Teachers are taking professional development into their own hands with Twitter "edchats." In this post we explain, and interview four hosts of some popular weekly chats.
Teachers are turning to Twitter to collaborate, share resources and offer each other support.
Many, in fact, are using it to take professional development into their own hands, 140 characters at a time.
Each week, thousands of teachers participate in scheduled Twitter “chats” around a particular subject area or type of student. Math teachers meet on Mondays, for instance, while science discussions happen on Tuesdays, new teachers gather on Wednesdays and teachers working with sixth graders meet Thursdays. (Jerry Blumengarten, Twitter’s @cybraryman1, posts this helpful list of educational chats.)
By using hashtags — that is, words or phrases preceded by the # symbol, like “#Scichat” for science educators — users can organize, search and find messages on a particular topic all in one place.
Anyone can participate, and joining is easy: just go to Twitter, search for the hashtag of the chat that appeals to you, and start to read the stream of messages. When you’re ready to add your own thoughts or share resources, just append that same hashtag to your Twitter message. (For more tips, visit our “Nuts and Bolts” and “Resources” lists.)
For instance, as I write this, an English teacher could dip into the #Engchat stream and find a link to a list of five-minute grammar lessons, a query about how to use stations in literature classes, and a note from a high school teacher about how she did a rap for her sophomores on reading strategies to the tune of “Ice, Ice Baby.”
If you wanted to write your own Twitter message and add it to this stream, you’d just say something brief, and put #Engchat at the end of it. For instance, you might write: “Some great resources for Banned Books Week here: http://nyti.ms/9qPVku #Engchat.”
We chose three of the chats where New York Times and Learning Network resources are most often shared, and interviewed the founders about what they do, why and how.
1. #edchat - Below, you’ll find a question-and-answer session with Thomas D. Whitby and Shelly Sanchez Terrell, the founders of #Edchat, a place for educators of all kinds to gather
2. #SSchat the grandfather of the education Twitter chats; Greg Kulowiec, co-founder of #SSchat for social studies teachers
3. #Engchat - Meenoo Rami who created #Engchat for English teachers.
Click the headline above to read The Q & A.