My One Thing...So Far... #GafeSummit

  (Glances around furtively to see who is watching...)

I wasn't excited about jumping in the car.
Don't get me wrong.  I love learning.
We just returned from Grand Rapids after attending the Lutheran Education Association Convocation.
We squeezed in a birthday celebration for my 12 year old.  (Bless it.  My 8 year old is still waiting.)
Conferences are coming.  A Fall Concert with my Rusty Piano Playing is coming.
And now I'm going to leave town again for the weekend for some more PD?
(Are you sensing the weight yet?)
I pack the bag and jump in the minivan with a super colleague.


Saturday

A day of completely amazing learning!  All those thoughts before?  Go ahead and forget I had them.

I'm still processing Maker Space.  (A blog post is brewing...)  It was excited to have play time and try some tools out.

I loved spending time looking at Matific's resources and what they had to offer in the area of math.

I spent some time listening and watching and learning about extensions that support primary readers and writers.

The One Thing

But you guys.  Here is The One Thing that rocked my world.  You may be already fluent at this.  Go ahead and skip out if you have mastered this already.

I've been struggling with Blogging in First Grade.  You guys.   I just felt like it was taking up so much time.  I wanted to give my students an authentic voice.  But I also wanted them in the writing process, not the "Hunting and Pecking" process as they pecked out a tiny blog post.  I felt like writing was suffering because they simply weren't ready to type!

Here's the One Thing:

1  Open up a Google Doc.
2. Use the Voice Typing tool under the Tools section of the document.
3.  Allow the students to record the story they wish to tell.  (A response, an answer to a question, a story they need to share.)
4.  Install Read&Write for Google Chrome in your extensions.
5.  The students can have their writing read back to them to make sure it is correct.
6.  Publish and connect with the world!

A huge thank you to Stacy Behmer for showing us extensions that can impact our classroom instruction.  The time to use and experiment with this extension was my One Thing that is coming back with me.

What are you learning at #GAFESummit?

Joy!
Kendra