“I came here for four years. I love bringing things I learned to my classroom.” says the twitter user, “@SCriscione”. Hundreds of teachers filled the halls and the Sun Theater as if they were students students on a Saturday.  Similarly to a school day, Ed Camp started at  8 am. Saturday, February 7th with educators from around the Missouri region who came out to become students for the day. Learning how to better their teaching styles, meeting other educators, and becoming more of a tech savvy teacher is the overall goal of Ed Camp. Student Media representatives Emma Iffrig, 11th grade, and Jerell McCole, 11th grade, floated around the halls and into different sessions throughout the day. Familiar faces were seen and conversations were sparked.

“You’re a junior? Shut the front door!”  Sarah Christman exclaimed to Iffrig as they recognized each other.

Twitter was the main hub for the attendees of Ed Camp. Using the hashtag, “edcampstl,” GCAA started live tweeting the event. A twitter moment to remember started off as a picture of a cup of Starbucks coffee with the name “Bob” written on it. Since food and drinks aren’t allowed in the Sun Theater, many cups of coffee were left on the steps in the lobby. Glancing over them, the name “Bob” stuck out. As a result, Student Media took to Twitter. Tweeting, “Shoutout to Bob! Where are you Bob? We want to say hi!” Later that day the tweet was tweeted, “WE FOUND BOB!!!!!.” Social media was one of the ways Ed Camp and attendees connected with one another. Users tweeted conversations of their sessions, pictures of GCAA’s amazing building, and comments such as, “Just like kids, teachers like to DO! #makers,” tweeted by Napoleon Dezalvicar, while a picture displayed him being active in MakerSpace.

Ed Camp is not only a place for educators to be students for a day, it’s also a place for networking with others and building relationships. GCAA student media staff were not the only media staff  in attendance. Ritenour High School’s student radio covered the event as well. With only cameras and phones to tweet, Ed Camp had plenty of media coverage. During lunch, The Tonightengales, girls Acapella group, performed. Ritenour media staff captured a small video of their performance, complimenting their voices.

During the closing of the event, many thanked GCAA for their space, calling it an “amazing venue” and many tweets were tweeted as reflections of the day. Teachers still used the hashtag, #edcampstl, days after, still showing interest in the past events.