Looking Back at 10 years of EdCamps Oh how the time flies, EdCamp Madison is turning 10 this year! It will be held Saturday, February 3rd at Sun Prairie West High School. Which can be found at 2850 Ironwood Drive in Sun Prairie Wisconsin from 8:30 am - 3:00 pm. Get more information and register here: https://sites.google.com/sunprairieschools.org/edcampmadwi/home I will always remember sitting in my first EdCamp opening session at the very first EdCamp Madison and having no clue what I was in for. So, I’d like to take this space to go over some of the basic rules of EdCamp. No One Will Pitch It for You EdCamps are unconferences. By this I mean that they have a blank slate of sessions for the day. There may be a few predetermined sessions, but ultimately the session topics are determined by attendees during the pitch & plan session that opens the day. If an idea gets pitched there will be a session on it. If a topic doesn’t get pitched, there won’t be a session on it. So, it i
I have been reading Tamara Letter's new book A Passion for Kindness . Although I am not finished with it yet, it has created a lot of space for personal reflection and action. When I finish the book, I hope to speak more on the actions. But for now I'd like to use this space for a bit of reflection. When Tamara outlines creating a culture of kindness, she describes the process as CULTIVATE Kindness. It is not a simple creation, it is an intentional process that is multi-faceted. The word cultivate brings to mind a gardening metaphor. As an avid gardener, I understand the many variables that play into a successful harvest. Tamara outlines the variables that play into being able to cultivate kindness in her book. C–Compassion (desire to act to improve another's situation) U–Understand (understand rather than making assumptions) L–Listen (listen for meaning behind the words) T–Take Time (sacrifice your time for another's needs) I–Inspire (actions can lead