SC Google Fest

Learned how to add Bitmoji! 

You may have noticed (or not) the change in Blog name. I have decided to leave my current post in 5th grade and move districts to a 3rd grade position at the school we are zoned for! For the new blog name I enlisted my help from the hubby to come up with a more permanent name in case of future movement. Voila! Lowcountry Learning is the perfect name teaching in Charleston, South Carolina.

Now on to the real purpose of this post! 

GOOGLEFEST!!!!

If you ever have a chance to go to a Google event, RUN there. I always learn so many cool things that I want to start using immediately. (Bitmoji example). Whenever Google does an event they always pull out a lot of stops. 

First up were the goodies we got in the Google Fest bags. I got another pair of Google Virtual reality glasses, pen/pencil set, notebook, and believe it or not, those squares change into a phone holder (not that I've figured it out yet).

The first session I went to was about Maker Space and Genius Hour. There were many good points to this session. It's based off the idea that Google gives their employees 20% of the workday to work on whatever they want to as long as it is innovative. As teachers, it is harder to incorporate this into our days because of all the other things we need to get done. It will be something I will be revisiting after I start at my new school. Rosie Herold and Melissa Negreires were the presenters for this session if you are looking for more information.   

From that session I moved to working on Choice boards with MaryEllen West. She is a teacher out of Atlanta and she is great!! I ENCOURAGE you to go visit http://www.maryellenwest.org/ . She has some truly inspiring stuff and she gives some really cool tips! 

I have used choice boards for a few years now. Being in the school I was in, choice boards really helped with motivation. This session showed me how to do choice boards through Google Slides. I never thought of doing it that way and I was even taught how to take the images I insert and create shapes that will link to the other slides in the the presentation so students can get their work done all in one place. MaryEllen's website has directions for all of the work she showed us. 

After a fantastic catered deli lunch and some fun....

massage chairs!

Found some of my new coworkers! 

We had a question/answer session with some principals from a neighboring district that was pretty informative. 

I am pretty excited to use some of the things we learned in our sessions today, but beyond that is has encouraged me to try some more things on my own. In the past I have let the fact that I don't know something keep me from trying it. I want to be more proactive to use good ole Google to find some of the answer to my questions. 

At the end of the Fest we were given our certificates!

My goal for this summer is to become a Google Certified Educator Levels 1 & 2. I'm sure I will post about that adventure. If you'd like more information about that head to https://edutrainingcenter.withgoogle.com/certification_level1