[nobe-l] BrlChat: Free, engaging, professional development from home!

[Shaheen, Natalie]

Fellow Educators:

Have you heard about #BrlChat<http://withoutaclassroom.wordpress.com/brlchat/>-a Twitter chat for teachers of the blind/VI (and other interested parties)? It takes place every Thursday night at 9 pm eastern on Twitter. Each week the community votes on the topic to be discussed. Past topics have included: working effectively with parents, teaching access technology, tips and tricks for making Braille fun, and transition planning. Teachers from all over join in these conversations; we have regular participants from as far away as Australia.

Connecting in this way on Twitter is powerful because it is a public mainstream forum. If our topic for #BrlChat on a given week was, "getting blind students involved in P.E. and extracurricular recreation." We could have participants in the conversation from a wide variety of backgrounds: P.E. teachers, Adapted P.E. teachers, blind students, blind athletes, school administrators, parents, and more. If we had the same conversation on a listserv, we would still have the opportunity to connect with fellow teachers of the blind, but our chance of connecting with our colleagues who do not work in blindness would be more limited.

If you were waiting for your official invitation to join the conversation, here it is! *smile* Please spread the word to your colleagues and friends. Everyone who is interested in learning, collaborating, and the education of blind students is welcome.  Frequently, a number of the people who participate in the conversation have similar viewpoints; if you bring a different perspective, please offer it. The more diverse the participants are, the more rich our conversation will be.

If I didn't think this endeavor had value, I would not bring it to your attention. Take a chance and check out #BrlChat this Thursday evening at 9pm eastern. The topics on the ballot this week are: blind students with additional disabilities, Unified English Braille code, and learning media assessments and dual media (print/Braille) readers.

Visit the #BrlChat Web page<http://withoutaclassroom.wordpress.com/brlchat/> to view archived chats, vote for this week's topic, and to learn about Twitter and Twitter chats if you are new to this social media platform.

#BrlChat is a community-driven, completely free, professional development opportunity. If you have an idea about how to improve the learning opportunity, make it happen! If you have an idea about how to promote this opportunity to other educators, make it happen! Hundreds of other communities of educators have used this tool to create invaluable opportunities for professional growth. We can do the same if we come together.

Besides, what other professional development have you attended where you could sit at home in your La-z Boy, wearing pajamas, while drinking hot cocoa? So we'll see you on Twitter at 9pm Thursday, right? Awesome!

#BrlChat Rocks!
Natalie Shaheen
P.S. if you want personal Twitter 101 lessons, I'm happy to provide them in my spare time over the phone. Shoot me an e-mail to set one up!