Twitter Chatter

Twitter chatting was stressful, 

http://www.cliparthut.com/emoji-kissy-face-clipart.html

fun and rewarding. Initially, it was nerve-wracking to just get into the chat, as I wasn’t sure if I was “in”. Once that was confirmed, I started reading the tweets and felt a bit like someone at a party where all the people were friends but I didn’t know a soul. People were personally commenting to one another, clearly showing they knew of/were connected with others on the chat. This went on for almost 5 minutes, which is long considering the chat was only scheduled for 30 minutes. I came to realize they were just greeting everyone and waiting to get more people on the chat before starting. 

It definitely felt like a community once the questions started coming. People were rapidly responding to the questions and to one another’s answers. It was fun to see people’s ideas on the topic move and change direction based on responses received. The topic was large motor activities and how much time is devoted to incorporating them into the school day. I came away with a few simple tips that would be easy to incorporate and could really help kids release some energy, which, in turn, should help them focus and be better able to process and learn. One idea was to have kids move to their seats or line up in some other way besides walking - hop, tiptoe, pretend to jump rope,...Simple, fun and effective large motor movements. 
One quote that stuck out to me was, "Moderate to high intensity movement feeds the brain with oxygen, waiter and glucose. That's brain food!" I love that I now have a great reason to dance along with my students to Go Noodle videos and to shake it as we listen to our Social Emotional Learning program's songs - we're not just wiggling or using time unproductively - we're feeding our brains! Here is an image someone shared on during the Twitter chat that reinforces the sentiment.

As the chat progressed, side bars started to pop up on my feed saying saying that someone ‘favorited’ my comment or responded to my question/comment. It gave the entire experience a feeling of intimacy with strangers. Weird, but it worked. 

I’m not sure how big chats generally are, but this one seemed small - maybe 12 participants, the moderator and the two experts who were posing the questions. It didn’t take long for me to “know” the person who was commenting (administrator, pre-k, private school,...) based on their bios, which helped me understand where they were coming from in their responses and also gave me a feeling that, if I were in a chat with them again, I could get in on the more ‘intimate’ conversation at the beginning of the chat, which I had felt excluded from less than 30 minutes before.

All-in-all, it was a fun experience that I hope to do again. I love working collaboratively and there isn’t always time to do that fully during the school day. This gives me an alternative way to collaborate, share and process information. I look forward to future Twitter chats!