.”Better late than never” or so they say.
This booklet with Traditional Recipes from Asturias was written with lots of love by my former students from the bilingual stream at IES Cesar Rodríguez and with great memories of these amazing students I fulfill my promise . I only hope you are still reading this blog, one year later!
I have used the highly recommendable tool issuu . Click to enlarge.
My intention when I started writing this article was to show how I was planning to integrate QR Codes in my classes but then I realized that there was much explaining to do before this article served its purpose. I am familiar with QR codes but I wondered if my readers were. For this reason, I have decided to split this post into two.Here you’ll find the theory , and in QRCodes Part 2 (coming shortly) you’ll see some of my ideas to introduce them in the classroom, or rather as homework ,as students in Spain aren’t allowed to bring their mobile devices to the school.
It was not that long ago when I saw for the first time a QR Code . I remember I was in Ikea and thought … what the heck is this? And then I thought … Do I really want to know? And then some time later…. But are they really here to stay?Now, it’s crystal clear to me that QR codes are here to stay and I am only beginning to test their potencial in education.
But what is a QR code ? QR is short for Quick Response (they can be read quickly by a mobile phone)They are white and black barcode squares that can be easily generated and that allow you to encode text , urls, images and audio files among other things – lately they have become more sophisticated as you will see below. Now you can only begin to imagine the possibilities for education.
But how do we generate a QR code?
GENERATING A SIMPLE QR CODE
Nothing could be easier. If you google “QR code generator” you’ll find lots . The ones below are just some of them:
Kaywa QR Code ( it allows you to encode URLs, text (160 characters), phone numbers,sms.
GO QR.Me (same as above but it allows you to encode 300 characters)
CUSTOMISING YOUR QR CODE
Now, we all know about QR codes: they are black and white squares, containing encoded data. Boring, isn’t it? Why don’t we decorate and make our QR code more stylish ?
QRstuff is definitely my favourite
VisualLead lets you integrate a QR Code into an image , blending QR Codes with a design or image of your choice
Now , we have created our QR code. What’s next?
GETTING A QR Code Reader
Lots of modern phones can read QR codes but first you need to download a QR reader/scanner. For example , in my mobile I have installed AT&T Code Scanner but there are lots of them you can download for free. For iPhone, Scan is a good one, and for Android there’s QR Droid.
HOW TO SCAN A QR CODE
To scan the codes, all you need is a mobile device with a camera, and a QR code reader or scanner app to interpret the data in the code. Open your QR reader on your phone or ipod and center the QR code within the frame provided and let the magic begin!
Holding your breath for Part 2?
Unfortunately , it is not very often that I get students to contribute to the blog with an article , but this does not apply to Patrick M. Hyyryläinen , who I didn’t have to ask twice and readily accepted the challenge. Sorry it took me so long to publish and many thanks!
Now , aren’t you dying to read his story? It starts right below
I was sitting in the train.
It was like any other day; I took the train to school at 5:45 AM.
The winter had started and it was completely dark outside.
The trip takes 55 minutes. I decided to spend the time usefully so I took a nap.
Suddenly I woke up because my phone was ringing. I answered it and it was my mother. She told me that I needed to run, as fast as I could, and then she hung up.
I was stunned, of course, because my mom had sounded like she was trying to get away from something, but also because it happened so fast, I didn’t even have a chance to ask her what had happened before she hung up.
I was trying to figure out what had made my mother so afraid, when I noticed that a man was looking at me from the other side of the train. I could see that he was talking to a device that looked like the ones secret agents use in films.
Then it came to me like a lightning from a blue sky, that it could be why my mother was so afraid; perhaps the government had found out some dark secret about my mother or our family, and now they were catching us, one by one.
That last part made me realize a very important thing, I was a part of that family, so if my theory was correct, then they will be trying to catch me as well. I had to think fast so I pulled the emergency break in the train and as soon as the train began to stop, I got up from my seat Continue reading To Dream or Not to Dream…
Now, I promise this will be the last post about Halloween but I took some nice pictures of our Halloween party at the high school and I wanted to show you how much fun we had and how hard students worked; because not only did they spookily decorate our common room and prepared the games for the party but , they also cooked delicious creepy dishes,which I’m afraid are right now sitting comfortably around my hips.
Anyways , thank you guys for making our Halloween celebration a big creepy crawly success!!!
Enjoy the video!!!!!
It’s not easy to find writing activities that motivate students 
but Writing about Music is one of the most popular among teenagers. From my point of view, at this stage of their learning, writing should be partially guided and this is what this activity suggests.
This is the writing task my A1 students had to undertake. I thought I might share it here as I always find it hard to find activities such as this one. Hope you find it useful, too!
Step 1. Students think of a group they know and like and then they provide the following information about their group.
Name:
When popular:
Members of the group:
From:
Instruments:
Songs
Step 2. Students write about this group , using their notes above.As I suggested , at this stage students need a lot of help and encouragement , so it’s really a good idea to give them a model they can refer to.
This is the model I gave them
The Fray are a popular group in the United States and all over the world today. In the group there are four musicians: Joe King, Isaac Slade, Dave Welsh, Ben Wysocki . They are all from the USA. They sing, write songs and play the guitar, the drums and the piano. Two of the group’s most popular songs are How to save a Life and All at Once.
Step 3:I decided to give my students an extra point if they gave a presentation about their group in class. Most of them did and they even brought along some flash drives with the group’s most popular songs.
Presentations given by Karen and Alice . Thank you girls!
Who said English is boring?