In “Upping your Twitter Game, Part I,” I shared the three educators you should be following on Twitter. So today, in “Upping your Twitter Game, Part II,” I’d like to respond to my colleagues who expressed interest in participating in EdChats.
Why EdChats?
The purpose of EdChats is to connect you with people. Know that you have support in this building, but it’s also healthy to connect with people who teach the same course as you across the country, to figure out where educational philosophy is at, or learn from other educational experts.
How do they work?
So an EdChat might run weekly, twice a month, or once a month. Often, it’s the same day of the week, at the same time. It’s run by a moderator, and usually begins with participants tweeting in a quick hello to state who they are and where they’re tweeting from.
Then, the moderator will ask a series of five questions (Q1, Q2, Q3) over a half hour, or an hour. Every five minutes or ten minutes, the moderator will ask a new question.
Those participating in the EdChat will tweet a response — not necessarily in the comments, but some people do. You’ll respond A1, A2, A3 and include the hashtag. The moderator and participants then might respond to you, you can respond to other participants, and engage in conversation.
It’s loose enough where you can definitely participate while multitasking in your nightly routines. The idea is that it’s run live, but I’ve found a lot of inspiration by just creeping on them, too.
Note that some EdChat are #slowchats. This means that the five questions are asked slowly, one a day, over a week rather than an hour.
There are probably hundreds of EdChats out there and it’s honestly overwhelming. So here are my three tips to successfully accomplishing your goal to participate in an EdChat.
TIP #1
Find a chat specific to your role, your content, or your specific class.
Some of our posts are pretty specific to classroom teachers, but this one is for everyone. Counselors, deans, administration, interventionists — you all have EdChats geared toward your position (Keep reading to the bottom for a full list.)
AP teachers — there’s probably a Chat out there for you (Lit, Lang, Human Geo). There are so many math chats (#preCalchat, #edtechmathchat), #sschat, #socedchat, #musedchat #langchat, #busedchat, #GlobalSPEDchat. There are also assistant principal chats, chats for counselors, superintendant chats.
So start by finding one or two chats that are really specific to your discipline. If you need help following one, find me. I’ll help.
TIP #2
Follow a more general, philosophical EdChat
Many of us got into high school teaching because we love our content. But I think we all have a thing that’s more pedagogical than that, too. So find an EdChat about that philosophy or that pedagogy.
Okay, so for example, one of my favorite EdChats is #EduDuctTape. It’s run by Jake Miller (not to be confused with Matt Miller, who I mentioned in the last podcast).
He switches off every Wednesday between dropping a new podcast and hosting an EdChat. His duct tape metaphor is essentially that when using duct tape, the duct tape is never is the end goal, but rather a tool to help us achieve a goal — much like tech in the classroom.
His last EdChat featured the question: “What tools or strategies do you have to “spice up” preparation for standardized tests.”
Another good one is #masterychat, run by the Teach Better Team. They run their EdChats on Thursdays at 7pm.
Their team began with emphasizing The Teach Further Model and The Grid Method — talk to our us or our brilliant colleagues over at Grayslake North, Tom New and Nathania Busse for more on this. Essentially their chats center on Mastery and Personalized Learning.
Catch their chat on February 6 (hey– the same day as ours!) where their topic is Education Smorgasbord. They’ve already posted their questions — ranging from questions about your favorite lessons (with links and resources), go-to strategies, your #1 EdTech tool, etc. Then, they’ll post the moderators’ live reactions to the chat on Youtube.
TIP #3
Find a way to keep track of these chats
Alright, for those of you reading, you might be thinking. Yes. I’m in. And then… like most resolutions…
But there are ways to keep up with this. Yes, you can set reminders for yourself. Obviously.
But also, remember the #masterychat I just talked about? Go to their website, and have them send you a reminder. A lot of the more philosophical EdChats that are run by teams have accompanying blogs and podcasts, so check out their blog, and see if they have a system in place to remind you. Check out their podcast and subscribe. As new episodes drop, you’ll get notifications to A.) listen and B.) participate in the EdChat.
And, if you’re ready to do the Twitter deep dive, open up Tweetdeck on your laptop.
Log in through Twitter. This is how I manage both my personal Twitter and my REALityCheck Twitter. But what’s helpful is that — once you find the EdChats you find most helpful — you can follow hashtags. You’ll be able to see the moderators’ reminders, and then, if you do miss the live chat, you can go back and see the responses, links, and resources from your colleagues in the Twittersphere.
This is just a small sampling of myriad EdChats out there. Here’s a more comprehensive list.
| #edchat | Description | Day | Time |
| #masterychat | Mastering practice + teaching better | Th | 8pm |
| #hsgovchat | High School Government | Su | 9pm |
| #engchat | English teachers | M | 7pm |
| #formativechat | Implementation of formative assessment | M | 7pm |
| #sschat | Social Studies teachers | M | 7pm |
| #edtechchat | Educational technology | M | 8pm |
| #flipclass | Flipped classroom | M | 8pm |
| #musedchat | Music educators | M | 8pm |
| #socedchat | Sociology teachers | M | 8pm |
| #teacherwellness | Preventing burnout, coping with stress | M | 8pm |
| #iechat | Inclusive Education | M | 9pm |
| #ILedchat | Illinois Educators | M | 10pm |
| #2ndaryELAchat | Secondary English teachers | Tu | 8pm |
| #pblchat | PBL Educators | Tu | 8pm |
| #worldgeochat | World Geography teachers | Tu | 9pm |
| #specialedchat | Special ed teachers | W | 11am |
| #edDuctTape | Educational technology | W | 7pm |
| #ntchat | New teachers | W | 8pm |
| #suptchat | Superintendents | W | 8pm |
| #ESCIchat | Earth Science Geology | W | 8:30pm |
| #enviroedchat | Environmental Science | W | 9pm |
| #psychat | Psychology teachers | W | 9pm |
| #artsedchat | Arts in education | Th | 7:30pm |
| #edtechmath | Educational technology in math | Th | 8pm |
| #masterychat | Personalized learning | Th | 8pm |
| #langchats | World Language teachers chat | Th | 8pm |
| #precalcchat | Pre-calculus teachers | Th | 8:30pm |
For a complete list, please click HERE for Google’s EdChat Schedule (Thanks, Google! You’re the best!)
Also, know that Grayslake Central will be hosting our FIRST EdChat during lunch periods on Friday, February 6 where we’re going to post questions centered around our #trysomething initiative.
Please join us next episode as we enter into our three-part series on podcasts in which Jen suggests the six podcasts educators should listen to.
In the meantime, what will YOU do to try something?
