EdCamp in the Bend

Edcamp in the Bend is a series of events initiated by a team of educators at the South Bend Community Schools Corporation and enFocus. The goals of Edcamp in the Bend are: 1) to promote the culture of learning among educators, 2) to empower them to build and grow their own community. We will do this by holding free professional development events in a unique way--the events are free and participant-driven. This means there is no keynote speaker or predetermined, formal learning agenda; instead, attendants are encouraged to take on active roles during the event by suggesting discussion/learning topics and facilitating the breakout sessions. The initial idea for Edcamps comes from a group of teachers in Philadelphia who held a similar event in their community back in 2010. Since then, this professional development model has been so successful that many such events have been held across the US and even in other countries by educators themselves. We think if the Edcamp model has worked for teachers around the world and helped them build a learning community, why not do the same awesome thing here in South Bend for our community’s awesome teachers?

Funded by South Bend, IN (February 2020)