goo.gl/54MfgK Thanks to those of you who saw the link posted in social media and already posted your twitter handle! We will be posting the link on our wiki too.

<span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms',geneva; font-size: small;">Also, we will be rolling out a mobile app for EdCampMadisonAL. This app will allow you to see the session board on your own mobile device and you will also get any edcamp updates, live!

<span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms',geneva; font-size: small;"> Please download the app called “Yapp”. <span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms',geneva; font-size: small;">Here is the IOS version: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/yappbox/id482926558?mt=8 <span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms',geneva; font-size: small;">Here is the android version: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=us.yapp.android&hl=en

<span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms',geneva; font-size: small;">Never fear, if you can’t find the right app, we will have the apps linked and displayed for you on Feb 1.

<span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms',geneva; font-size: small; vertical-align: baseline;">The success of Edcamp relies on our attendees! We need **YOU** to make **YOUR**day more successful! Have you thought about what you might like to share this year? What about the smackdown? For those of you who are new to edcamp, prepare to be dazzled by your educator colleagues. <span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms',geneva; font-size: small; vertical-align: baseline;">Upon arrival, the session board is completely blank. Our attendees will fill in the session board with titles that they want to share. This year we are going to have 25 minutes sessions as well as 50 minute sessions. Remember, anyone can be a presenter; a teacher, a counselor, an administrator or any stakeholder who has something to share. <span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms',geneva; font-size: small; vertical-align: baseline;">Edcamp is also reliant on ** the law of two feet. **This premise encourages participants to find a session that meets their needs and also encourages participants to leave sessions that do not meet their needs. That’s right! If you get all you need in the first 10 minutes of a session or you can hear the session next door and you want to go see what is going on, you are encouraged to leave and go find a session that interests you.

<span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms',geneva; font-size: small;">I am sure that you have things you do in your classroom and at your school that you can share. Do you use a strategy that has worked well? Do you use a strategy that you love, but you can’t quite figure out how to tweak it to make it better? Do you use apps that your students love? What about collaborative projects? Project-based learning? Have you read something lately that you want to discuss? The possibilities are endless!

<span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms',geneva; font-size: small;">At lunch we will have our “smackdown”. The Smackdown is a famous part of edcamp that many of us look forward to. During this time, we turn the mic over to the participants to share quick apps, tips, websites, hardware, software… anything at all! The smackdown turns out to be a huge share session during which, we all learn together.

<span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms',geneva; font-size: small;">We are opening up more tickets today, but we will sell out again. If you know you will be unable to attend, please do click on the EdCampMadisonAL link below and cancel your ticket so that we can offer your ticket to someone on our waiting list.

<span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms',geneva; font-size: small;">We will update the wiki with the Tweetup location for Friday January 31. Anyone is invited to attend. <span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms',geneva; font-size: small;">We can’t wait to see everyone soon! Until then, Happy New Year! We hope you have a successful start of the second semester!

<span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms',geneva; font-size: small;">Your edcamp chicks,

<span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms',geneva; font-size: small;">Angie Bush, Alyson Carpenter, Missy Coman, Jackie Flowers, Carmen Buchanan, Amy Thaxton, and Joan Comer

||  || <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #666666; display: block; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">

**Your EdCampMadisonAL board would like to take a moment and wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving. We hope that your blessings abound!**

We have officially sold out and have people on our waiting list, so, if you know you are not going to be able to join us, please do cancel your ticket order. We are hard at work behind the scenes securing amazing door prizes and a delicious breakfast and lunch! Have you thought about what you may be able to present this year? We can't wait to see what the session board has to offer. We will have 25 minute and 50 minute sessions this year, what can you share? Enjoy your time with family and friends and we will see everyone in February!

Your EdCampMadisonAL chicks, Angie Bush, Carmen Buchanan, Jackie Flowers, Amy Thaxton, Missy Coman, Alyson Carpenter, and Joan Comer

=Welcome to the EdCampMadisonAL wiki!!= Tickets for EdCampMadisonAL 2014 NOW available!

To get your ticket, please click here!

[] We can't wait to see you in February.

We are very proud to announce that EdCampMadisonAL will be back in 2014! We look forward to seeing everyone on February 1, 2014 at James Clemens High School. Stay tuned to all our outlets, including facebook ([|www.facebook.com/edcampmadisonal]) and our twitter account (@edcampmadisonal) for information!

EdCampMadisonAL is being held at James Clemens High School. The entrance to the school is on County Line Road in Madison. There is a traffic light at the entrance. Once you turn into the entrance, you will wind past the soccer fields to the school. Attached is an aerial artist's rendering of the school. The main entrance is by the circular drive and has the columns in front. That is where you will enter for EdCamp. There is plenty of parking.
 * Where to go on Saturday Morning **

!

