I am
continually and thoroughly amazed at the ongoing creativity and expertise of our
teachers, staff, and administrators. As
one example (which I got permission to share), Steven Ybarra, principal of
Sierra Middle School provides a weekly communication to his staff called Friday’s
Final Thought. He does this late on each
Friday and highlights some of the great work that has been done by the teachers
and staff at Sierra MS. This week was no
different – however, I thought I would share his “final thought” from this last
Friday as it serves to illustrate the good work that is happening at many
levels with our RUSD staff. Thank you
Sierra MS!! Thank you Steven!!
====================
From: Ybarra, Steven W.
Subject: Friday's Final Thought
Good
Evening.
I
am sure by now you have all seen one. Curiosity may have even got the
better of you and you have used one. But unless your name is Rochelle
Kanatzar or Deb Stanley, I am pretty sure you haven’t used one as part of your
instructional program.
Friday’s
Final Thought is QR Codes.
A
QR or Quick Response Code is the trademark for a type of matrix barcode
consisting of square dots arranged in a square grid on a white
background. Teachers can use a QR code to direct students to a particular
website and/or text for that particular
code; which is exactly what Rochelle did with her students yesterday.
Rochelle’s
students worked in groups to analyze a court case. Students had to first
read primary source documents related to the court case and then Rochelle had
each group scan the QR code. The QR code directed students to a website
in which they had to assess the impact of photos/visuals on people’s
perceptions of the case.
There
are so many different ways you could utilize QR codes if you think about
it. The first thing that came to mind for me was to use a QR code as an
activity for a rotation center. Students could access the QR code and be
directed to any variety of media. You could also embed text in a QR code
and pose questions to your students. All you need are three things:
- A
QR Code Generator
- A
QR Code Reader
- Creativity
A
QR Code Generator is what allows you to create your QR Code. And
let me tell you, it’s simply a matter of copy and paste. Very
simple. Deb Stanley has provided us with a link to the following QR Code
Generator:
A
QR Code Reader is simply an app one would install on their smartphone or
digital device. Our students could install one on their device though the
Google Play Store. In fact, Rochelle found that most of her students already
had a QR Code Reader installed on either their device or smartphone.
Creativity…well I’ve been
here long enough now to know that we’ve all got that----it just comes down to
“trying something new.”
So
once you have your QR code reader you can scan away. Whether it be on
paper or the computer screen. The three below are examples of the many
different things that can be done. Scan
for yourself to see.
Remember
the
Name
Five more work days to Spring
Break
Question?
Have
a great weekend.
Steven