This week in class we participated in a super cool, collaborative activity called an Ed Camp. The premise of this activity was allow for creative questions, discussions and open communication. It started with an invitation to the group to write down and topics of discussions or queries any of us had. From there, we all had three stickers we used to vote on topics we felt were most interesting or important. We did this in order to narrow down the topics of discussion to three. We then split up and spread out so every topic had its own area for a discussion group. You could stay with the same group the whole time or move back and forth between groups if you wished.
I chose to go to the group that discussed how teachers can help with the increase in mental health issues and anxiety in students. We had such an in depth conversation that we didn’t want to return to class because we had so much to say!
Some cool things about this activity are that in can be done in small or large groups! We had around 30 people but we also could have had 300 hundred and made things work. I also appreciated that it invited a safe place to ask questions because no one wrote their name on their original topic so in theory you could submit a prompt for voting and no one needs to know who submitted it. I felt that this also gave us space to discuss with peers in a more relaxed format. If we didn’t like one group or topic we could just switch to the next.
Overall, this was a fun activity and I would certainly use this format in the future whether I am running a meeting or simply trying to foster open communication with students!