Are you on Twitter? If so, please go to our GoogleDoc and add your Twitter info. We want to be able to follow you, and allow your fellow EdCampers to follow you, too! @http://tinyurl.com/a2ccw25
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Twitter Names **

Info for our 2014 Tweetup, coming soon!
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Friday Night Tweetup **

We are so excited to have so many educators from across Alabama - and even Louisiana! We thought that you might be interested to see where your fellow EdCampers are coming from:
 * <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">More than a Dozen School Systems to be Represented at EdCampMadisonAL 2013 **

What a wonderful variety of resources/districts to learn from! If your school district isn't on the list, let us know and we'll add it. It's going to be a GREAT day!
 * Alabama State Dept. of Education
 * Athens City
 * Attalla City
 * Auburn City
 * Calhoun County
 * Decatur City
 * Guntersville City
 * Homewood City
 * Huntsville City
 * Lawrence County
 * Madison City
 * Madison County
 * Morgan County
 * North Lake Christian Academy – Covington, LA
 * Sheffield City
 * Tuscaloosa City

Hello, EdCampers!!

We are SO excited that EdCampMadisonAL is right around the corner!! Several of you have asked about the schedule. We want to give you a glimpse of our session board; it will give you the session times and room assignments. However, you might notice that the actual sessions are blank. There is a reason for that! Part of the EdCamp philosophy is that the day is participant driven and participant led; so, the board will be filled in on Saturday morning as you arrive with topics that YOU are interested in - that are important to YOU - that YOU are passionate about! EdCamp is all about sharing; we want to learn from each other! If there is a particular topic or technology that you enjoy using or sharing with others, please consider shaing it at EdCampMadisonAL! The environment is informal - no stress required! Link to session board: https://edcampmadisonal.wikispaces.com/Session+Board

Following the last session, we will meet in the cafeteria for the final wrap-up and the DOOR PRIZES!!


 * Lodging **

If you are coming to Madison on Friday night, here are a couple of choices for hotels. They are all close to James Clemens High School.

<span style="color: #002060; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">[] <span style="color: #002060; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">[] <span style="color: #002060; font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">[]

EdCampMadisonAL -

We are just weeks away from the first North Alabama EdCamp experience and we know that lots of you have questions about what the day will be like. We know - we've been there! EdCampKC put together some great, general information about what to expect and we thought we'd pass it along to you.

An Edcamp isn’t your traditional conference. In fact, there’s really nothing traditional about it at all. Our sessions for the day are not published, or even known, ahead of time. That’s right, you’re going into the day not quite sure what you’re going to learn about. Stay with us here, don’t back out just yet! Since the day is 100% driven by you, the attendees, that is where the session (conversation) ideas come from. You (plural) are our leaders (facilitators)! What does this look like you ask? When you arrive in the morning we’ll begin with breakfast and some networking time (meet and greet). You’ll notice a session board and general "schedule". This will have on it our shell of the day’s structure. You’ll see what classrooms we’ll be using as well as the different session times for the day.
 * What to expect**

Do you have an idea for a session you’d like to lead or a conversation to facilitate? Simply head up to the chart and write it in for the classroom and time slot you’d like. It’s as simple as that. In a very short amount of time, the session board will be filled with an entire day full of sessions. As Josh Allen calls it, it’s an “old school wiki” at its best! Now, don’t worry if you don’t have a full blown presentation with slides, handouts, and the like ready to go. That’s not necessary. If you do, great! If you don’t, that’s probably better. There will be a projector in each room for anyone to connect their device to if needed for showing supplemental material. Just because you added the session/topic to the session board doesn’t mean you have to be the only voice during that entire time slot. In fact, we don’t want you to be. This needs to be a learning conversation around a particular topic. We need you to facilitate and give us focus and let the other folks in the room take it from there. Throw together a wiki of information resources as you learn together or build a Google doc. As a group do whatever you need to do to make the learning relevant during the time (and to help make it stick after the time).

So you might be thinking, what if I start in one session and after a few minutes discover it’s not for me? Here’s what you do: vote with your feet. If you’re not getting out of it what you need, go to another session. That’s OK to do during an Edcamp! Traditional conference settings this is usually frowned upon or seen as rude. Not here! We want you to get the most out of your day of learning. It’s your day. If you need to, go revisit the session chart and head somewhere else.

You’ll likely see conversations continuing during lunch and throughout the day. Some may carry over into other sessions, some folks may skip a session to head to the commons area to continue a conversation. Again, while informal and non-traditional, it’s all acceptable.


