#wvedchat

Last night I hosted #wvedchat’s biweekly edchat. Originally, Dr. Rikki Lowe was to be the main host and I was to be the 2nd moderator to assist. However, she had a family emergency, and so I took over the chat. She had all of the images prepared, so I only had to make sure they got uploaded at the proper times. Well that, and encourage the conversation to expand.

If you’ve never hosted an edchat, it can be a bit daunting. Being a participant and watching things move quickly is one thing, but watching as a moderator and replying/liking others’ tweets is a whole other ballgame. My fingers were left flying across the keyboard as I participated, but in the end, I was pleased with how things turned out. 

We focused on lessons from summer professional development, and the things that were learned. Many of us shared edtech tools or workshops that we attended. If you weren’t there, what was your favorite summer PD opportunity, and why?

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#wvedchat has been working to relaunch itself this past week. A few of us got together on Saturday to discuss the future of #wvedchat and how to improve the community. Myself, Rikki (@DrRikki908), and Derek (@Mr_Oldfield) spent over an hour last Saturday morning discussing the possibilities, which I will explain in a future post. Suffice to say, the result of our effort was visible last night.

#wvedchat uses Participate for it’s host, which means we have stats to track each chat. We switched over to Participate in April. Last night was our best chat since that switchover. We had more participants, more discussions, and way more activity. Rikki and I took on a side moderator role in which we made sure to engage in conversation, retweets, and liking of others’ posts.

The chat itself was hosted by Remind’s Sarah Dougherty (@sardougherty). It focused on communicating and connecting with not only educators but parents and families. Of course, Remind is one of the many ways to accomplish this. Read the transcript below to see what transpired during our hourlong chat!

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Last night’s #wvedchat was a ton of fun, and definitely something we all had something to discuss. We welcomed a new host, Angie Millman, an AP from Berkley County, for this week’s chat.

School/Community Partnerships are critical these days, especially with the rise of social media. Schools need to work to build these relationships in order to build a positive connection with the communities that they serve.

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Last night was the first time in a long time that I have been able to once again participate in an edchat. I had greatly missed the connections with my fellow connected educators, and was glad to see them again.

Last night’s topic focused around back to school and had questions on how educators set up/prepare for the first week of school. There are so many questions that could be asked on that topic that you could host an edchat every night of the week and still not ask every question.

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Tonight’s chat centered around situations that every educator faces at some point, but may not always discuss with others. Some of the topics were a lot easier than others to respond to. As you read through the transcript, think about how you would respond in these situations.

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I’ve decided to add a new section to my blog for those who may not participate in Twitter edchats. These are fascinating ways to discuss current topics in education with other educators, but for some, they move way too fast to keep up. That’s where the transcripts come in. Educators can read them at their own pace and catch up on what was discussed, without having to worry about the pace of the chat itself. 

#wvedchat was the very first edchat I started participating in, probably around Spring of last year. I’m really not too sure on that one, and it may have been later than that. This particular chat is held biweekly on Tuesdays at 8 PM, and each chat focuses on a different topic. Tonight’s was formative assessment.