When the Twigmore team approached me to teach a class, I thought, wow, that would be fun and, because I would use an avatar, I wouldn’t have to wear a tie.  As I was preparing for the class I was so overloaded with ideas that I thought I would never be able to narrow them down to a one-hour class.  Nevertheless, with help from the Twigmore team, my random thoughts evolved into a well-rounded presentation.  But then the practice session began.  It was very cool to be walking around the virtual classroom and I really felt I was speaking to actual students in a real classroom.  However, it felt very much like I was speaking “to” and not “with” the audience.

We had the practice session and it went fairly well, but something was just not right.  When we were discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the session, it became clear to all that what worked best was engagement with the audience.  Instead of fixating on the original intention for the class, we quickly changed direction, ran with this focus and turned my class into more of an “office hours” session.  This was such an improvement, perfect for my style, and much more interactive for everybody.  It allowed the participants to be part of a discussion group rather than simply hear what I guessed they wanted to hear.

Twigmore is unlike anything out there.  The service provides great information in a way that is exciting and fun for the discussion leaders and engaging for the session participants.  The service’s ability to incorporate everybody’s input puts it ahead of the pack. The bottom line is that I really didn’t “teach” a class – I led a discussion.

Rande Bryzelak is a nutrition thought leader and guest contributor to the Twigmore Blog. He recently led a “Top Twigs: Nutrition Myths” session.

“My students who are not used to hearing such a bass timbre could not believe what the instrument sounded like with a good high quality amplifier…”

I encourage all of you to help others twig in a personal way through Donorschoose.org!

Joel’s mantra, a pillar of his “Newbie’s First Scrabble Lesson,” also happens to be a “twig,” or burst of enlightenment, that I have taken beyond Scrabble and applied to my life. Broadly speaking, I try to take risks and follow my instincts rather than lose sleep thinking about what others are doing or what could go wrong. The lesson continues to serve me well.

Although I no longer attend the Scrabble Club, I still play regularly online and read the Club’s weekly newsletter. After all, I never know where I will pick up a valuable twig.