QR Crazy!

It is official. I love QR codes and enjoy the creativity of using them to communicate with people in our school building.  In a previous Grants post , I shared that I had received money for mini iPads for my Technology Club. My fourth grade students have been using them a lot to show we are "tech savvy" with teachers, parents, administrators, and classmates.  We have had two parent nights recently and posted "Welcome Parents" QR codes as well as QR codes giving upcoming event information and ways parents could help our school (Box Tops, soup labels, etc.). 

 

I also have been using QR codes to do trivia challenges related to the character trait of the month.

Teachers can scan the QR codes to hear an audio file from the app Croak.It! I mentioned that app on my Tech-tacular  post awhile back and use it all the time for short messages.

However, the most intensive project I have done with QR codes is my "Scanvenger Hunt" lesson I used when teaching Holland's Theory to fifth graders during my Career Unit.  I spoke about this lesson at the NCSCA Conference in November and several people asked me about it afterwards, even asking if they could buy the PDF from me.

My first lesson of the Career Unit introduced Holland's Hexagon and explained how jobs and personality categories can match to help make individuals happier and more successful at work.  Then, students took an interest inventory to see what their two highest personality categories were. I gave them a few examples of jobs that could fit in each category.  

My second lesson was held in the media center during specials and my media specialist co-taught the lesson with me.  Each class was divided into six groups, one assigned to each personality category.  Each group received the following items:

• A folder with the QR Scanvenger Hunt for their personality type inside
  
• An iPad or iPod
• A summary sheet to record the information they learned (a great way to document an increase in knowledge from the beginning of the Career Unit)

Students used their Smart device to explore their group's personality category and learn about a possible job or famous person in that specific category.  Each QR code took them directly to a website (like Wikipedia) for research information, a video, Bureau of Labor and Statistics information, an employer website, or audio files with messages about the personality category.

The media center ended up being a great location for the lesson because my school's security settings prevented the iPads from going to YouTube videos directly. Instead, students accessed the videos from desktop computers and then returned to their tables to continue work.  A classroom would also work well if you needed a desktop computer for this issue. However, I never experienced this problem at my previous school so I think it is just the way the WIFI is set up at my current school. I will admit, it was a LOT of work to create the "Scanvenger Hunt" for each of the six personality categories initially, but now I can use it every year.  The kids loved it, and it was so exciting to do something differrent and use "Smart" technology...the way  of the future! Many of you have 1:1 initiatives starting in your school districts so you could do something similar with your students.  If you are interested in getting the PDF file with all six personality "Scanvenger Hunts", summary sheets (pic above), and a User Guide, you can purchase it here. 

Feel free to email me if you have questions- apoovey@hotmail.com
Happy Counseling! ~  Angela