I know lots of you out there have taken the plunge and have come to tweet chat with us the past few Tuesday nights, but I know some of you are still a little nervous about taking the leap!  I’m hoping to get rid of some of your fears and hope that you will at least come and say hi!

We are learning right along with you and have meet lots of really awesome new twitter friends!  I’ve enjoyed chatting with new teachers, veteran teachers, and teachers from many grade levels!

I’m hoping to give you a glimpse into what a tweet chat looks like in the hopes that you will come join us!

First, just so you know, the tweet chat moves fast!  Almost too fast sometimes, but what else do you think happens when you get a bunch of teachers together with great ideas??  🙂  For some, the chat moves so quickly that its hard to keep up with, but here are some ways that you can slow it down for yourself:

1) For your first chat, just send out a tweet letting us know you are there and then just watch the chat happen for as long as you are comfortable.  When you feel like jumping in, do that…even if it is 3 tweet chat Tuesdays from now!

2) Find someone in the chat you have something in common with; you teach the same grade, you read the same book, you live close to each other, etc, and chat with that person or persons.  That will help slow down the chat, if you just focus in on one or two people who you want to learn more from.

Once you’ve decided to jump in to the tweet chat, there are a couple of ways you can watch it.  You tweet right from Twitter or you can use Tweet Deck.  I blogged about them here and here.  There is no magic to which one is better, its more of a matter of preference!  I prefer Tweet Deck because I can add or subtract the number of columns I see and can customize it to show me just my one chat at a time instead of showing me everything all at once.  Great for those ADHD people like myself!

If you get involved in the chat, and you get lost or confused about how to reply or how to find the box to send out a tweet in, please ask!  Don’t feel bad about asking for help!  All you have to do is send me a message and use my twitter handle (@fuzzlady77).  I will get a notification that you sent it to me and I can answer your question. 🙂  There are lots of other folks on the chat that can answer your questions as well, so just tweet them out there.

In addition, if you are new, show up to the chat about 30 minutes early!  We (your lovely moderators) are hanging around about 30 minutes beforehand to answer any questions and to chat with new tweeters!  We want this experience to be helpful for you, so that is a great time to ask questions and to practice.

Typically, Debbie Clement (@KweezleQueen) will tweet out questions to answer and that gets the discussion going.  We have some super fun special “mystery guests” lined up who will be joining us in the next few weeks, so be sure to interact with them once they are introduced!

You don’t have to be a blogger to join us!  This chat is open to everyone!  The idea is for teachers to join us and to chat with each other and learn new ideas!

Don’t feel bad if you can’t make it on time!  Jump in when you’re able, even if its just for 5-10 minutes!  Maggie (@maggieskindercorner) and I are always lurking in the background of the chat to help you when you join us later!  We can answer questions and bring you up to speed about where we are in the chat–just ask! 🙂

The connections don’t have to end once the chat is over!  Find some people who you connected with during the chat or people you want to ask more questions of and have a conversation with them after the chat is over!

If the chat moved way to fast for you, Kim (@EducatorsSpin) uses Spotify to preserve the conversation, so you can go back and read it at your pace. 🙂

This is last weeks chat! There are some great bloggers to follow, ideas, and new friends you’ll meet when you read it!

There is no right or wrong way to join in on the conversation.  Just don’t forget to use the  hashtag #teacherfriends to join us!

You can always message me on Facebook or through my blog if you’re stuck!  I’m happy to help! 🙂

Give it a chance!  I think you’ll LOVE it!!

My friend and fellow moderator Maggie has written some more tips about joining in our Tweet Chat, so head to her blog and read all about it!

Hope to see you on Tuesday!!