Using Today's Meet with my Post 16's

https://todaysmeet.com/

What is Today's Meet?

Before half term my students had a deadline to complete work for their visual diary and 4-6 images to go with it. The students needed to critique each others work and give constructive criticism. If it's your first time it can be quite hard to think on the spot and give your response straight away so I decided to use Today's Meet.

WHY?

Today's Meet gives the students a minute to think before they answer. They have a chance to write what they want to say, see if it makes sense, then send. It definitely helped, the students felt more relaxed and enjoyed the activity. 

After they finished writing I would go through each response and ask them to expand as they are only given something like 140 characters to respond in. The students were already prepared with what they are going to say and feel more confident to say it. 

When I first thought of using this I was nervous, it has lots of benefits but it is also a tool to cause distraction. I was worried about them not concentrating and writing silly things. 

Ok, I admit they did write silly things. But it wasn't as distracting as I first thought. Yes sometimes I would get the odd silly comment, but it was never anything negative, which was important for me. My students need to feel safe in the classroom environment. 

I would recommend others to use it in their classrooms. I know you will get silly comments, but as long as their positive and may even get a little giggle out of the students, it doesn't really matter. It makes it enjoyable and theirs. As long as the work gets done I don't mind having a giggle with my students, I think it's an important part of being a teacher, being able to enjoy your lessons. This is one thing that makes me think I would never enjoy teaching solely online. I would miss the teaching experience too much.