Maine-Endwell High School hosts Southern Tier Edcamp

ENDWELL (WBNG) -- Maine-Endwell High School hosted an Edcamp event Saturday. The event is designed to help educators from throughout the Southern Tier learn from each other and give them an opportunity to network with their peers and prospective teachers.

At the event, participants brainstormed session topics about things that they were interested in. Maine-Endwell teacher Rachel Murat, who organized the event, said there was a wide range of topics discussed.

“We’ve had sessions on engagement in the classroom, what did I wish I knew when I was a first-year teacher. Our superintendent provided information about the hiring process for pre-service teachers,” said Murat. “We’ve talked about tech solutions in the classroom, project-based learning and mindfulness. It runs the gambit of no-tech, low-tech and high-tech.”

Edcamp prides itself on being a proponent of teacher choice. A rule of Edcamp is “the law of two feet,” which gives any participant who feels a session is not meeting their needs the opportunity to leave and check out another session.

Maine-Endwell principal, Mark Wilson, said seeing both veteran teachers and students interested in a career in teaching made the event unique.

“You have college students here, you have 30-year veteran teachers here and you have administrators here,” said Wilson. “I’ve got the chance to talk to a lot of people who are interested in going into education, they’re about to make that leap. The idea of being able to give back to that group and talk them through maybe some of those things to expect has been a really cool experience from my end.”

Maine-Endwell students interested in education were able to attend sessions as well. Maine-Endwell senior, Ava Baranyk, said attending sessions at the event solidified her plans to go into education in the future.

“It’s just really solidified that I want to go into the teaching profession and help others after seeing teachers that are so passionate about their job and helping kids,” said Baranyk.