#Edchat

So I gave #Edchat one last go for this semester.  I have to say I am unfortunately still not very impressed.  Maybe it was because the topics where not of high interest to me but I did not pull as much information out of the conversation than I had through PE hash tags that were not chat rooms.  One useful thing I did grab out of the Edchat was parent engagement handbook PDF files online.  Save those little diamonds incase my future employer does not already have something set up.  It was useful in terms of information that parents can refer to if their child is having difficulties and what they can do for them.  I had one person post a tweet bringing interesting information I had previously not thought of: ‘how come you can find photos of administration handing awards out to students but there is so much controversy over teachers having photos posted of students’.  Just some food for thought that had not occurred to me before.  One thing I was not too happy about in the chat room was the articles someone was posting about “Is School Hurting Our Children?”, referring mostly to heavy backpacks and how a girl obtained a concussion from playing on a school’s soccer team as her reasoning why school is inappropriate.  They did not have much of an argument but having posted such a thing was pretty irritating to have to sort through while I was trying to find worthwhile information.  With teacher appreciation week coming to a close there were a lot of articles recognizing one teacher or another, or even how to best recognize a teacher.  The last main aspect present in the conversation was the growing awareness of rebellion against standardize testing throughout the country, particularly Texas.  That pretty much summed up my experience in the chat room.  I posted a few private replies to one post or another but like I mentioned earlier it wasn’t the type of topics I was truly interested in.  I mostly sat in, watched everything that was happening as a spectator.  I am hoping that a physical education twitter chat will blossom as time continues, and I am beginning to contemplate starting my own to see what happens.  Any suggestions?