Your First Twitter Chat

Do you remember the first time you participated or witnessed a Twitter Chat? I remember mine! It was #nebedchat (Nebraska Ed Chat) on Wednesday nights. I was following a number of educators from NE, and was on my Nook of all things, and noticed they were suddenly tweeting excessively with A's and Q's at the beginning of their tweets. I searched the hashtag and followed along, just "lurking". Before I knew it I was hooked!

Jump forward about 3 years, and the teachers at my school had their first building wide Twitter Chat! We have a variety of Twitter users, lurkers, and "you're making me do this" staff members, and you know what, THAT'S OK! We all started at the beginning in one way or another.

I had been sending out instructions so staff are sure they can get logged in, and have added the appropriate #FmtChat column to make it easier to follow along. Requests for guidance here and there "just to make sure it's all right" were abundant, but everyone I worked with was ready to go! Staff were assigned to rooms so they would not feel completely isolated, and it have more of a group feel for the first time. 

The down side to this for me, at least, was I was not in the building! I had to be at a meeting in Mankato, so was en route while this wonderful learning happened!  Thank goodness for Storify, allowing me to go back and take it all in (although I'm told the best tweets were the ones created but not posted by the groups in the rooms!) 

The best is seeing originally reluctant staff members tweeting to each other the day after! (I can see you!!)

Wish I could have been in a group for this. HUGE shout out to Sturdy for stepping in and being the moderator! You did a great job! What a great experience!