Category: Middle School Chat

My Dilemma as Chat host

Posted on by Sweat to Inspire

As I sit here at my desk tonight, mulling over topics for this week’s #mschat, I am confronted with a dilemma. I have a family, 3 children (8,3&3) a wife and a dog. It appears I picked the worst night to have a chat for my family. My oldest son, Griffin, just started playing football. They have practice Thursday nights, same night as his cub scout meetings too. My work doesn’t seem to help to much either with Thursday night Open house and conferences. My 3 year old twins don’t help much either with the 8 pm bed time on a busy night.

I love what #mschat has become, a place for middle level educators to come together and talk about current ideas to helps us reflect on our teaching practices. I don’t want to lose the momentum we have gained over the last month of chats. Easy answer is to move the chat either back to later in the evening or to another night. Moving the chat will mean I might lose some members of the audience. It also means I will be bumping into other chats. Since I started #mschat, I have become involved in #atplc chat that follows in the 9 pm time slot. I have also found value in other chats during other nights.

Since I am going to continue #mschat please comment on this post as to a suggested time/night for the chat to take place. It seems right now that Monday-Wednesday are pretty free for me but 2 months ago Thursday looked good. We will have a Thursday night chat this week worked in around my son’s football practice and open house but look for a move soon. I value my PLN’s input so please give it.

 

Thanks

Todd

#mschat Guest Host for Sept. 6, 2012

Posted on by Sweat to Inspire

I am a “live in the moment” type of person. I don’t wear a watch and rarely look at a calendar. So when I planned on starting up #mschat in July I did not have the foresight to notice that the 4th chat would coincide with School Open House. Can’t miss the opportunity to meet with parents and work on that all important connections. I also don’t want to abandon #mschat group that is growing and creating a great PLN. A friend has volunteered his expertise to our chat for Sept 6th. Ben Curran of Engaging Educators will moderate this week, leading the discussion on the topic of Common Core State Standards and how it impacts us in the middle school. I will be joining in from my cell as soon as the open house is over.

Archive of Inaugural Middle School Chat 8/9

Posted on by Sweat to Inspire

Here is the link to the archive of the inaugural #mschat on storify. Thanks to @tchrmom2boys for helping archive.

http://storify.com/tchrmom2boys/inaugural-mschat?utm_campaign=&utm_content=storify-pingback&utm_source=direct-sfy.co&awesm=sfy.co_n1ZG&utm_medium=sfy.co-twitter

It was a great chat, with a large group of middle school educators discussing: How to start the year off right in the Middle School. There are many great ideas and good links.

Hope you can join us for chat #2 on 8/23 at 8 pm EST.