 * What to bring**

Here are some things you might want to bring with you: 1. An open mind 2. A laptop, tablet, smart phone, or other preferred device. These come in handy for needing to email, tweet, blog, Google doc, etc. during a session. OR, just bring a pencil and paper! 3. Your passion for education and desire to make it better for kids. 4. A plan for sharing what you learned. We must take these new ideas, information, and conversations back to those that weren’t at EdCampMadisonAL. 5. A friend, colleague, or an administrator! The more the merrier!

Dress comfortably and casually! And, remember, breakfast and lunch are provided. During lunch, we will have a technology Smackdown where we share our favorite tech tools so, if you have a favorite website, app, etc., feel free to share it - no "presentation" needed, just 1-2 minutes about what it is and why you love it!

We are so excited and can't wait to see all of you on Feb. 2nd!

[]
 * Dear EdCampers! Happy New Year! **
 * We are so excited with the recent spike in attendees! We can't wait to see you in a mere 26 days! We want to invite you all to follow us on Twitter **** @EdCampMadisonAL **** and on facebook at this link: **
 * We will be posting some information to both of those social media sites in the coming weeks. Also, please do make plans to bring any device to EdCamp! While we happily support pen and paper, we will also have wifi available and many many power outlets. :-) **
 * We have also written and recorded this silly rap, we do anticipate a little fun! [|http://goo.gl/nYw98] **
 * If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask. **

<span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: 2380.5px; width: 1px;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">EdCampMadisonAL -
 * Sincerely, **
 * Your EdCampMadisonAL Team **
 * _ **

EdCampMadisonAL is just a week away and we are so excited to see everyone. We thought you may have a few questions, especially if you have never been to an edcamp before. We completely understand- we've been there! Here is some great, general information about what to expect and we thought we'd pass it along to you. Some of our other EdCamp friends from around the country have put together this information, so we thought we would share!

An Edcamp isn’t your traditional conference. In fact, there’s really nothing traditional about it at all. Our sessions for the day are not published, or even known, ahead of time. That’s right, you’re going into the day not quite sure what you’re going to learn about. Stay with us here, don’t back out just yet! Since the day is 100% driven by the attendees, this is where the session (conversation) ideas come from. You (plural) are our leaders (facilitators)! What does this look like you ask? When you arrive in the morning we’ll begin with breakfast and some networking time (meet and greet). You’ll notice a session board and general "schedule". This will have on it our shell of the day’s structure. You’ll see what classrooms we’ll be using as well as the different session times for the day.
 * What to expect**

Do you have an idea for a session you’d like to lead or a conversation to facilitate? Simply head up to the chart and write it in for the classroom and time slot you’d like. It’s as simple as that. In a very short amount of time, the session board will be filled with an entire day full of sessions.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> Now, don’t worry if you don’t have a full blown presentation with slides, handouts, and the like ready to go. That’s not necessary. If you do, great! If you don’t, that’s probably better. There will be a projector in each room for anyone to connect their device to if needed for showing supplemental material. Just because you added the session/topic to the session board doesn’t mean you have to be the only voice during that entire time slot. In fact, we don’t want you to be. This needs to be a learning conversation around a particular topic. We need you to facilitate and give us focus and let the other folks in the room take it from there. Throw together a wiki or a google doc of information resources as you learn together. As a group do whatever you need to do to make the learning relevant during the time (and to help make it stick after the time).

So you might be thinking, what if I start in one session and after a few minutes discover it’s not for me? Here’s what you do: vote with your feet. If you’re not getting out of it what you need, go to another session. That’s OK to do during an Edcamp! Traditional conference settings this is usually frowned upon or seen as rude. Not here! We want you to get the most out of your day of learning. It’s your day. If you need to, go revisit the session chart and head somewhere else.

You’ll likely see conversations continuing during lunch and throughout the day. Some may carry over into other sessions, some folks may skip a session to head to the commons area to continue a conversation. Again, while informal and non-traditional, it’s all acceptable.


 * What to bring**

Here are some things you might want to bring with you: 1. An open mind 2. A laptop, tablet, smart phone, or other preferred device. These come in handy for needing to email, tweet, blog, Google doc, etc. during a session. OR, just bring a pencil and paper! 3. Your passion for education and desire to make it better for kids. 4. A plan for sharing what you learned. We must take these new ideas, information, and conversations back to those that weren’t at **<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16pt;">EdCampMadisonAL **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">. 5. A friend, colleague, or an administrator! The more the merrier!

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> Dress comfortably and casually! And, remember, breakfast and lunch are provided. During lunch, we will have a technology Smackdown where we share our favorite tech tools so, if you have a favorite website, app, etc., feel free to share it - no "presentation" needed, just 1-2 minutes about what it is and why you love it!

We are so excited and can't wait to see all of you next Saturday!