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??