“So, this one time at Chromecamp… teachers were excited to work on a Saturday!” — Chad Flexon, Academic Innovation and STEM Director, Harrison Township School District
More than 200 kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers gathered at Pleasant Valley School on Jan. 27 to take part in Chromecamp.
Chromecamp is a gathering of educators with the focus exploring how Google’s ecosystem can be beneficial in the classroom. Sessions are run by fellow teachers who volunteer to assist other educators learn about Google extensions; representatives from Google are not present, it is an educator-run and attended event.
Briana Miller is a second-grade teacher at Pleasant Valley and describes the event as, “a participant-driven professional learning experience for teachers focusing on innovative and meaningful ways of incorporating technology in the classroom.”
Pleasant Valley was recently named one of seven schools in the state to the 2017–2020 “NJ Schools to Watch” list. The Harrison Township School District was also designated “A Future Ready School” and a “Google Reference District.”
Because of these distinctions and other factors, the district decided Pleasant Valley was the perfect location for Chromecamp 2018.
“As one of the few districts to earn these accolades in South Jersey, we wanted to open up our school to surrounding districts and host this event,” said Kate Linnehan, Pleasant Valley fifth-grade reading interventionist.
The sessions at Chromecamp are conducted as conversations rather than presentations because the attendees decide what will be discussed. Educators are encouraged to propose an innovative topic on a discussion board at the event and online they feel would benefit other teachers. They are also encouraged to suggest something they wish to know more about.
Designed to be a relaxed professional environment, teachers spend the day discussing Google extensions such as FlipGrid, a video discussion platform where teachers post topics and students engage in conversation via self-made video clips.
“The Chrome browser offers endless possibilities to be creative. When teachers are creative and engaging, we help develop creative and engaging learners,” said Chad Flexon, academic innovation and STEM director for Harrison Township School District.
Flexon helped bring Chromecamp to Pleasant Valley because of his interest in attending other education camps in the region. In the summer of 2016, Flexon attended Chromecamp at Belhaven Middle School in Linwood. In his blog, “An Innovator’s Journey,” he writes, “The event opened my eyes to many things and made me realize that my district had the infrastructure and knowledge to put together something similar.”
While the main idea behind Chromecamp is to pull innovative technology into the classroom for the benefit of students, teachers are also big benefactors.
“Talking to real, current educators who understand the challenges and joys of working in schools with students…it makes implementing all the new learning possible. We make connections with people we feel comfortable reaching out to with future questions or ideas,” said Kathy Lewin, Pleasant Valley library media specialist.
“Chromecamp has reaffirmed for me the need to continue to learn and grow as a professional. I am certain that next year’s session board will have changed drastically based on the new technology that is available. It has also affirmed my belief that student exposure to these programs and methods of learning is a huge responsibility of educators these days, and it is my goal to ensure that these experiences continue to happen in my classroom,” Miller said.
Green screens were located in spots around the school to experiment with different extensions. A Twitter handle sheet was on the wall for teachers to build a network to continue the conversation of tech in the classroom after the event.
In all, more than 50 school districts had representatives at the event, some with 15 or more participants.
“Some had teachers representing alone. Well, that individual now knows he or she has a community to bounce ideas off and learn from,” Flexon said.
“It was affirming to see hundreds of like-minded educators participating at Chromecamp. We are doing something right. We hit on a need. Teachers willingly attended Chromecamp on a January Saturday for the betterment of their professional learning which will impact their classroom instruction,” said Jennifer Hackett-Slimm, Pleasant Valley supervisor of instruction.
The event was sponsored by many technology companies and other organizations that helped supply prizes for the raffle at the end of the event.
