New York City is home of the largest school district in the country. On one hand, this means that it is one of the biggest bureaucracies in the United States. On another hand, it makes the city a target for opportunists and bullshit artists. On a magical third hand, it also means that, statistically¹ speaking, there are a lot of smart people lurking in the shadows. Lately, it seems that the the constituency of smart people is growing to a critical mass.

EdCampNYC

Inspired by FooCamp and BarCamp, EdCampNYC is a loosely organized “unconference” with sessions led by practioners—or as I like to call them, people who are not representing the sales and marketing department. It’s happening tomorrow, Saturday, May 5, 2012 at Francis Lewis High School in Queens, NY.

By attending EdCamp, you are guaranteed to learn something new, make a new friend and receive information that you can immediately apply in your classroom and professional life!

I dig conferences, but there are few things I hate more than vendors hawking their wares at conferences. EdCampNYC is all of the good without any of the bad.

New York Education Tech Entrepreneurs

Every month, Douglas, Lee, and Saad bring two unlikely groups together: entreprenuers and educators. I’d argue that the two have more in common than they you’d think, but that’s another topic all together. New York City is becomming the second largest incubator of technology startups in the country (see also: Tumblr, Foursquare, Etsy, Meetup, Bit.ly). Collaboration with the education community is a natural fit.

Their last meeting featured James Shelton III, Assistant Deputy Secretary for Innovation and Improvement for the U.S. Department of Education and the top brass of local startups. Other previous meetings have welcomed professors from local universities and technology directors from nearby school districts.

The meeting is on June 5th. There is a $5 fee to join, but it’s completely refundable if you can’t make it.

A Note to Non-New Yorkers

Teaching is a very insular occupation. I believe that the education community in New York City is in something of a renaissance, but that I live here. THere may be something awesome brewing where you live, but your going to have to drag your weary self out of the house to seek it out. In many waysm smaller communities are at a significant advantage because the bureacracy isn’t as big and the pockets aren’t as deep (I’m looking at ypu textbook publishers).

A Note to New Yorkers

I plan at being at both of the events listed above. Feel free to reach out on Twitter if you also plan on attending.