QR codes, videos, and Today's Meet

I think I am addicted to QR codes as short cuts to completing activities!  I find it so easy to just insert QR codes right into a word document that serves as short cuts for accessing both videos and back channels like Today's Meet!

This week our reading story talks about the rainforest, so I wanted my students to gain a little bit of information about the rainforest and then share some facts on Today's Meet.  We will do a short research project during our iPad time after spring break and learn a little more about the rainforest.

So the first QR code took them to my Padlet page with the video, then the second QR code took them to Today's Meet in which there were asked to post three things that make rainforests unique!  I love that Today's Meet only allows them 120 characters to post so they have to keep it short and sweet!  I have my students use their class numbers as their nicknames so that I can assess them later!

One thing I discovered is that we had interruptions to our day and one group didn't get to view the video and post their comments to Today's Meet.  I had it set to close the same day so the group that didn't get to the station that day was not able to access the discussion board.  They had to do the post the old fashion way--paper and pencil.  Funny thing is they wrote a lot more than 120 characters that way!  Another negative:  I couldn't see the students answers after it closed either with the Free version.

Advice:  consider either a paid version so that you can get a transcript of this discussion, extend the deadline (close date) so that you have time to score if needed and allow for interruptions, or use something else like a blog or google classroom stream, Edmodo, etc....

By the way, I am trying out the monthly subscription to Today's Meet to see how I like it!  Just have to remember to cancel it if I am not using it or summer comes.  Full year is $57 I believe!  Not a lot of savings but a little.

Engage NY and the Common Core

All this talk of getting rid of common core has me looking for the right candidate for our next president.  Unfortunately I have become quite fond of common core and would like to see it stick around for a while.  On the flip side, our math curriculum is horrible--publishers just haven't been able to provide curriculum that works in our classroom.

However, there is a new resource out there that is free at this point and well worth investigating!  It is called Engage NY!  A colleague is using it to teach fractions to her 4th graders (my students from last year) and having great success reaching the lower students (i.e. Title 1)!  Their confidence seems to be building and their classmates are realizing that they are good at math!  What a great feeling for students!

If you haven't checked it out, there is curriculum for P-12 in both language arts and math!  I haven't looked at the language arts materials, but am sure that next year I will be using more of this resource and hopefully seeing more success and cheer from my classes in the future.

QR codes, Padlet and taking notes

Today was eye opening for me!  I am in the middle of teaching the same social studies unit I taught last year and this year's integration of technology seems to have sparked the students' interest much more than last year!

During reading stations I had the students use Inigma to scan a QR code to access my Statue of Liberty Padlet page.  Then in their writing journals they began taking notes.  I put a variety of resources on the Padlet including infographics, short videos, student videos, websites and a story book read outloud.

Last year I specified a certain number of notes to be taken, but chose not to do that this year due to the fact that I have several students with disabilities.  I told the students the end product would be a video teaching us what they learned about the Statue of Liberty.  The prospect of making a video seemed to motivate the kids to take more notes than last
year's class!

I am so confident that the students are motivated to gather research that I will do the same station tomorrow and am looking forward to seeing how this all comes together.  We will be using Adobe Voice to make the movie and will gather pictures from a student safe site.  I will try to include this resource in my next blog post.