We’re QRazy for QR Codes!

Day 1 of the #JulyiPadChallenge is all about QR Codes!  I know the teachers and students in our 1:1 iPad environment can all scan QR codes, but I want to empower teachers to create codes more often.  Once printed, adhered, and/or displayed, teachers can use the codes to engage students, to add student voice to school work, etc.  The sky’s the limit!

This is my favorite app for scanning and creating QR codes, but there are many other free apps and digital tools that work equally well.  Since I print from my laptop and not my iPad, I actually do most of my QR code-creating with the goo.gl URL Shortener Chrome extension (because it will automatically generate a QR code along with shortening a URL!)  Then I can print right away to hang the codes on my bulletin board, glue to book covers/pages, etc.  (I can also right-click to save the codes as .jpgs and then insert them into another project or file as needed.)

One of my other favorite resources that automatically generates a QR code is OneTab, also a Chrome extension.  Padlet will also generate a QR code for you once your wall is created, which is great if you are projecting.  Your students can quickly scan the code rather than typing out a convoluted URL to start contributing to the wall.   

Here’s an old list of QR resources and ideas I made a few years ago; I didn’t update it but I’m including here in case it’s helpful.  Other QR-related pins here.  Finally, scan the code below to get an idea of what QR Voice can do!  

Let me know how you and your students use QR codes; feel free to post ideas and pics using the hashtag #JulyiPadChallenge!  

July iPad Challenge, 2015

The July iPad Challenge is back by popular demand; boost your digital skills before the kiddos come back to school!  Click here to learn more about this free and easy summer PD opportunity.  

I teach and help teachers in a 1:1 iPad school district, so I designed this activity (both this year and last) with some specific skills and tools in mind.  Because we’re K-12 iPads, I didn’t create an alternate Google/Chromebook challenge, but that would also be fun and I might keep that in mind for 2016!

This challenge is designed for us to complete on our own using our iPads and should only take about 5 minutes per day.  The link above will take you to a calendar that looks something like this:

Complete one a day…or just the ones that interest you…or go at your own pace… or just whatever!  It’s a great opportunity to try out 20+ apps that we’ll be able to use or share in our classrooms.

Please feel free to post your creations and check back here for more information and updates each week.  If you want to use Twitter or Instagram, post your pics with the hashtag #JulyiPadChallenge. 

Love Tweetroot app for generating “word cloud” images of words in your tweets…

Love Tweetroot app for generating “word cloud” images of words in your tweets…

I can’t get enough of the Poetics app this summer, even at home with my own kiddos!  We did the parts-of-speech activity today (the one you see with the yellow background in this video), and then I remembered that I hadn’t posted this tutorial here yet. Take a look, and let me know if you think of other ways to use it in your class!

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

What’s On Your (iPad) To-Do List?

A *teacher handed me this simple yet awesome list the other day after our workshop had wrapped up.  I loved that she was thinking purposefully and realistically about some free digital tools she wanted she (and, of course, her students!) to master in the coming school year. 

 What I love about this list in particular is how it mixes some creativity tools (Toontastic, Tellagami)…with some productivity tools (Remind, Evernote, Evernote Scannable)…with some tools that promote good digital citizenship (KidRex, PhotosforClass)…with the BEST portfolio app around, SeeSaw!  

(For the record, this teacher and her students spent last year using Google Classroom, Shadow Puppet, 30 Hands, and Adobe Voice.  So I appreciate how she’s adding some new tools to her “digital toolbox!”)

Have you thought about what would be on your iPad to-do list?  Let me know! 

*S/O to Ms. F. for using some of her summer “free” time to boost her digital skills!  As always, teachers who make time for tech training in the summer really inspire me!

News Generators

Here are two free digital tools I really like and can see using in my classes next year.  First, the Newspaper Clipping Generator.  My students used this when we were reading the novella The Metamorphosis.  The assignment was to imagine what a reporter would have written had he/she heard about a person mysteriously changed into a vermin.  The old-timey look of the clippings went better with this story than, say, something like looks like cable TV news.  I blended some of their clippings into a collage, pictured below.

Along the same lines, I just read about this one yesterday: Breaking News Generator.  I haven’t used it in class yet because my students are out for the summer (!!!), but I made one about myself to celebrate my grades being done!

Both of these are web-based and work perfectly fine on iPads.  As always, I love tools that are free, require no logins/passwords/sign-ups, and will download something right to the camera roll that can later be submitted in Classroom or in a student’s digital portfolio.

ETA: Don’t forget about this text-message generator, this fake tweet generator, this fake ticket generator, and BigHugeLabs makes magazine covers you can smash into something else!

Adobe Slate

I’m really liking Adobe Slate this week and can’t wait to try it with my students. If you need them to create a quick/easy web page for a project, this will fit the bill (and they might find it similar to Tackk in that way.) And if you are using Adobe Voice already, you will find the layout of Slate very familiar and intuitive. Let me know how you are using Slate and Voice in your classroom!

We use Quizizz for formative assessment.

Like Kahoot and Socrative, Quizizz is a free digital tool we can use for formative assessment in our classrooms.  And of course, I always love using something when there’s no user name, log-in, or password required for students.  This is fast, easy, and web-based, so it will work on whatever devices you are using.  If your students already love Kahoot, this is a perfect alternative if you need to try something new.  How-to guide here.

Remind: I couldn’t live without it in my digital classroom.

Teachers, if you aren’t using Remind (formerly Remind 101) yet, what are you waiting for?  It has some new features (Chat!) that make now the perfect time to start using it…or let me help you make a plan for starting next school year with it up, running, and ready to go!  This is such an important component of my digital classroom! How-to guide here.  

How to Play Smarty Pins

Check out How to Play Smarty Pins by EHS MrsJ on Snapguide.