For those of you on Twitter, Chelsie Meyer and I started up #ArtsEdChat this summer. It was a great time for conversation between art educators from around the country on topics such as classroom management, lesson plan ideas and technology in the art room. However, as the school year started back up, it seemed more challenging to find the time each week to be on Twitter during the designated chat time. Let’s face it, life is busy! We all have a million and one things to do at our schools each day and then a million more to do once we get home. We thought that the 4:30 ET was difficult for people not on the east coast, so we moved it to 8:30 ET. That time seemed even more challenging as the number of participants drastically dropped.
So, we decided to take a break and then scale back. Starting this month we will be running #ArtsEdChat once a month rather than each week. It will be the 2nd Thursday of each month at 4:30 ET. We are also going to try incorporating a wikispace for the first time. This will be a place for people to volunteer to help lead the discussions and also add any topics they would like to see covered. We know there will be some months that people can participate and some where prior commitments get in the way. The new wiki system will allow people to "sign-up" in a way to help keep the discussion going. We got this idea from a #libchat wiki that was amazing and hope it works well for us art teachers too.
Our next #ArtsEdChat will take place on Thursday, December 13th at 4:30 ET. Please check out the #artsedchat wiki at http://www.artsedchat.wikispaces.net/. Sign-up to help lead the discussion! As we start using this wiki, we’d like to archive discussions so that the information can be shared easily and accessed by all. If you can’t join us during the actual chat time please think about joining what Chelsie calls the "After Party!" Search the hashtag to see what was discussed. Keep the conversation going by adding your thoughts or commenting on other posts at a time that is more convenient to you. We really do love #ArtsEdChat and hope that these new changes will be improvements to get more people involved! If you have other suggestions or thoughts please add a comment below and we will try to accommodate them. Hope to see you next Thursday afternoon for our December #ArtsEdChat!
So, we decided to take a break and then scale back. Starting this month we will be running #ArtsEdChat once a month rather than each week. It will be the 2nd Thursday of each month at 4:30 ET. We are also going to try incorporating a wikispace for the first time. This will be a place for people to volunteer to help lead the discussions and also add any topics they would like to see covered. We know there will be some months that people can participate and some where prior commitments get in the way. The new wiki system will allow people to "sign-up" in a way to help keep the discussion going. We got this idea from a #libchat wiki that was amazing and hope it works well for us art teachers too.
Our next #ArtsEdChat will take place on Thursday, December 13th at 4:30 ET. Please check out the #artsedchat wiki at http://www.artsedchat.wikispaces.net/. Sign-up to help lead the discussion! As we start using this wiki, we’d like to archive discussions so that the information can be shared easily and accessed by all. If you can’t join us during the actual chat time please think about joining what Chelsie calls the "After Party!" Search the hashtag to see what was discussed. Keep the conversation going by adding your thoughts or commenting on other posts at a time that is more convenient to you. We really do love #ArtsEdChat and hope that these new changes will be improvements to get more people involved! If you have other suggestions or thoughts please add a comment below and we will try to accommodate them. Hope to see you next Thursday afternoon for our December #ArtsEdChat!