Wanton Hashtaggery

Full disclosure- had I not been instructed to participate in a Twitter chat, I would not have tried it for a very long while. Thanks, EDET543, for suggesting that I exit my comfort zone and experience Twitter more fully. You were right again.

The first chat in which I chose to participate was on a Saturday morning, #Nt2t, New Teachers to Twitter- obviously I'm going to choose this one! Overall, I was struck by what a welcoming and supportive group of people were committed to moderating and participating in this chat. Excellent recommendations, anecdotes of successes, and novel suggestions for using Twitter in the classroom were shared. This was my first time actually using Hootsuite. I cannot imagine participating in a chat without a tool like it. That said, I still felt overwhelmed and consistently fell behind in conversations. Finding new people to follow was exhilarating; being followed back was even more so! I am not sure if there was an outline/agenda/plan for questions for the conversation; if there was, I was not aware of it. Perhaps it was intended to be open-ended, free-form conversation. Having never chatted on Twitter before this chat, I naturally attribute any shortcomings of the experience to my novice chatter status.

Chat #2, #tlap, Teach Like a Pirate, I chose because the name was so zesty. When someone claims to do something "like a pirate", you know they know how to cut loose (and the situation is rife with deliciously bad pun opportunities). This chat was well-organized. I appreciated that the moderator posted the topic and questions we would be addressing in advance of the start of the chat. The topic was Professional Development. Even as a non-traditional teacher, I am no stranger to PD, so I felt more at ease than during the first chat knowing I could contribute to the conversation. The only word I want to use to describe chatting is exhilarating. Making connections, having meaningful conversation in real time in the comfort of your own home (while you put the hurt on some dark chocolate) is quite a thrill. Excellent connections were made. Tweets were re-tweeted. People were followed and chose to follow me. Do not get me wrong, I am still slow, clumsy, inefficient, and lacking in Twitter confidence. I do, though, see and feel improvement in my ability. In the future, and especially while I'm still new at this, I think I will gravitate towards the chats that have clearly defined topics instead of less structured chats. The fact that I'm excited to jump back in to another chat and intend to chat regularly tells me that I see Twitter chatting as a valuable component of my PLN.