To say being a co-host of the August #BacktoSchool Microsoft TweetMeet was amazing is truly an understatement. I had the opportunity to learn and grow as an educator and a communicator. As a co-host I have become a part of a new learning network that will continue throughout my career. All of the preparation that went into this event paid off as the event was a huge success!
I have participated in many Twitter chats. I always enjoy the online conversation with others. I love receiving and sharing ideas with others. Often I would follow people I meet on Twitter through these events to grow my Professional Learning Network (#PLN). However; never have I participated in a Twitter chat with so many participants. The August TweetMeet was a record-breaking event!
Record-Breaking Numbers
The August TweetMeet had the highest engagement of all previous TweetMeets! There were 306 participants on August 20th (last month had 266). There are still people responding to the questions, even after the event. The hashtag had 2,615 #MSFTEduChat mentions (last month’s count: 2,355). As an August co-host, it was my responsibility to interact with participants and not focus on my responses to the questions. I have done this before in other Twitter chats; I would schedule my responses to the questions so I can check out others’ posts and reply to them to create more conversation. However, I have never participated in an event that had so many participants. I was typing responses to as many people as I could so that everyone felt welcomed and heard. I could definitely understand why we had 16 co-hosts! The co-hosts were on a back channel call on Microsoft Teams. It was comforting to have the organizers letting us know when each question was coming or if there was something we should be noticing. At one point it was so quiet, The @TweetMeet Microsoft leaders, Marjolein Hoekstra, Anica Tričković, and Francisco Texeira commented on the silence. I am sure everyone else was as busy on the keyboard as I was, typing their hearts out! My only hope was that together we all reached out to all the participants.
To see how AMAZING this event was, check out this Wakelet of all the Tweets!
PLN for Life
I am truly grateful for the experience and know that I will be a #MSFTEduChat participant for life! I enjoyed getting to know my fellow co-hosts and our leaders in this experience! I look forward to following their journeys and continuing to learn more from these amazing educators.
How to participate in a TweetMeet
Check out this video to learn more about participating in a TweetMeet.
Next #MSFTEduChat
If you love #MinecraftEDU, are just getting your feet wet, or wondering where to begin to implement it in your curriculum, the next #MSFTEduChat is for you! Join in, grow your #PLN, and make new connections. You won’t regret it!
Teach to Serve Others 