Chat with Other First-Year Composition Instructors

As I mentioned here, a weekly tweet chat for first-year composition instructors happens on Wednesday evenings at 9 p.m.

#FYCchat

I want to share with you one new resource for those of you who teach first-year writing: hashtag chat* #FYCchat.

#FYCchat is a weekly conversation about teaching first-year composition (FYC) that takes place on Twitter. It was founded in January of this year by Lee Skallerup (Twitter handle: @ReadyWriting) and Nicole P. (@comPOSITIONblog), both First-Year Writing faculty who “wanted a place to share idea, discuss best practices, compare notes, and vent about the challenges and rewards of teaching First Year Composition/Freshman Writing/ENG 101.” There have been two chats so far (1/12 and 1/19) where participants have discussed different strategies of planning a first-year writing course and favorite assignments. These conversations have been opportunities to learn things that might seem obvious to other instructors but that I had not have considered. They are also useful because they can facilitate conversations between people who might not otherwise have met. I’ve been teaching first-year writing for several years now, but I’m always looking for different ideas to keep things interesting, and in participating in just part of one of these discussions, I have gotten some really good ideas for assignments and exercises. Anyone with a Twitter account can participate in the discussion (or just lurk and learn), and if you have missed the first two chats, they are archived on a companion website, First Year Composition Chat.

from ProfHacker