Last Friday students received their yearbooks. Throughout my years of teaching I have collected many of these, and have even headed the staff up in putting together a yearbook or two. I can remember back to the days of cutting and pasting things in place (literally, not on the computer), and later the excitement of creating the book entirely online. I think it was last year that our school put the book out on CD. I can’t say I liked that very much because it took away the excitement of signing and looking through it with others.

Yearbook Spread with QR Code

But this year Mrs. Keough and her team took the yearbook to a whole new level, and I loved it! The books were once again printed, but this time the pages had QR codes that took the viewer to short video additions to the pages. There I was on Friday sitting on the gym floor with my students gathered around me. Many of us had our smart phones out, scanning the QR codes and enjoying the experience.

Using QR Codes in Yearbooks

I’m really proud of my school for always moving forward and trying new things. Certainly connecting the yearbook to the students’ love of using smart phones was clever. I could also see that the junior high students who put the book together were quite proud of their work. Bravo to a job well done!