A chat that offers middle school teachers a chance to have a collaborative discussion about a different topic each week. Our topics change from week to week, ranging from Common Core State Standards to Character Education. During the chat, participants exchanges ideas and resources. The chat group ranges in size each week from 10 to 50+ participants. Discussion can be general talking about instructional style or process to specific. Recently members of the chat group help each other create lessons.
Good Evening everyone! It is an honor to be your moderator tonight on #mschat as we discuss building a community of writers. Please introduce yourself. My name is Jeremy - teacher, author, father and all around fun guy.
We will definitely wait a few more minutes and then start the question and answer portion of our chat. Remember to use A1 and A2 format please. #mschat
A1 When the success of one is the success of all, and collaboration and kindness are the norm.
"A rising tide lifts all boats" is my motto this year. #mschat
A1: Classroom community is being connected with each other to form a learning community—we’re all in this together. Students feel safe, valued, and heard. Hopefully there’s some fun in there too 😉 #MSChat
A1: Classroom community is being connected with each other to form a learning community—we’re all in this together. Students feel safe, valued, and heard. Hopefully there’s some fun in there too 😉 #MSChat
It takes time to build trust and safety. But we build it when they see how we handle misbehavior, mistakes, & failure, how we treat fringe kids, how we talk, what we say or don’t say, how we say it, what’s allowed and what’s not... #mschat
To build safety and security you have to really start at the beginning and focus on the small interactions and little things. It takes time and nurturing. Kids have to feel it, not just hear it. #mschat
If teachers come in with the mentality that each student has a “set limit” on what they can accomplish intellectually, where does that leave their classroom and the students they teach? #mschat
A2: My students have fallen in love with the writing community of @Storybird. It inspires them to create, & then they can interact w/ each other & their work. Teacher tools let me moderate comments & ensure only positive & constructive comments make it thru. #MSChat
A3: @Storybird is their favorite way to share their writing right now. I’ve also used Edublogs before. Students can also share theirs work with their parents using their portfolio on @ClassDojo. #MSChat
I found it thru a twitter chat this summer. My students LOVE it & beg to create. I do recommend turning on the comment moderation though. I had one kid pestering others w/out me realizing it—now I can preview comments before allowing them to post. #mschat
Q4: How can we help our Ss become more comfortable sharing with larger communities such as school wide, internet, blogs, fine arts nights, etc. #mschat
A5: I think social media feels both real and detached to them. It seems like it would be an oxymoron, but it’s not. They want the likes but are uncertain in person. Social media feels safer. #MSChat
A5: SM platforms are more informal and they feel that only their friends see their posts #mschat on a school post they feel their parents and the community will see it ...
A6: Allows for more connections and students to learn about other areas of the world #mschat Gives unique opportunities for students with natural opportunities to write
