Happy Valentine's Day!

Amidst the craziness of celebrating Arizona's 100th birthday all day, we also managed to squeeze in a little bit of Valentine's Day fun as well. 

We have been working the last week or so on a special Valentine's Day project. First, students had to write a message in Google docs. Then they cut and paste the text into this cool site to turn the text into a heart!

Next, students worked together to create a festive background on the whiteboard. I recorded each student wishing their parents a happy Valentine's Day. Some of the students worked with me to create a Keynote presentation, which we converted to a Quicktime movie. We added each individual student recording to the beginning of the Keynote "ending" and created a personalized movie. Each movie was uploaded to YouTube and the privacy setting was changed to "anyone with link can view" (meaning it can't be searched or found, so the movies could remain a bit of a surprise!) Finally, we created a QR Code to the link for each movie and glued it to the Valentine greeting. 

A QR Code is a type of matrix bar code. QR stands for “quick response” and the code is able to hold significantly more data than a traditional bar code. Additionally, the code can link directly to text, a website, a telephone number, a vCard, a video and more!

We have been learning about QR Codes in the classroom. The QR generator we’ve been mainly using is from qrcode.kaywa.com and the app we use in the classroom to scan the codes is the i-nigma reader but there are MANY other free QR scanner apps available.

QR Codes can be scanned using any smartphone which includes Droids, Blackberries, iPhones and Palms. QR Codes can also be scanned using iTouches or iPad 2s. If you don’t happen to own any of those devices, they can also be scanned on a Mac or a PC using QReader or QuickMark QR Code Reader.

Although originally created by Toyota to track vehicles during the manufacturing process, they have become increasingly common and you will notice them on everything - magazines, packaged food items, boarding passes, cups from fast food restaurants, menus, clothing labels, etc. Using QR Codes in the classroom is a highly effective and engaging teaching tool! Not only do they enhance the interaction in class, they also make learning more fun.

Each student created a special QR Code message for you, for a 21st Century Valentine’s Day card! Please let me know if you have any challenges scanning it.

Busy, Busy and even Busier!

 Wow, we have been moving even faster than usual in the classroom! I am hoping to break some of our lessons into more detailed posts, but in the meantime you can use the following topics as a springboard for discussion at home.

We celebrated the 100th day of school last week by doing some discrete math, logic puzzles and coming up with many different ways to write an equation equaling 100.

We had an amazing Chinese New Year Celebration, lead by one of our wonderful parents and learned about customs, practiced eating using chopsticks, tried on authentic Chinese clothing, and even got a piece of Chinese money!

We've been learning about QR Codes and as part of a larger unit incorporating Ireland and St. Patrick's Day, each student created at least one QR Code with some facts about Ireland for our bulletin board. Next time you stop by make sure you have a scanning app on your smart phone to see what we are up to!

Each student started his or her own blog through kidblog. We learned to post, comment, tag and insert a photo.

Speaking of ed tech, we also learned to create a word cloud using Wordle and a new way to present using an app called Popplet. Of course each student is still studying a language through Rosetta Stone. We have been accessing Rosetta 3-4 times a week and students are welcome and encouraged to use Rosetta at home as well.