Saturday, November 8, 2014

Save the Turkeys!!

*This post was updated on 11-5-17*
Happy Saturday teacher friends! I hope y'all have been enjoying November as much as I have. October through November is always a special time in the classroom for me even though it gets chaotic with everything it seems we must do. The minis have been working hard this week and are quickly becoming some techie super stars!
A couple of weekends ago I attended what I believe was my 7th ( it's hard to keep track after 4) Edcamp. What is an Edcamp you ask? Well, it's the most amazing professional development you will EVER attend! Edcamp's take place all around the world. Check out the Edcamp wiki and it's almost guaranteed there is one happening near you in the future.
While I was at Edcamp I attended a session on QR codes. I love love love me some QR codes in the classroom, but realized there's so much more to be done with them. I learned about this great site called Record mp3.  So simple to navigate and use!

*Update*
If Recordmp3 is giving you trouble, Try Vocaroo instead. Vocaroo can save you time by automatically generating a QR Code for you. Look for the QR Code link at the bottom of the screen after saving your recording.


As soon as I saw this, the techie wheels in my head started to turn. I just knew I had to take this greatness back to my class and use it with my minis ASAP. 
In honor of Thanksgiving, we decided to change our point of view and think like a turkey. Our Save the Turkeys bulletin board was born.

Think your minis are too young to use technology like the big kids? Well guess again. Everyone in my class from the high, average, and low finished this project with flying colors.
The minis got to work right away creating their turkeys.

We spent part of Tuesday afternoon creating the turkeys. Our QR codes were made Wednesday and Thursday while we did station work. After modeling how Record mp3 works, I gave each student an index card to write 3 things they were going to record. This prevented the response of not knowing what to talk about and we worked on some persuasive writing skills.

When our stations time rolled around, you could feel the excitement from the minis. Make sure you click allow on your microphone settings then begin recording. If you make a mistake it's all good just start over and keep going until you get it right.


Once a recording was done, we simply clicked on the automatically generated link and transferred it over to QR Stuff. There are other sites to create QR codes, however I love the simplicity of QR Stuff. It's literally as easy as 1,2,3.


I chose the download option for output type so I could just copy and paste each QR code onto a word document without printing each one individually and wasting ink and paper.



I always have to giggle when I see the looks of concentration on their faces. They knew we'd be sharing our work, so they knew doing their best was important.
Check one reason why the "turkeys" of room 316 think you should find something else to eat for Thanksgiving.


I've got another idea in mind for December I can't wait to get started!









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