My first #Twitterchat

Tonight I had the opportunity to attend my very first Twitterchat. I won't lie, I was very nervous. This is because I attended the #fslchat, which is for those who teach French as a second language. Unfortunately, I know nearly nothing about French and missed out on opportunities to attend other foreign language chats earlier in the week. However, I decided to give it a go and I'm so glad I did!

The theme of this week's #fslchat was Oral Communication and Fluency. After everyone introduced themselves, we spent the hour talking about the following questions:

• Q1: Share an “Eduwin” from the past 2 weeks.
• Q2: How do you define oral fluency?
• Q3: What strategies and routines do you use in your classes to develop oral fluency with your students?
• Q4: How do you help your students to take risks when speaking French in class?
• Q5: In what ways do you assess the *oral fluency skills* of your students?
• Q6: Share a strategy for developing spontaneous use of French in class.

Although I couldn't answer these questions from the perspective of a French teacher, I believe that many of the answers to these questions apply to second language learning in general. The feedback I received from the participants was wonderful! I learned so much from them, and I didn't feel lost or uncomfortable. I felt very welcomed and privileged to interact with such intelligent, passionate people. 

I believe chats like this can serve as a great resource for professional development. Not only do you learn new tips and tricks from others, but it gives you a chance to reflect on your own teaching and learning experiences. Twitterchats can be used as an outlet, whether you want another perspective on an in-classroom issue or you want to share your excitement for an idea that worked out really well. These chats can be whatever you want them to be! I definitely recommend giving one a try, because this will certainly not be my last Twitterchat!

Flipped Learning Network

When choosing an educational social networking site to join, the Flipped Learning Network immediately stood out to me. I have to admit that I know very little about "flipped learning," so I turned this into an opportunity to do some research. From my understanding, flipped learning seems to involve delivering instructional content to students outside the classroom. Students then take that knowledge and use it to collaborate with others on online discussions, and then come to class prepared to engage in those concepts. This method seems to emphasize the teacher's role as a facilitator or moderator of classroom discussion, rather than the sole source of knowledge in the class. I think that this is a very interesting method. Because I am curious as to how this applies to the foreign language classroom, I decided to join the World Language Teachers group!