Hey, friends! I am honored to be the guest “EduCelebrity” on the #teacherfriends Twitter Chat TOMORROW, Tuesday, January 31st! Whether you are new to Twitter or an experienced tweeter, join us for some fun real time chatting and some PRIZES, including two TWENTY-FIVE dollar gift certificates to HeidiSongs.com!
We are going to be discussing the use of music in the classroom, which was the topic of my choice, of course! But you can always ask anything you want. These chats are usually fun and fast, and people start talking about all kinds of things! The only thing you need to do to follow it is to keep searching for the hashtag (#) #teacherfriends.
I like to use Tweetdeck to follow Twitter chats. It is much easier to follow them on Tweetdeck on my laptop or desktop computer than on my smartphone or tablet, because if you put in a hashtag at the top of the column, it will show you ONLY the tweets with that hashtag. (It’s also faster to type on a regular keyboard than on my phone or tablet, too! ) It’s pretty simple! Once you try Tweetdeck, you’ll figure it out.
One really nice thing about the #teacherfriends Twitter chat is that Debbie Clement of the wonderful blog Rainbows Within Reach and some of her faithful friends are always there a half an hour ahead of time to help explain how the whole Twitter thing works! That’s why they call it a “Practice Chat!” It’s been a practice chat for more than a year now, I think! This Twitter chat is friendly, and it’s meant to feel welcoming, supportive, and non-threatening for all of the newbies that may wish to join in. Nobody will criticize you or make you feel incompetent if you are unsure how Twitter works. We are all there to support each other! 
So if you don’t yet have a Twitter account, just open one up and jump into the conversation. I bet you’ll like it! Just remember that during the chat, you must always put #teacherfriends into every tweet, even if you are replying to someone else’s tweet that already had that hashtag in it. Otherwise, the others that are following the conversation under the hashtag will not see your reply. And don’t forget to follow me on Twitter if you decide to try it! You’ll never guess my handle: @heidisongs. LOL!
To enter to get one of the prizes from the chat, including the prizes from my site, HeidiSongs.com, all you have to do is tweet at least one thing with the hashtag during the chat hour and then click on the link they post to fill out the entry doc. The chat starts at 9:00 PM eastern time. For those of us on the west coast, that’s 6:00 PM, and dinner time at my house! So I’ll be hurrying home on Tuesday to make sure I get to participate!
Hope to see you there!
Heidi
