Twitter Chat Adventures!

I'm just a sucker for doing all the homework this week apparently. If I weren't such a procrastinator, I wouldn't have two blogs in one day. So this one is about my experience doing Twitter chats today. I chose two chats back to back (not recommended it was a lot). I used Participate Chats to make sure I could control the flow of the chat a little better. Sometimes it appeared to freeze up, so I'm not sure if that is typical or it was just my laptop.
The first chat I participated in was #TedEdchat. I really liked this chat. They post a TedTalk that the conversation is based on. This TedTalk was called "The Sweaty Teacher's Lament."  His message was all about how he was known as the "sweaty" teacher but only because he was busting his butt working so hard. Our conversation focused on student's perceptions of us as teachers and how we act to encourage students to feel safe and help them to learn best. The moderator on this chat was very "with it." Almost immediately after I answered the question, she replied with questions to help the conversation continue. Overall, the mood in this chat was very light, and it was a really good chat for inspiring us to begin the new school year. I was able to get some feedback from other teachers on interesting ways to use humor in my classroom. I also thought it was cool that the moderator requested help from other prominent twitter users to find resources. One idea I thought was cool was from a  tweeter who mentioned using Biology comic strips called "The Cell Biology Comic Strip" to teach concepts during a warm up. The moderator also recommended some other educators to follow, I will be following her as well because she was so helpful. Thanks @mrsJennaRodgers!
The second chat I participated in was #EdChat. This chat had a lot of participants. During the first chat, the moderator asked a question and you replied directly to the question using A1 or A2, etc, to indicate your answer to question 1 or question 2. For the EdChat, the moderator asked a question and it was kind of a free for all. It was a lot of answers all at once. The moderator did not engage as much with participants (of course that could have been because there were so many). The topic for this chat was how educators were going to change to better serve their students in the upcoming school year. Even though there were a lot of answers all at once, a lot of good ideas were shared as well as different resources. One teacher recommended using SeeSaw for interacting with parents instead of Remind. I will have to check it out because it sounded like it was a little more interactive than Remind. It looks as though it is more for displaying student work than giving reminders to parents.
This chat was a little more difficult to follow, even after the second and third questions had been posted, people were still answering question one and continuing those discussions. It was interesting, but I think I will get more out of Twitter Chats in the future by joining those with fewer participants. It was also frustrating during this chat because there were lots of users just posting random resources. I think they saw that it was a way to gain exposure for their product, so they took advantage. Some of the posts looked interesting but they had absolutely nothing to do with the discussion so it was a little distracting.

I am now following #ConnectedTL, #TOSAChat, and #weirdED they were recommended during the TedEd chat. They are all about ways to stay connected and create innovative learning experiences for students so I am excited to find out more.