Twitter Chat

I've recently jumped feet first into the magical world of Twitter Chats! They are completely fascinating to me and a great way to keep learning and growing during the summer time especially!

Before the end of May, I had participated in two or three Twitter Chats, through my district and through randomly stumbling on ones already in progress. After school let out, I wasn't quite ready to be on a break from teaching and learning, so I reached out to Twitter. I googled "education chats" and came across this lovely link that led me to a huge calendar of many, many Education-related Twitter Chats. The chat calendar tells you what day and time the chat occurs on, and gives you the hashtag to follow to get involved. After that, it's up to you.

Joining a Twitter chat is very easy. You can simply search the chat's hashtag in your Twitter search bar, and you can look at top tweets from the chat, involved accounts/users, or even a live stream of the chat while it's happening. It can be a bit difficult to follow the chat that way, however, and I highly recommend using another program to more easily follow the chat you want. I use tweetdeck, which is a Twitter app. You can watch a constantly updating feed of your home page, notifications, hashtag searches, messages, and a few other windows. I usually have mine set to just show my home page, notifications, and whatever chat hashtag I am currently following. It's great for when two chats are happening at once, because you can follow them both side to side. (Note: if one is very big and fast moving, it will be hard to follow more than one at a time unless you have super powers, and I do not!)

Here are a few of the Twitter Chats I have followed and learned a lot from:

#titletalk -- happens on Sundays from 7-8pm, CST. A previous topic included audiobooks- using them for our own reading and in the classroom or with families.

#1to1techat -- 1:1 Teacher Chat. Happens on Wednesdays from 8-9pm, CST. During one chat, we talked about different ways to use Social Media in the classroom, especially with 1:1 technology.

#moedchat -- Missouri Ed Chat. Happens on Thursdays from 9-10pm, CST. Previously, we talked about our summers and what we planned to do to relax and rejuvenate. This one is specifically Missouri Educators. There are similar chats for many other states!

Note: some chats go on hiatus for the summer, and some don't. If you search the hashtag, look for top tweets- those usually will let you know if they're still going strong!

I've tried quite a few other ones, and learned a lot from all of them. It's a great way to expand your Professional Learning Network (PLN) and simply talk to other teachers around the world! I've learned new strategies and tricks in class, and made many new teacher Twitter friends! (or followers/followees)

Do you know any great Twitter Chats??

#bookaday

So I've read about this trend on Twitter the last couple of summers called #bookaday. Basically, it is what it says- you read a book a day in the summer. The goal is to read at least one book everyday. Some days this is really hard, and your book is a picture book, and some days you have time to read an entire 400 page book!

I finally decided to take on this challenge this year. I have a little more free time this summer because I'm not doing summer school this year. I'm coaching swimming instead, so I get home a little earlier in the day and have plenty of time to read!

I started #bookaday on the day after we got out of school, and I'm hoping to continue it right up until the day before our first day of school. In total, that is 75 books! I saw that number and freaked out a bit at first (and re-counted twice to make sure I was right!). Then I realized that with the many, many stacks of books by my bed on my to-read pile, that this was actually doable. I might actually get to read all of the award nominees this summer and series that I've been dying to start or finish since forever! My books range from 50 pages to over 500, and I'm hoping to hit my goal early!

So far (I'm on day 14), I've read 14 books. My books have ranged from 48 pages to 615 pages, averaging out at about 220 pages! I've read three of the books from our award nominees list, and read two biography books- on One Direction and Stan Lee. Most of my books have been YA fiction, but I did read a Doctor Who book and an X-Men comic book in there too! I'm enjoying escaping into all of these different worlds and just sitting down and reading.

I'm hoping that I can keep up with my summer goal of a #bookaday !

Summer Time!

I'm not even two full weeks into summer yet, and I'm already having a blast. I have been coaching swimming, reading a ton, and even got new glasses! Fancy things, they are, with their amazing clearness of vision! :)

People always talk about how teachers have it so good because we get three whole months off during the summer. Well, sorry to let you know, but it's not three months. In fact, it will be roughly two, since we're officially due back at school for meetings in the first week of August. That is, if you aren't doing the extra summer conferences my district offers. Or helping to train new teachers... which I am.

So I'll be back in the third full week of July for one conference and the last week for training purposes! Oh, and I'm taking a grad class right now (that ends in two weeks) and starting two more in mid-July. I'll also be attending the ILA conference in St. Louis in July. Did I mention I'm also coaching swimming from 7-10 every morning?

So, yes, I am "off" from school, but I'm not really "off" completely. It's not all a vacation, but I think I'd be really bored if it were! It is good to be away from the stress and hectic-ness of every day school. Summer is definitely slower paced, which is great because it gives me time to relax and recharge, and plenty of time to plan for next year's kiddos! I can't wait to meet them, but I can wait until August! :)