NCCE Inspiration

I was lucky enough to go to the NCCE conference for two days! One of the biggest takeaways I had was that I need to let go of control a little and let my students just explore some of the technology I want them to use. This past week I decided to try it with Google Slides. My students have had one lesson on how to get to slides through Classroom, change the background, add an image and put in a text box. I decided to make this my special project for my writing rotations. I reviewed the steps with my students the day before the first group would try it and then again the day of. We also made a word bank of all of the animals we have learned about. I told students they needed to pick an animal, add a picture of it, change the background and add one fact about the animal with a text box. Once they have done this they can explore any of the other tools they would like. I was nervous, it had been awhile since they had all actually tried slides on their own but I knew I needed to give them the chance to explore. On the first day I sent the group off and told them I would be over to check on them once I had everyone else settled. Three minutes later when I walked over to check all four group members already had accessed slides and were finishing changing their background colors. I was amazed! At this point I told them I would be conferencing with writers and they needed to ask each other for help if they got stuck instead of me. Throughout the next 30 minutes I caught pieces of amazing conversations from my kinder students. I heard things like “that looks cool can you teach me to do it?” and “I don’t remember how to do this part can you help me” I watched my students use their words to walk their peers through the steps instead of taking over and doing it for one another! Looking at their slides my students have learned how to set a theme, add in shapes, create a border to their text boxes, change their text color, resize objects and so much more. I am inspired to try this more with multiple programs and can’t wait to see what these amazing kids can do!