I was a little nervous about open house, not sure why, because it was just that...open house! I didn't have to give a speech or present anything, just be in my room and say hi to parents.
The next task was to do or have my kids make something that they would be proud of and want to share with their parents. I of course also wanted to use technology.
So what better than a paper slide video! Click here if you didn't read my post about paper slide videos.
We have had a little difficulty getting our iPods updated and going, so we used a flip video camera to film them. I let them choose any topic they wanted, but it had to be something we have done, read, wrote, or learned so far this year (which has only been a few weeks). I didn't get picky or make them be "perfect"...this was their first video, plenty of room for improvement. :)
Some of them came out great! I then wanted to also to have something up, outside my classroom door. I saw a cute board posted on Pinterest (I think), but it was the little MP3 players with the student pics and it said "iRead"
Then light bulbs went off!!! Why not make QR codes (those fun looking squares that you scan and can take you to a website or enter you in a contest) for the student's paper slide videos?!?! Then glue them on the little MP3 players that have their pics on them???
Here is what the display looked like.
The QR codes are right below their picture. The parents came in and scanned their student's code and BAM watched their video! If they didn't have a QR app or didn't have a smart phone I had six iPods available for them to use. I had only one video that didn't work because I had so many private settings on it that it didn't allow us to scan and view it.
So how do you do this you ask? I uploaded the videos to my teaching partner's You Tube site, his was pretty well set up and had some great security features chosen. From now on though I will be uploading to School Tube. I would have done it for this project, but it took the website a few days to verify that I was an educator. I HIGHLY suggest you use School Tube! It's AWESOME!
Once they were uploaded I simply copy the video link and pasted it onto this site QR Stuff. It generated the QR code and I downloaded it. Once it was open I printed it, cut it out, and glued it on the student's MP3 player.
Here is one of the QR codes for one of the paper slide videos. You can even scan QR codes right off the computer!!!
So I'm glad to say I made it through Open House with flying colors!
The next thing I am going to use QR codes for in my classroom is my "focus walls". Our district asks that we have focus walls for at least reading and math. Now as to what a focus wall should look like or can look like...that is up for interpretation. Well I have a hard time covering my walls with too much stuff, sensory overload (for me...not saying it's wrong or bad). So my interpretation was more...focus wall posters!
They are posters that have our topic for the week or weeks. During that particular week the poster is a work in progress, usually hung on my board during that class period. Once finished it hangs in that area of my room until the next topic is completed, then I change it. Here are my last three focus wall posters.
But what do I do with the old posters? How can the students use the old posters and topics to reference?
ANSWER: QR CODES!!!!
I can make, print, and post on my wall...in that subject area of my classroom the QR codes for previously taught topic posters! The kids can use their iPods to scan the codes and the picture pops up!
Here is one of my other math posters...but scan the QR code to take a peek, ENJOY!!!
Here are some updated pics of my room I took during open house.
Prefix, Suffix, Root Word Trees in bloom
Finally got all my writing drawers and got them numbered!
My book boxes came in!!!!! I LOVE LOVE using the book boxes!
