A Bedtime Story

Wouldn't it be great if you could read a bedtime story about the first-day of school to every student in your new class?  Imagine reading "The Night Before First Grade" to help ease the fears of your new little guys.  With a little tech magic you can!  Here is what you do.

First record yourself reading the book.  I found a digital copy of "The Night Before First Grade" for free on one of my favorite sites: www.wegivebooks.org

I opened the book on my Mac and then used Quicktime to do a screen recording of my reading the story.  Once I was happy with the recording, I saved the video as a "public" file in my dropbox account.  (I love dropbox!  If you don't have it, click here to sign up.  It is FREE!)

Next, I copied the public link to my video file.  Then I created a QR code that will take my students straight to me reading their bedtime story.  At my school, we have the students come and meet the teacher the Friday before school officially begins.  I put the QR code on my welcome brochure.  The students, and parents love it!  You can click here to see my bedtime story video.

This year, I plan to have my buddy readers record books like this for our class.  Then later in the year we will record our own stories to share.

If Only a QR Code Could Talk...

If only a QR code could talk... Well they can!  I am sure we are all familiar with QR codes and are integrating them in our classroom.  (If not, you should be!  They make things so much more fun, efficient, effective and makes it easier for teachers too!)  Everyone knows you can link a website or video with a QR code.  Did you know you can also link audio?  Think of the possibilities!  First, I thought of many ways I could create audio QR codes to help students.  I could record myself reading the directions or questions for centers.  This would help them to work independently.


We often display student work in our hallways at my school.  Sometimes it is hard for others to understand what they are seeing.  Whether it be the writing is hard to read or others may not understand how the project relates to learning.  It would be great if the students could stand out in the hall and explain their work to all of those interested who pass by.  By adding a simple voice QR code, students can add their voice to their projects.  Now anyone with a mobile device and a QR scanner app can simply scan it an listen.  Other students could scan and listen, learning from their classmates.  This is the ultimate way to easily incorporate the Common Core's speaking and listening standards.

I found this great website vocaroo.com !  It was so easy to record audio and generate a QR code; even  5 year old could do it!  I put these directions together and thought I would share, click here to get them free.

Here is a quick video tutorial on how easy it really is.

I am linking up with Technology Tailgate's Techie Tuesday Link Up.  Stop by for more great information from other tech bloggers.

A Dynamic QR Code

My class loves to scan QR codes!  I like to use QR codes as a quick way to get students where I want them to go.  My entire classroom is done in a Lego theme.  Lego bricks are such a great learning tool and can be used in so many ways.  Here is our class QR code students use in the "Literacy Plugged-in" center.  (Yes, it really works and it is made out of Lego bricks!)

It obviously took me quite a while to build this QR code on a 12"x12" Lego plate.  I can't make a new one every time I want to send them to a different place.  (I know I could pay to generate a dynamic QR code, but I was being cheap.)  This QR code takes students to a blog I set up on Blogger.  It is a no frills blog and simply called "Phillips QR".  Each time I have new information or links I want the students to see, I write a quick post.  I usually embed a video in the post as well.  When the students scan the code, it takes them to my most recent post.  During our unit on President's Day, I had links with information and videos on Presidents.  For our Seuss week, I had links to audio/video Seuss books.  The possibilities are endless.  I have also found by embedding the videos, the students aren't exposed to as many of the ads on YouTube.

I used www.qrstuff.com to generate the QR code for free.  I liked this site because it will shorten the URL for you, and this makes for a simpler QR code.  Then I printed it out and started building.  One Lego stud for each pixel.

You can do the same thing, by just printing the QR code.  This would also be a great way to differentiate for students.  Different levels could have different QR codes and students wouldn't really notice the differences.

I am linking up on Tuesday with Technology Tailgate!