Here a QR Code, There are QR Code, Everywhere a QR Code!

QR Codes in Parent Communication~

QR Codes (Quick Read) have been popping up everywhere! I love the ease of scanning the code and being seamlessly connected to a web page. In effort to make home school connections easier for parents I use QR codes! Family folders have a QR code that links parents to our classroom web page. Student book selection folders have QR codes to link parents to our classroom Shelfari page. QR codes are printed on address labels with password information for the web sites we use in our classroom. I even had one student who brought in his own QR codes. One code shared his current game on Hero Factory and another shared a writing piece. K was so excited about his QR codes he insisted I get my phone and scan the codes right away. Of course, I honored his request but, I wondered what someone might think if they walked in to see me and 10 first graders crowed around my phone.

QR Codes in Published Writing~

The young writer's in our room publish their writing on VoiceThread. In addition, these published books are displayed in our classroom and available for students to read during the day or take home as a daily book choice.  Thanks to my WONDERFUL parent volunteer these published student books now have QR codes on the inside cover! These codes will enable students and parents to easily access the story on VoiceThread where they can see and hear the young author read the book!

QR Codes Make the Walls Talk

This QR code connects the reader to a VoiceThread where students explain their animal, it's habitat. how the animal meets it's basic needs in their environment and makes connections to other Ohio animals by listening and commenting on the VT's of the others students. 

QR codes have opened new and convenient was to share our learning! You can create your own QR codes at Kaywa. VoiceThread also has a mobile app for the iPhone, iPad and iPhone making these talking walls a great way to share our learning!

A Redirection in Teaching ~Thanksgiving, Then and Now

Like many of you I grew up having a Thanksgiving Feast in my classroom and in my first several years of teaching I hosted a Thanksgiving feast for my students. We made placemats, costumes and invited other staff members to join us. It was a fun day and LOTS of work for the parent’s volunteers and me. The planning, preparation and hosting consumed at least a week of precious teaching time. I was pretty sure my volunteers were doing most of the work while the kids and I colored, cut, pasted and ate. I began to wonder what the kids were really learning about Thanksgiving.

Learning Targets 
Looking at the Model Curriculum: PK-12 I found the following statements to guide the focus of instruction regarding Thanksgiving.
1. Time can be divided into categories (e.g., months of the year, past, present and future).

2. Photographs, letters, artifacts and books can be used to learn about the past. 

3. The way basic human needs are met has changed over time. 


Directing the Focus of Instruction~

Starting with the Kids

We began our study by reading When I Was Five by Arthur Howard to enable the kids to connect to the concept of past and present through their own experiences. After reading the kids orally shared personal stories about their past contrasted with how this same thing looks or is done now, in the present. After orally sharing their stories with their peers they wrote their stories and posted them in the hall to share with our building. 

Extending the Concept of Past and Present
To help the kids envision this concept from another perspective we read, Before I Was Your Mother by Kathryn Lasky, we wondered what our own moms, dads, or even grandparents might have been like as first graders or before they were our parents.  Later I shared my favorite book, The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton and a photograph of me as a first grader. As I read the Little House to my class many noticed the difference in illustrations in this books as compared to many of the books currently in our classroom. With this background knowledge as a springboard we created a list of our wonderings about our parents and grandparents. From here a VoiceThread (VT) was created and shared with our families over the Thanksgiving break. By sharing the VT over the Thanksgiving break, when families would gather, we were enabling more grandparents to participate and share stories by commenting or adding slides to show artifacts or photographs.  

The Next Step
As we return from Thanksgiving Break stories of the past will be shared through our VT, oral story telling, and the artifacts and the photographs we will bring into our classroom. The kids will have a working knowledge of life in the past and present through their perspective and the perspectives of their families. With this knew knowledge we will be ready to explore the ways basic are met now and the way they were met then. Using books like Samuel Eaton's Day by Kate Waters we will look at the ways people dressed, lived and found food. While are basic needs have not changed the ways in which we meet these needs have changed. 


With this redirection in focus I see my kids wondering about the past, inferring changes and reasons for change. Now, the kids are doing the work, the kids are doing the learning! 

Kids Speak! 2011~ Authentic Voices of Children Around the World!

 Kids Speak 2011 was launched with the wonders of my first grade students. The first graders began to wonder about the ways people around the world meet their needs. They also wondered how their daily lives may be similar or different from others in our world. The wonders of the kids were posted around our world map, recorded into VoiceThread and then shared with teachers around the world! (Italy, Romania, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Guatemala, United States and Canada!) 

The first grader's are excited! Kids Speak has been live for only 3 days and comments have been posted from Texas, Ohio, Iowa and Bucharest Romania and…more comments are coming!

Check back often to hear the newest additions to Kids Speak as our Global Classrooms begin to answer questions, post their own wonders and add new slides! 

If your class would like to be a part of Kids Speak contact @frazierde on Twitter or visit our Global Classroom Wiki to register! 
You may also be interested in browsing the Global Classroom Project Blog for other Global Classroom projects going on now. Projects are available for classrooms of all ages!