On Friday 2nd October I tried something new. Instead of heading home and collapsing on the sofa, I drove to the BBC’s 21st Cenury Classroom in Salford to attend my first Teachmeet.

What is a Teachmeet? Basically it’s a group of teachers who meet up to exchange ideas. Some of these people are actually there in the room, others join in via an online Flashmeeting— which is like a combination of a video conference and a chat room. People volunteered to offer presentations lasting for either 7 minutes or 2 minutes. These presentations have to be about something that they have used in a classroom situation.

Anyone can join in, either as a presenter or just to listen and/or discuss. It’s not a formal session, in fact it’s so informal that it’s known as an unconference.

I came away with loads of great ideas and resources—some of which are featured here. I’ll be passing more of these ideas on as soon as I’ve tried them out.

Want to find out more?
Tim and Moby from brainpop.co.uk explain what a Teachmeet is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlSQYSnPUQY
(This was made for a Scottish Teachmeet, we didn’t have bagpipes in Salford…)

Most Teachmeets are organised through this site:
http://teachmeet.pbworks.com

But Teachmeet Northwest has its own site:
http://www.teachmeetnw.pbworks.com

My summary of all the presentations, with links to some really good sites is here (or at least it will be very shortly!):
http://morethanmaths.wordpress.com/2009/10/05/teachmeetnw