Assignment 2 - Participate in a Twitter Educational Chat

I participated in the #satchatwc -- a Saturday Morning chat for the west coast. There were a couple of students from Boise State University also there for a chat. There wasn't really a topic to start out with. A professor teaching a grad class called systems leadership at NLU was the first to say he wanted to share about the power of Twitter. He invited everyone to ask questions, so I was the first to start asking questions about Special Education and how inclusion works in each of their schools. That kicked off a really great discussion with teachers sharing what happens at each of their schools. I had the most questions, and the teachers taking the class at BSU talked about what happens at each of their schools. They teach 6th grade at middle school and I teach special education for students K-3.



Our district has been urging us to include a continuum of placements for special education, and I've struggled with how to work a schedule for my students who are self-contained, those who need pull-out for a short period of time, and then trying to then schedule inclusion periods for me to come into their classroom. My principal has been really supportive of constructing a schedule to fit into a master schedule and line up with Title 1 services, but he doesn't urge me to include an inclusion class or set of classes within that schedule. I was trying to get ideas from the group. The chat is scheduled for an hour, I think, but we chatted past the hour. I may participate in another set of chats this week to give myself more experience with using this as part of my PLN.  I plan on visiting #tlap because a couple of years ago our district had the Author of How to Teach Like a Pirate as our speaker for our opening of the school year district meeting. I've since bought the book and have been trying to do more to incorporate what he taught.



I also wanted to check out #edchat and #utedchat, but wanted to do one early just in case they didn't have it this week. I saw an announcement that they weren't having it the last 2 weeks due to the holiday. I was worried that I wouldn't get this assignment done if I waited and found out they weren't having it again next week. I have another class that goes at the same time (Wed. evening). I was afraid I'd miss it. I still want to attempt to participate in those other chats.