I participated in back-to-back Twitter chats tonight. Two hours of fast-paced, free professional learning, coaching and collaboration. Ideas, encouragement and pure inspiration that I will take back to my classroom tomorrow.

#EdCollab and #TWOTC

Back-to-back learning opportunities.
My choice.
My needs.
Nerdy teacher heaven.

Here are nine takeaways from these two chats:

• When I am working with a student, I must always make sure to teach at the point of a child’s strengths and zone of proximal development.

• As I grow and change my beliefs and practice, I will benefit from creating a “cheat sheet” with questions to ask students when I confer with them. Questions that remind me to talk less so that students do most of the work.

• I need to ask questions like – 
• What did you try? 
• What will you try? 
• What have you tried before? How did that go?
• What can you try now? 
• Tell me about what you did here.
• What makes you say that?
• If you knew the answer, what would you say?

• I will stay focused on my students’ strengths and not on their weaknesses. I will celebrate my students for who they and not for who we want them to be.

• In order to grow as a teacher, I need collaborators. Other teachers who want to dig deep, talk, probe and innovate with me. I need other risk takers who are also there for the students.

• I need to listen more and talk less. Those doing the talking are doing the learning.

• Starting tomorrow, I plan to ask my students: “What are you proud of?” @SteveWyborney The focus is on celebrating small and big successes that students recognize about themselves.

• It’s important for students to understand how we learn so they can take charge of their learning.

• Learning is not about magic or innate ability. It’s about having a positive disposition and engaging in hard fun in an environment where the learner is not penalized for his or her learning. @GosnellMac