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"educators use Magic School to help lesson plan, differentiate, write assignments, write IEPs, communicate clearly, and more. And now use Magic School for students to bring responsible AI experiences to students and build AI literacy for the next generation."

Magic School has many tools, so it may be hard at first to understand everything. Having said this, they have an I chat bot and video instructions to better get a grasp. Magic School can help make lesson plans and etc. and you can directly send them to your students. You can create lesson plans, rubrics, informational texts, pre-viewing guides, comprehension questions, and more.

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The leading AI platform for schools. Loved by over 2 million teachers saving time with AI to assist with lesson plans & more. Free for teachers.

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"Nearpod helps educators make any lesson plan interactive, whether in the classroom or virtual. The concept is simple. A teacher can create interactive presentations that can contain quizzes, polls, videos, collaborative boards, and more."

Nearpod engages learners or students in a way that helps them in an entertaining yet educational way. You can keep track of their learning in real-time, and it is easier to give out, keep track of, and do than a worksheet. It keeps that students more focused than a boring assignment like a textbook. Nearpod can be used to make learning more enjoyable, which helps them learn and retain information better.

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"ARLOOPA uses augmented reality, image-recognition, and computer vision technology to convert the real world into a content-rich, interactive experiences. We enable magic and blend new content into the users real life environment with augmented reality (AR) technology."

ARLOOPA is a mobile app, but you can use the website on any device. You can use your camera and add 3D models that can be interacted with in your world. This would be a fun experience for students to discover new animals, worlds, knowledge, and more. There is also an educational section of the app. It has 3D models of certain math related problems. For example, it showed two pizzas divided into four parts each. This is a way to explain fractions to students, and with it being AR, it will keep the students interested and wanting to learn more. This is a good way to keep students engaged and wanting to learn different concepts while also retaining what they are learning.

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Virtual Field Trips- Ditch That Textbook

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Virtual Field Trips- Ditch That Textbook

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"Virtual field trips allow us to take our students on adventures we never thought possible. We can take our students under the ocean, across the globe, and even into space. But sometimes finding the right virtual field trip, or even finding a virtual field trip at all, can be time consuming. That's why we put together this growing database of virtual field trips you can take with your class!"

Virtual field trips are cheap, easy, and don't take much effort to plan. With normal field trips, they require money for where they are going, transportation, usually food, and more. It can also be hard for those who have special needs or disabilities, those who can't afford the trip, or those who need any extra accommodations. An in person field trip makes it hard for every student to go due to accessibility, financial reasons, and more. However, in virtual field trips, the students can see what they need from the comfort of the classroom. No need for transportation, ticket, etc. Virtually, you don't have to worry about students wondering off or misbehaving, and you can go through it together at your own pace.

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Virtual field trips allow us to take our students on adventures we never thought possible. We can take our students under the ocean, across the globe and

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"Diffit is an artificial intelligence designed to assist educators in tailoring their teaching methods to accommodate students at various reading levels. Generate short informational or narrative texts on any topic, for any reading level. Diffit creates an automatically generated summary, comprehension checks, vocabulary words, and more to go with whatever text you're working with!"

Diffit is an AI system that will create a variety of materials based on what you write out. When you put in something to generate, or text, it generates a prompt, summary, vocab list, multiple choice, short answer, and open ended questions. This is very useful for a teacher to help make lesson plans or assignments quickly, it is very flexible.

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"Word Clouds is a free online word cloud and tag cloud creator. This software gives you the ability to easily customize your tag cloud with different shapes, colors, fonts, and themes. You can also generate clickable word clouds with links."

When doing an activity, such as a reading with your students, you can upload it into the word cloud. This can help get a good idea about what you are reading or teaching to them, or even a good review they can glance over.

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"Tag Crowd is a web app that visualizes word frequencies in any text by creating what is commonly known as a word cloud, text cloud, or tag cloud. To create a word cloud you can paste or type your text, upload plain text file, or type a URL, then generate. You can choose the language, set min and max number of words and frequency, and exclude unwanted or common words. You can also display the word count next to each word."

After an assignment, you can ask individual or groups of students to create a word cloud reflection of what they learned. You can see how well your students understand certain concepts in a way you all enjoy.

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"Pear Deck is and add-on to Google Slides (also available in PowerPoint). Pear Deck allows you to make your own presentations engaging for students by adding interactivity. Add formative assessments and interactive questions to your presentations right from Google Slides. Pear Deck's functions can be added to a new or pre-existing presentation."

Pear Deck allows you to do assignments with your students in real-time. You can get immediate feedback on where their understanding is for concepts. This can also help teach students how to cooperate professionally with each other, as they shouldn't be changing the slides without permission. Overall, Pear Deck is an interactable learning tool that can keep students engaged and enjoying what they are learning.

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26 Creative Ways Teachers Can Use QR Codes in Their Classrooms

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26 Creative Ways Teachers Can Use QR Codes in Their Classrooms

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"Gone are the days when teachers scribbled different blackboard elements to explain complex concepts. Today, teachers and students are much more advanced and empowered regarding the use of technology. Teachers use advanced technologies like AI, AR and VR, 3D learning, etc., to help students understand the core of different concepts. One technology that works as an intermediary between students and these advanced learning technologies is QR Codes. In fact, it is not just about learning. With QR Codes, teachers can arrange various fun activities and games for students to create an enjoyable experience and improve their cognitive skills. Wondering what are these activities? This blog post will list some of the most creative ways to utilize QR Codes in classrooms."

