I found out last Tuesday (May 29) that TodaysMeet was officially closing their doors on June 16th. In reading the blog post by James Socol, I was surprised to find that this awesome platform for participant engagement was essentially a one-man-show. Wow.

And what a show it was. I first started using TodaysMeet back in 2014 for the professional development sessions I hosted for my district (see image). Seeing first hand, how this tool worked with adults and how a backchannel helped to facilitate conversation, I decided to bring this into my middle school classroom.

Talk about super cool.

My district blocks Twitter so I sold this tool as a Twitteresque platform for my students (and colleagues). It was all about real-time, concise statements about their thoughts. Sometimes I had students reflect on their readings; other times I used it as a way to give all students a voice when viewing video clips about historical events. To make it more relevant to the lingo of my students, I typically ended our TodaysMeet sessions with a prompt asking students to sum up their thoughts using two hashtags. It was a fun way to get a quick glimpse into their reflections in only 140 characters.

I was hooked.

In fact, I was so hooked that I even purchased a subscription for Teacher Tools.

Even with the plethora of new technology tools coming out, TodaysMeet remained a classroom staple. In fact, I recently introduced it to my student teacher (who LOVED it) only to find out that she can only use it until June 16th. Bummer. Sorry, Lauren (@Ms_ltnle)

Without a doubt, there are many technology tools that come and go, but TodaysMeet was special. It was easy. It was quick. And better yet, it was free. I will miss TodaysMeet as a backchannel option for PD, but more importantly I will miss TodaysMeet as a classroom staple for my middle schoolers. #sigh

Good-bye old friend. Thank you, James Socol (@jamessocol). You created a useful kid- and adult-friendly product that more than served its purpose.