Chatting...it's a hobby!

I love to talk, chat, text, email...the list goes on.  

I communicate with students, parents, my principal, PLC coach, and my colleagues at my school site everyday.  Each of these people I communicate and collaborate with in a different way.  I see my kids everyday and we talk, and when they have their email up, they email me.  We post questions on our Google Classroom and comment on each other's posts.  I use Class Dojo with my parents and they have a messaging feature I use all the time with certain parents.  Most of my parents are signed up, but some don't check my messages.  Some parents I only talk to at conferences because I have a translator and that is how we communicate.  Or I have to communicate with them through a 3rd party.  I talk to my principal and we are in email communication.  My PLC Coach and I collaborate in many different ways: email, text, chat, Facebook messenger, or phone calls.  I communicate with a few colleagues everyday.  We make time to talk and check in with one another.

The most surprising thing about the way I communicate and collaborate with all these people is that it happens EVERY day, yet I also feel like I don't get to communicate with my colleagues enough!

Asynchronous communication has to do with taking you time to respond to something, like email or texting.  I do these things all the time.  I like texting because you can can get your message to someone rather instantly.  You don't necessarily have to respond right away, but you receive or send a message instantly.

Asynchronous collaboration has to do with collaborating with a colleague when it's convenient to you, the time frame is very flexible. I don't feel like this is something I do with regularity.  With my Teaching in the Digital Age Class, I have these collaborations more often then if I was doing this on my own.  It's something that I would like to do more.

Synchronous communication I love this method!  It's real time chatting.  I like that it's instant.  My kids love to chat with me on Google Classroom. Every Monday I post something that they can chat with me and each other.  They love it, we are in the same room, but it's cool to chat with each other.  I like to chat with my colleagues as well.  It's nice to get an instant answer to a question, or vent quickly.

Synchronous collaboration collaborating instantly.  I use this kind of collaborating with my PLC coach.  We use messenger all the time to bounce ideas off each other.  I have also used Google hangouts for PLC meetings.

I have realized that I am really good at Asynchronous and Synchronous communication, but both my collaboration methods need work.  I think for the Synchronous collaboration I just need to expand my colleagues I chat with and bounce ideas off of.  I am always up for learning new things and trying different ways to collaborate and communicate.  So if you see me online, start up a conversation!