I participated in my first hack jam Thursday night hosted by @mozilla & #nwp. Laura (@epilepticrabbit) was a great facilitator – really stepping us all through the process, so we could become comfortable hosting our own hack jam some day. I’m so excited that the folks from the National Writing Project really get the need for digital fluency. I already suspected as much through following @chadsansing & @dogtrax, but to have it reaffirmed by so many new faces – awesome! 

Friday I got to hang out at the Science Leadership Academy. Isabella, a senior at the school, gave me the tour, enthusiastically sharing about all the project-based, inquiry learning going on there. I also got to sit in on the advanced computer science class where processing was being reviewed and a diverse group of coders were rocking it! The Friday night panel of hacking entrepreneurship was inspiring – so much goodness shared, I couldn’t keep up the note taking. I hope they share the video. 

I participated in my second hack jam Saturday morning. @chadsansing was one of the facilitators, so I was pretty sure it was going to rock. We hacked Candyland – our group reversed the premise, having players escape from Candyland and the big godzilla-type boss that ruled there. We shared lots of ways this kind of hacking can be extended into different subject areas.

I co-facilitated the #coderdojo session with @vscheivert. It was great getting to know Vince and see him share his passion for engaging kids in activities that are meaningful to them with our room full of participants. Hopefully we planted the seeds for some new dojos.

The final session for me on Saturday was why school? with @willrich45 and his collaborative project to nail down the 95 theses of school re-formation. I participated with the group representing student interests in education – very empowering & when a student actually joined us, he shared that he was surprised adults could relate so well.

Sunday, I participated in @jonbecker’s Build-a-MOOC session. Looking forward to working toward an smooc (small, meaningful, open, online community).

The culminating session for me was the Sunday morning panel. The panelists, their work and ideas represented the challenges facing and hopes riding on education that puts kids first.