A Chat-Full Evening

So, this post doesn't have anything specifically to do with my flipped classroom, but I had such an amazing experience, I had to share.

I participated in a Twitter chat last fall right after school started concerning technology, since our school had just gone 1:1.  But that was the only one.

I saw yesterday that #ALedchat was on Monday nights at 9, and I learned (through someone I began to follow after reading her story in "Flipping 2.0") that #flipclass was Mondays at 7.

I now had my plans for the evening!

A Twitter chat is a unique experience.  I did a search for whichever hashtag I was participating in, clicked "all," and waited for tweets to show up.  If you contribute, you add the hashtag to your tweet so it shows up in the feed.

At times I felt like I was in a room with 20 students trying to talk to me at the same time.  Notifications (someone favorited your tweet!, someone replied to your tweet!), direct messages (I didn't even know you could do that on Twitter), new questions, replies to questions, discussions about topics not directly related to the chat theme for the evening.

It was wild!

But fun.

I was almost giddy during #flipclass.  All these flipped classroom "celebrities" - authors of "Flipping 2.0," Crystal Kirch, and even the co-inventor of classroom flipping himself, Jon Bergmann - were there, and we were talking as if we were all in a room together.

There were newbies to the flipped classroom idea - like me - and veterans.  I couldn't get over how friendly, helpful, and encouraging everyone was.  The veterans WANT to help us newbies, and they want to see us succeed.

The #flipclass topic was audience.  It was a little beyond where I am right now - the audience for my blog sort of scares me right now, and I'm not having my students create to share...yet - but it gave me things to think about as my teaching transforms.

#ALedchat discussed the role of positivity in leadership.  While I'm not in administration - nor do I wish to be - I am a leader for my classroom and need to be a role model of positivity for them.  I can teach and model positivity and inspire them to be more positive in math and in life.

I was amazed at how many states besides Alabama were represented in #ALedchat.  Ohio, Illinois, Wyoming.  We educators are truly all in this together!

The big take-away for the evening was connections.  Instant connections.  Other math teachers, other flipped teachers.

If you're on Twitter (and I'm beginning to believe every teacher should be), find a chat that interests you (is there a directory somewhere?), and join in.  You'll be glad you did!