Batchko's Bytes: QR Codes

Get pictures talking with Chatterpix

8:04 AM

Put a mouth on anything and make it talk with Chatterpix and Chatterpix Kids!

App: ChatterPix - by Duck Duck Moose

Cost: Free

Lesson Ideas:
- Shapes: Have students take pictures or find pictures online of various shapes and then have them explain the attributes and the name
- Hero essay? Have students fine a picture of their hero and then have them speak and explain what makes them hero.
- Inventors? find a picture of the inventor and have them explain what they invented and how it has changed/helped society

Display and Sharing:
Save the video to your camera roll, upload it to your DropBox and make public, then you can create a QR code that directly links to student work or you can create an Aurasma (print out picture of the Chatterpix to be your trigger photo) and then download your video to play when scanned.

How To Videos:

Anchor Charts

"Tech"nically Teaching

8:44 AM

I have recently accepted the position of Elementary Technology Coach in my district. I am extremely excited but also overcome with a plethora of emotions about leaving the classroom. I have slowly started to pack up (and give away) items in my classroom but I wanted to document what has worked for me as a 21st Century Teacher.

I use this over the door shoe rack to store student headphones (we were able to get each student a pair from Dollar Tree as a motivation tool while doing STAAR review, they work well and have lasted for the past 2 months), BYOD (iPods, phones...) on Wednesdays and their class shirts so they are not lost at home.

I have my email address posted LARGE in my class for students to email me completed work or photos, this also helps with not having to spell my name 100 times a day.

I keep a running list of what apps we use in the classroom.

Here are our BYOD procedures for the classroom.

My Science Word Wall are QR links to Quizlet decks.

All of my anchor charts are created digitally so that each student gets a miniature copy to glue in their journal and also so that I can post them on my website.

App

Students CREATE with Educreations

9:32 AM

If you have IPads then you have GOT to start having students CREATE with Educreations. Educreations is like a personal SmartBoard for each student but it allows them to import pictures, record their work and easily share with one another.

After studying ecosystems in science I would usually have my students sketch a food chain of their choice in their science journals and label each organism and classify its role and then have students come up to the document camera and share their food web/chain with the class. Well after some thoughts on how to Tech Up my lesson I decided to.. have students use Educreations to create their food webs/chains and then record themselves discussing how energy from the sun flows through organisms! This allowed me to assess the level of knowledge the students had obtained... were the able to take ownership of vocabulary and put terms in their own words or were they simply just reading the definitions?! After the students created their presentations we used Reflector to share each students presentation with the class!

A few opinions and thoughts about Educations:

1. As a teacher go to http://www.educreations.com/ to set up an account and then a class

2. Use the app it is much easier than the website to create

3. Search of other teachers lesson, there are some great already created presentations/lessons!

Student work on display with QR Codes linked to their Educreations so other students to see and hear their work!

Student Samples:

App

QR Code Vocabulary with Quizlet

8:53 AM

My students absolutely live for our 45 minutes of science everyday. This year I have heard more "What if....?" questions than in the past. Even though they love science when it comes to the STAAR it is always such a struggle for my students because of the amount of vocabulary and then add a language barrier to the equation and it can make for an uphill battle. My team uses Quizlet (digital flashcard website and app) on a regular basis for ELA vocabulary, since they were having so much success I decided to apply the same practice to Science. I created six different "decks" and posted them to our grade-level webpage but also linked them to QR codes and posted them around the classroom and outside on my bulletin board. The students were able to BYOD and scan the code and save the address to their device so they could practice in-class, at home, in the car or while waiting for a table at a restaurant. I created two set of each "deck" one with picture and the other without pictures. I don't know my STAAR scores but I can tell you through observations my students science vocabulary has improved and they have enjoyed the practice.

Just an opinion: while the Quizlet app is very helpful the students are able to do more from the website.