QR Codes 101!

You  might be wondering: What in the world are all these little squares I keep seeing everywhere?!? If you look to the right side of my page, you'll even see one there.

This past week at WOW! Academy was the first time I really interacted with them much. They are called "QR Codes" short for Quick Response Code. You can use your smart phone or computer to scan the code, and it will take you to the stored data that's connected to the code. It enables you to access the data quicker than if you typed in a long web address. It also can link to things like contacts, lists, etc. It's pretty awesome!

"What does this have to do with education?", you might ask. I would say: ALOT! Just in the short time I've been using them, I can think of a MILLION ways to integrate this into your school and classroom. First and foremost - lets get the technical side out of the way.

1. How do I scan a QR code?
Download a QR code scanning app on your smart phone. I have 'Scan' which has worked very well so far, and it's FREE! Also, I've hear that QR Reader and i-nigma are both good! Simply open the app, and hold your phone up to the QR code. It will scan, and automatically take you to the content! Easy as pie! Lets try it! Use your smart phone to scan this code! (Be aware: You should see a John Doe contact. Remember, this is NOT a real person! hah!)!

2. How do I create a QR code?
-Well, there are LOTS of different sites that will allow you to do this! One site is QR Code Generator. This site allows you to link to free text, a web address, even makes it to when you scan the code, it sends a contact to your smart phone. (I'm going to use this at Open house. I will have a code outside my door that parents can scan and it will bring up my contact information. They can create a new contact  from it so they'll have my info stored in their phone! How cool!!


-Another great way to create a QR code is through Google URL Shortener. Basically, you can take any web address you're want your students/parents to link to, and shorten them to a goo.gl address. This is great for use in the classroom because if you were to ask students who weren't able to scan QR codes to log on to a website that looked like mine: www.middleschoolmathsource.blogspot.com it would take them 30 minutes :) SO, instead, you can go to goo.gl and paste the link that you'd like to shorten. It will give you a new goo.gl link that looks something like this goo.gl/3JdRN (This is a shortened link to my Teachers Pay Teachers Store). Then, when you click on 'details' for that link, it will give you a matching QR code that you can use for that same link! How awesome!

3. How will people see it?
I have been saving my QR codes in a file with the name of where they lead, so I can upload them to blogs, facebook, or print them to hang in class. Simply print them out, hang them in class, and use them for lessons, surveys, etc.

An Example:

I created a google form that has about 15 questions on it for the first day of school. I created a QR code to link to it, and when students come in the first day of class, they will scan the QR code, fill out the survey on their smartphone, and when they submit that, I will have a google form with ALL of their information in one place!

I will post 'Top 10 Ways to use QR for back to school' soon, but I thought this might help those of you who are completely new to the world of QR Codes!

That's a lot of 'techy' talk, but I hope it helps!

WOW! Academy

This week, I attended a WOW Academy at our local Region VI Education Service Center. 

We learned about SO many Web 2.0 tools, technology tools, and Project Based Learning techniques. Throughout the week we had to create a project that our students could complete. Then, we had to complete the project like we were the student! How fun! I love acting like a 7th grader. :)

Our group used a lot of different tools in our presentation. We divided up each section of the project and worked on it individually, and came together for the final presentation. We used tools like Animoto, Blabberize, Prezi, Youtube, etc. {I'll be doing some spotlights about different Web 2.0 tools very soon. These are just a few!}

I thought about what I would like to see from my students if they presented a project. Last year, I did a project over number systems. They really did a great job, but EVERY single project was powerpoint. I had showed them a few different web 2.0 tools they could use, but they all chose to do powerpoint. That is totally ok, but I reeeeeeally missed the creativity that other things can bring into a project! (One thing you should know about me is that I LOVE rap music -- surprising I know! I don't listen to that vulgar junk - but I have a great list of Christian rappers if you're interested!! They're awesome!) So, thinking like a 7th grader, I thought that my teacher would be super impressed if I wrote a rap! I started by picking a song, printed the lyrics and wrote new words that had to do with the subject we were presenting about. Our project was over Hurricanes, and I decided to use Justin Bieber's new song 'Boyfriend' as my track! Brave, I know! I got the karaoke version that has no lyrics, and I began to record my new 'song'! Here it is! 

Mind you, this is the first time I have EVER sang/recorded anything! Anyway- it was so fun and I think it was a hit! I am going to share it w/ my students this year as an example of what they can do if they get creative! We also made a Wix webpage to bring everything together. The link to that is here. You can check it out to see what a group of students might put together for a presentation. 

I hope to share many more ideas about content related Project Based Learning! I am a part of a team that will be doing lots of that this year, so stay tuned!

A teacher blog!? Really!?

Ok, I caved. 


I have been thinking of starting a 'teaching blog' for a while now, but I had some hesitations. "What if people don't like what I have to say? What if I don't have anything good to share? I haven't been teaching that long, what could I possibly contribute?"


Well - I started an account on Teachers Pay Teachers a while back, and have had AWESOME feedback from all the resources that I've posted. I originally started an account because I had lots of fun files to share with my teacher friends, but didn't have an easy way to email/share all of the large files. I decided to post them on Teachers Pay Teachers for free so they could access them. Since then, one of my products have had almost 10,000 downloads. I guess that I do have a few things that would be worth sharing with the world ;) 


With all that said, I decided that it was time to start a teacher blog. I'm excited about this new journey. I hope that this is a place you can come for up and coming ideas in math education & technology integration! I love comments, ideas and collaboration. Subscribe, come back, and let me know if there's anything you'd like to talk about or need tutorials on!