QR??

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!!

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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:

1.  A QR Code Generator
2.  A QR Code Reader   
3.  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:

http://createqrcode.appspot.com/

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 

State of Education

Kenn Young’s State of Education address yesterday was to cover all of Riverside County. The county of Riverside is the 4th largest educational agency in the State of California with 430,000+ students. 

Supt. Young covered several different topics – starting with the great things that are happening across the county with our students. Additionally, he explored four points including:

1. EVERY student in Riverside County needs to complete high school and graduate.  There are dire economic consequences to the student and the community when that does not happen.  New state data on graduation and completion rates will be released on April 9^th.

2. Technology is an important tool for us to integrate in the instructional process with our students across the county. He said that we need to see that technology as an “everyday essential.”  Supt. Young talked about online classes, blended, flipped, etc.  He gave a special “shout out” to the California Open Campus Initiative.

3. We need to have concern and focus BEYOND high school as that is essential to our economic well-being and development across the county.  As we look at this issue remediation of skills and utilization of the EAP as a predictor are important consider.

4. “Where do we need to improve?” The essence of this question leads to higher expectations for all of us and the academic performance of our students. He specified several areas that we should focus on as we raise expectations and performance.  Ultimately, there is evidence that students that are acquiring skills necessary to be “college/career ready” are those students that are performing at the ADVANCED level on the CST (not just the proficient level).  As such, we need to shift our expectations and metrics.

Last, but not least, he affirmed that, “I believe in Riverside County.”

125 years!!

Today was a great day that represents just a portion of the heritage that we have here in Riverside.  This morning I was able to attend Highgrove Elementary School’s celebration of their 125^th birthday.  Wow!!  That was before I was born, my parents were born, and my grandparents were born.  As we look back at history, changes, and accomplishments of this school it is quite a heritage.

The amazing part was that in addition to those of us that you might typically expect to see there – there were graduates, former teachers, etc.  This was certainly a “Highgrove community” celebration.  Supervisor Tavaglione presented a well-deserved resolution from Riverside County along with a historical perspective and memento from Dr. Chuck Beaty, RUSD Board of Education.  Throughout there was student participation, song, and a good time.

Another Intense weekend

There was a lot happening on Saturday.  In the morning we had our 2nd Annual Parent Summit at Arlington HS.  The focus on this was to assist our Spanish-speaking parents in helping their students.  As such, we started with students in our DLI classes from Washington and Castle View performing several numbers for us.  Then we moved on to our keynote speaker, Lt. Col. Kickbush who essentially told her own story which arguably is a lot like those sitting in the audience.  She related with them – but also asked them to commit to being more active and engaged in the education of their children.  She particularly focused on “dads.”  From my perspective, I believe she was very powerful and unlike other speakers ultimately spoke from her heart.  From the keynote, parents moved to a multitude of breakout sessions involving all kinds of topics (e.g., bullying, GPAs and HS credits, college issues, etc.).

My thanks to Antonio Garcia and his staff from initiating this project and then continuing to grow it.  The district staff from our AEL group was highly visible and involved.  The publications team, as always, was involved with all the technical aspects.  Last, but certainly not least there was an army of volunteers.  Kudos and thanks to all.  We doubled the attendance from last year and had over 600 parents for the morning.

Saturday evening was a shift as we went to JW North for another CIF basketball doubleheader with both girls and the boys teams.  The final for the girls’ game was 55-43, which obviously is not close.  They will play again on Tuesday night on Bakersfield (quite a drive).

The boys’ game was even more impressive as they took off fast and never looked back.  For most of the game we were about 40 points ahead of the Hanford opponent.  I am sure the Hanford players thought that there were more than 5 Huskies on the court at any one time, given the speed of the game and defense.  The final score was 61-23.  The boys will also be playing on Tuesday night, but in the JW North gym again – but the predictions are that it will be a much closer game with West Lake HS.

An amazing day.  Thanks to all.

Tradition and Innovation

An interesting week for sure.  JW North continues with its journey to the state championship in Boys Basketball, with its girls’ team not far behind.  Certainly it was an extraordinary win on Saturday night by one point.  A great team to watch but the more interesting human interest story was the one outlined in the Press Enterprise last week.  Three of the players are repeating the path that their father’s laid out – when THEY were involved in similar CIF Championship playoffs as previous basketball players at JW North.  That is tradition!  Way to go Huskies!

As a point of interest I am attaching the upcoming bracketing for the Divisional Championships which begin on Wednesday (tomorrow) with the 6 pm game for our North Girls team followed by the 7:30 game for the boys.  Both at JW North Gym.  A doubleheader – and yes you will need to get there early if you want to actually get INSIDE of the gym.  I am sure it will be SRO.

Another interesting matter was the group performance at the Board meeting last night.  The performance demonstrated a great partnership and the spirit of Riverside.  We had Bryant Elementary students presenting a musical performance.  Not that unusual, you say.  Except the “music” teacher is a “volunteer” in this case who works regularly with our students.  Mr. V brings a lot to the engagement as they sang, played instruments, etc.  Interestingly several of the instruments were actually constructed by Mr. V to add to Bryant inventory.  Great job Bryant!  Great job Mr. V and students!!