QR Codes

Hello everyone,
Today I wanted to share with you a little activity I put together involving QR codes and art. What I had planned was to have students pick an influential artist throughout history, research their life, their successes, their style, and so on. Once the students have completed their research, they will be able to record themselves speak as if they were the artist. This video will then be uploaded to YouTube or another media site that plays videos. By creating a QR code that takes users to the video, students will automatically have access to the lives of artists throughout history! This QR code can be pasted to a portrait of the artist, and will play a life like video, as if the picture came to life! It may seem a little confusing, trying to explain it in text but below you can see how easy it would be in a classroom.

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Overall, I thought that QR codes are really simple to use, because of how popular they are. Everywhere we go we can see the codes on bags, merchandise, even price tags on items in stores. I've used them in the past, and have had a really great experience using them, so I am all for using these QR codes. There are countless websites that can generate QR codes for videos, audio, text, picture, and list goes on and on. Also, because the online generators are so easy to use and do all the work, teachers, parents, and even students could use them to complete projects, make assignments more engaging, and even connect with others. 

Wordle

Here’s another sample of one of my web 2.0 tech tools that I used in my education course. Wordles are a really cool resource for all kinds of teachers no matter the subject. Personally, I used it for a writing lesson, where students can choose a season of the year they really enjoy. Once they have chosen a season, they will then brainstorm and create a list of all the possible words that signify or resemble anything about the season. With this completed list, students can then create a short story using the main words that appear on the wordle. This can be a short story, a favorite memory, or whatever they would like to write about.

Similar to my previous post, this tech tool was really simple to use. All that is needed is a list of words, a few sentences, or even a paragraph of writing to get you started. Once you have added the writing or words, users can change colors and customize the appearance of the wordle which can be really fun. I know that any student would find this to be a really fun activity. Moreover, I have personally seen Wordles used in the past with great success. So, next time you’re planning a writing assignment or want something fun and easy to do, make a Wordle! This is my wordle I made on my favorite season of the year, fall. Try it out!

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Blabberize

For this tech sample, I created a blabberize video that could be taught at the 5^th grade level. Specifically, the blabber was on the food chain, which is such an important topic in school. Of course, this topic is typically taught across a number of grade levels as well.

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This blabber was created with the help of my sister, her friend, and my brother, but could certainly be done with a single person speaking. I asked for their help in order to make the video a bit more interesting and would certainly get students involved in a classroom. Overall, I thought the blabber went great and was very user friendly. The set up was easy to follow, instructions were clear, and anyone can basically make one! From what I read on the blabberize website, they have added a “new scene” feature which I found to be particularly useful. With this new feature, people are now able to add frames and make their video the way they’d like it. Thinking in terms of education, I think this would be an excellent resource to use in the classroom. Blabbers get students engaged, they get the material to the students, and they are just plain fun. I have included my sample I created in this post, click on it and check it out! If you have a blabber of your own, I would love to see it! 

Hey everyone,

This week I followed the #alg1chat that took place this weekend, and I have to say I learned a lot about some great tools teachers can use involving math. This week’s topic was the use of games in the classroom to motivate learning and was overall really good. There were many people throughout the U.S. asking questions, giving answers and opinions, and collaborating on what role games play in the class. Being a math major, I was particularly attracted to this chat, and I was really glad to learn about some great resources. One of the resources that I liked in particular was tweeted by David Wees (http://davidwees.com/content/teaching-probability - @davidwees), and was actually his personal education website.

What I really liked about his resource was that it was geared towards the material I was looking for and actually gave me some great ideas. Specifically, his tweet was to give a suggestion for a probability game that would get students engaged and motivated them to learn about probability. Throughout the chat, people asked whether others agreed or disagreed with the use of games to introduce a topic, and for the most part people felt that games helped their students a lot. I personally would agree that games do in fact get students involved and excited to learn (for the most part).

So, to sum up my experience with Twitter and PLN’s, I think they are a wonderful tool that all educators should consider and incorporate into their teachings. I have to say, I have learned about more tools and resources this semester than any other in school so far. By using twitter these past few weeks, I have gained useful knowledge that I know I will be able to use in the near future and will make me a more effective teacher. Attached below is my initial post on #alg1chat. Also, my twitter handle is @cardonajairo93 in case you cant make it out in the screen shot. I hope to see you all on this chat on Sundays 8-9 Eastern Time.

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