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Today I dove into the world of twitter! Although I am an avid twitter user, this is my first time using it from a professional teacher stand point.

My teacher put on our syllabus that we would have to attend a twitterchat. I felt as though I needed to prep just so I knew what to expect. While I was searching around twitter, I found that #edu14 was currently trending. I would say in a matter of 5 minutes I was reading hundreds of tweets and knew exactly what #edu14 was. It was truly mind blowing how in a matter of minutes #edu14 meant nothing to me, to me learning about an entire conference happening about technology used in higher ed. Needless to say, I felt prepped and ready to attend my first twitter chat.

Bright and early this morning (7AM) I attended the #ELTchat. Let me tell you, nothing gets your brain going more quickly than a group of teachers bouncing ideas off of one another. Today's topic was flipping. For me personally, I knew very little about flipping. Within 15 minutes I not only knew what flipping was but I knew resources that could be used, motivation for students working outside the class, how to effectively use your time in class, and how to work with students who did not do the prep work. I'm seemed as though many of the people on this chat attend regularly and to my surprise were very welcoming to answer my questions and give me feedback. 

I think a twitterchat is a good form of professional development. For the #ELTchat in particular, they vote on a topic to discuss each time. Therefore, you can vote on something you'd like to learn more about or something you think you could have a great deal of input in. It gives teachers the opportunity to share their knowledge with one another, ask questions, and bounce ideas off of one another. What's nice is that when someone says something you like you can favorite it, or shares a resource you can retweet it. That way you have this stored to your account. Also, if you search the hashtag an later on, all the tweets on that topic will still be there. Even if you don't get the time to actually participate in the chat, you can go through and read what people talked about that day.

Needless to say, this is definitely a resource I would use again in the future. 

See you in the twitterverse!!! @McManusEdTech