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Wednesday, June 20, 2012

QR Cubes

I stumbled upon the idea of QR cubes a while back and thought there were so many possibilities of how they could be used in the classroom, I just wanted to share. They are so simple to make and it is a great way to bring technology into the classroom. 

I have actually built quite a few now because they have been quite addicting. For example, I created one for writing prompts. The students would roll the cube and then with a QR Reader (I'll list some below) scan to see what prompt they would be writing about. Some other ideas you could make cubes for are:
  • Content questions for review
  • Warm up questions
  • Wrap up questions
  • Story elements that a student would have to identify after reading a story
  • Quick Facts
  • Rewards/Incentives
  • Positive sayings
  • Vocabulary
  • As a way of grouping
  • Math problems for students to solve
Here is a link to my Writing Prompt QR Cube if you would like a copy. All you would need to do is just print it out and assemble the cube!
Directions to make your own
If you would like to make one, I have detailed out the steps below. I suggest creating all of your QR codes first and saving them to your documents. My favorite QR generator is QR Stuff but you can use any QR generator you prefer to create them. I just love that QR Stuff allows you to change the color of the codes, whereas a lot of others only create in black.  
  1. Go to QR Stuff and choose plain text for the data type.
  2. Enter in your text you want the students to read when scanning.
  3. Choose your preferred color.
  4. Then under the preview box, click download QR code.
  5. Choose the location where you would like to save it, name the file (for example my naming scheme usually is writing 1, writing 2, and so on because it'll make things easier later to locate and identify) and then of course save!
  6. I repeat the first five steps until I have all six QR codes created for the cube's sides.
  7. Next, open up the cube template. Click HERE if you would like to use the one like mine. However, any cube template will do. (For some reason they file looks blank on Google Docs until you download it but it's really there).
  8. Now from the template (opens in Word), choose insert picture and navigate to your first QR code.
  9. I simply resize and move the QR code to fit the template and continue the steps until all of my QR codes fit nicely on there.
  10. I then save the file and print the QR cube file out on card stock. You can do it with plain paper but I find card stock holds up so much longer and it's easier to glue together.
  11. Voila! You have your QR cube.
Also, here are a few QR reader apps I recommend. You can search for them on iTunes or Google Play for Android.


i-nigma
QR Droid



NeoReader





RedLaser

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Please Vote for my LiveBinder as Top 10!

My Math Interactive LiveBinder has been nominated for Top 10. Please go vote for it by clicking below! It is #27 listed last. Also, be sure to check out my other LiveBinders for additional subjects. They are really useful, especially if you are looking for ways to be more interactive with your students.
http://www.livebinders.com/play/play_or_edit?id=409361
If you are not familiar with LiveBinders, they are great resources to explore for classroom ideas for any subject and even professional development ideas. The site has thousands of binders for you to search from or you can even create one yourself to share. It's basically just a three-ring binder for the web. I love to use it to bookmark my favorite websites because I can access them from anywhere at anytime. Plus, I have the option to share it out or password protect it. When you get a chance, go explore the website. I always find lots of treasures there.