By having students scan the code, you can link it to an animation or badge as a prize for them. For example, when they pass a test, you can give them a code that takes them to a badge or video that correlates with the work they did. Students could also create their own codes to give or reward each other for doing a good job or helping out with assignments.

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26 Creative Ways Teachers Can Use QR Codes in Their Classrooms

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Gone are the days when teachers scribbled different blackboard elements to explain complex concepts. Today, teachers and students are much more advanced and empowered regarding the use of technology.

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"As mobile learning becomes more and more prevalent, we must find effective ways to leverage mobile tools in the classroom. As always, the tool must fit the need. Mobile learning can create both the tool and the need. With safe and specific structures, mobile learning tools can harness the excitement of technology with the purpose of effective instruction. Using QR codes for instruction is one example of this."

You can create a QR code linked to examples of what you expect from your students in their work. You can link it to a PowerPoint or SlideShare for a class presentation. You can also link videos to presentation examples such as languages or speeches. Additionally, you can have students check their answers by scanning a QR code when they are done with a quiz or assignment. This way, you can see in real-time when a student is checking their work and see how they did. In turn, they can also see what they made as soon as they submit it and possibly the questions that they got wrong.

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Creative tips for the interactive classroom

Photo credit: The Daring Librarian via flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

As mobile learning becomes more and more prevalent, we must find effective ways to leverage mobile tools in the classroom.

As always, the tool must fit the need. Mobile learning can create both the tool and the need. With safe and specific structures, mobile learning tools can harness the excitement of technology with the purpose of effective instruction. Using QR codes for instruction is one example of this.

A Quick Tutorial

QR stands for Quick Response. It's basically a quick, scannable barcode-like image that takes you to a specific digital destination. The one to the right, for example, will take you to a QR code generator. There you will be able to create all sorts of QR codes. (Feel free to search the web for them.) Before that, however, you will need an app that reads the QR codes. There are plenty of free QR code apps to download for Android and Apple Products. Just search. To read them, all you need is a phone with a camera. Free makes teachers happy, and of course makes the implementation of these practices easier. QR codes can send you to a link, mobile number, email, SMS, bookmark, link and more. Mary Beth Hertz did a great introductory blog on QR codes and mentioned ideas like scavenger hunts and advertising for the classroom. Below are some more ideas to give you a starting point for using QR codes.

1. Create 21st Century Resumes

Have students use QR to create resumes that link to other content such as their professional website or portfolio. All schools do some level of resume building and technical writing. Help them bring it into the 21st century by creating a resume that requires interaction. Not only will this help engage them in technical writing, but also their work will be innovative.

2. Show Exemplars

You can create QR for linking students to examples of quality work, whether it's PowerPoint or slideshare for a class presentation, or people speaking a foreign language specific to your current lesson.

3. Provide a Service

Integrate QR with a PBL or Service Learning project where students can create the codes that will link to the content they create. If students helped create awareness around spreading germs, for example, they might put the codes around the school or in a parent newsletter. They can take it a step further by creating codes for a local business or organization.

4. Make Your Classroom Greener

Save a few trees! Instead of making more printouts than everyone needs, give your students a QR that takes them to the instructions, announcement or assignment. It can save you space on your wall, and keep your classroom greener.

5. Incentivize and Praise

Award prizes by having students scan a code leading to an animation or badge. When they pass a test on commas, perhaps they get a code that takes them to a badge for Comma Guru! Students can even create their own codes to award each other. When a student sees something great happen, they can give a code that links to messages such as "Good Job from Andrew" and "Thanks for doing your part for the team."

6. Make Learning Stations

Put codes in different areas of the room that will take students to different online activities, videos or content. Using a great tool like the discussion protocol of reciprocal teaching (PDF) or a graphic organizer will help facilitate their interaction with the linked content.

7. Check Answers and Reflect

Have students check their answers by scanning the QR code after completing a test or assignment. As a teacher, you can visually confirm when students are checking their work and can also check in to see how they are doing. This will help track individual learning and can provide an opportunity for you to facilitate student reflection.

8. Provide Extension Assignments

A great way to provide optional activities for students who want to excel is to simply put the code on the class assignment and let them follow it to the extension activity or question. It won't take up much space, and might facilitate a little excitement about the extension assignment.

9. Compile Research

Have students create codes linking to items discovered during research. These could be posted in class wikis on a specific topic, or on a wall in the classroom. It helps give them ownership of the research process and literally creates "walls that talk."

10. Create Interactive Labs or Dissections

Codes attached to a skeleton model or dissected pig can take students to important directions or content. Or vice versa. Maybe this will help them to create the lab themselves or make a model for the class lab.

11. Differentiate Instruction

Perhaps you have a poem for students to analyze. You can provide additional scaffolding with a link to a recitation or focused questions to get them started. Use the QR to help you manage differentiation of the various strategies in your tool belt of teacher practices.

12. Vote

QR codes can be a great voting tool allowing students to vote by simply scanning the code as they enter or exit the classroom. This can save time, and it gets your students up and moving.

QR codes are a great arsenal for the teacher tool belt. Just remember, this technology is a tool and needs to fit a purpose. It can help create engagement in a lesson, manage your classroom, be part of student work or facilitate inquiry in a project. Please comment below and give us some or you best examples of how you use QR codes in the classroom. I like to say, "The wisdom is in the room." You are all rockstar teachers, so I would love to hear your ideas.

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Blogger and PBL specialist Andrew Miller offers an array of creative suggestions for using Quick Response codes in the classroom.