I want to try something a little different this week. This chat will have very little to directly do with education. "So what else is new?" I hear you ask. Hardy-har-hat Mr/s Funny Pants.
I think chats are about building connections, and those connections are where the real learning happens. A chat is a springboard. A place to meet. It's Mom's Group for teachers craving adult human interaction. So instead of a normal Q1/A1 kind of chat I'm going to run #WeirdEd Speed Dating Services. (aka #WeirdEd Ice Breakers But Not As Lame Because It's Not Eating Valuable Meeting Time)
Here's the idea: I'll post a commonality. Your favorite movie/band/food/whatever. You have to go into the chat and find someone who shares that thing with you. Or is close. Digressions are encouraged. I want you to digitally mingle. I have no idea how well this is going to go. I think what's going to happen is a few brave souls will have to tweet out their likes/dislikes/answers and then you gravitate to that and respond and build. I think (read: hope) the chat will branch like a wild tree. We'll start with a trunk which will be my guiding questions/topics, and then you all will take it over and branch it out to who knows where.
Every question you'll need to pick a new person. You can't be a perfect match the whole chat with Sarah Thomas even though all of us wish we were. I want you to drag people into the chat. Who cares if they aren't online? But I also want you to talk to tweeple you've never reached out to before in a safe environment.
The focus is building human connections so that later when you have a question about How To Teach X or What Do I Do About Y you know the humans responding to you. It's not building your Professional Learning Network. It's building your Human Connections, which is more important.
Or maybe this'll burn down, fall over, and sink into the swamp. It's always a possibility.
Be brave.
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