Enjoy!

The date and time of chats is determined by the organizer of the chat.  A lot of times they poll those on the hashtag about what day and time they would prefer.  Most chats are held once a week.  There are exceptions such as #mathchat which has a rerun on another day.  Some chats will occur twice in the same day to aid different time zones.  Some of these chats are: #edchat, #gtchat and #ELTchat

In most chats there is a poll set up a few days before the actual chat.  The poll lists 5 or so suggested topics.  The one with the most votes is the one that is the topic for that week's chat. 

For #edchat (held on Tuesdays at noon EST (mainly for those outside the US) and the second one is 7 pm EST) where I am a proud member of the  moderator team we have a poll on Sunday.  We have generally five proposed topics.  The one that gets the most votes is the 7pm chat topic and the runner-up is the noon chat topic.  The poll closes about 1 hour before the noon chat begins.

The key is to get people to use the chat hashtag to stay in contact during the week.  People know the time and date by tweeting it out using the chat hashtag. 

The moderator of the chat facilitates the topic.  Some chats have a guided question format and others are free flowing.

Most chats allow you to share information and sites that are pertinent to the topic.

Other related sites to find more great things: