Day 2: Numbers and QR Codes

Numbers and Me

After stumbling upon Kelly Gallagher's book, Write Like This, I got quite motivated at the last minute this summer and began scanning Pinterest for anything pertaining to writing. I came across a great activity, "Me By Numbers". You could potentially modify this activity to fit onto an 8 1/2 x 11 or  poster board. Some similar activities even had students creating math equations to equal the number that then described them in some manner. 

While I did find this activity prior to the beginning of school, time got away from me, and I never got around to using it with my students. However, what I'm thinking of is having my kiddos do this at the end of the year as a reflection project to see how far they've come. I'm thinking of having them include numbers such as the number of writing assignments they've completed or the number of times they wanted to give up but kept going. I want them to reflect on moments they thought about giving up but pushed on. This is still an idea in progress, but you get the gist of it. Next year, I plan on having students do this activity at the beginning and end of the year and compare. 

QR Codes

Haven't we all heard about these, seen these, and maybe even ignored these by now? So as of this year, I'm officially hooked (line and sinker). Since so many of my kids have smartphones with guaranteed internet access, I created QR codes that take them everywhere from my teacher webpage, online textbook page, and even our school website. I then have students bookmark or create a shortcut on their home screen (or one of their other screens) for easy access. 

QR Codes also came in handy for my parents during Parent Orientation. We send a newsletter home during Open House before school starts, however, I hadn't stumbled upon QR codes at that point, so I used our Parent Orientation Night to condense our team newsletter to one page and add the QR codes (right). On the left is a student version I handed out prior when I was first practicing using QR codes. My students love anything that allows them to use their phone. 

I used the following website to create my QR Codes for Free!!

• Go to the website
• Paste in your URL
• I download my codes so I can copy and paste them to whichever documents I'm using. This also allows you to modify the actual size of the QR code. 

Both Apple and Android phones have QR Code Reader Apps for Free as well.