Challenge Accepted: Co hosting a Twitter Chat- 3/13/2020

One of my goals this year is to CHALLENGE myself to take risks. With this in mind, I have been hyper focused on trying new things that stretch my comfort zone. This past Thursday night was the latest example of me putting myself out there: I co-hosted my first Twitter chat for #novaedchat.

#Novaedchat is a weekly Twitter chat on Wednesday evenings at 8 PM. During this hour, educators (mostly from Northern Virginia) discuss a variety of educational topics. I had participated in this particular Twitter chat for over a year. In August, when the founders of this chat, Margaret Sisler and Kendra asked for volunteers to co host, I hesitantly agreed.

We discussed possible topics and settled on creativity and critical thinking. Back in August, March 11th (the date I was co hosting) seemed so far away. But before I knew it, it was time to write the questions we would discuss.

At first, writing these questions seemed daunting. What kinds of questions would elicit the most conversation? But after taking some time, I realized just like we need thick and juicy questions for students- we need the same for us as adult learners.

After finishing drafting my questions, I was ready to go. Unfortunately, there were still several days to go before the actual chat. But, I was so excited and ready, so I sent out several promotion tweets and tagged colleagues. I even reached out to some of my colleagues at my school and invited them to join me.

Since this was the first time that I had ever done this, I decided to try using TweetDeck to schedule my tweets for this chat so that I could better respond to the chat participants. I had never used this before, so at first, I have to admit- I made a mistake while scheduling my first tweet for this chat. But I quickly got the hang of it and had scheduled my own responses for this chat.

The chat began at 8 PM on Wednesday, March 11th. I was delighted to see so many people participate. Some were familiar faces, while others were new connections. But what touched me the most was the amazing conversations that took place. It would be impossible to capture all the responses, but here are a few of my favorite tweets.

Thank you to everyone who participated...I wish I could fit all of your tweets in this blog post. Special shout out to my colleague from school, Jen Applegate, who sent me this text the day after the chat. You made my day by sending me this text!

Taking a risk can be scary and is always a challenge, but stretching yourself out of your comfort zone is where the magic really happens. Thanks Margaret and Kendra for giving me this opportunity to stretch myself. Thank you to all of you who shared so many wonderful things. You all inspired me Wednesday night!