OSMO!

Today we were introduced to a new product called Osmo. It is an innovative new attachment for the iPad that opens up a whole new world of learning for the future classroom. Here is an instructional video for the Osmo, after watching I promise you'll be hooked!

This game covers the front camera of your iPad and allows you to interact with it through free apps from the App Store. We were able to play with these in class today and the possibilities are endless! In my group, we used the Words packet and the Tangram packet. First we divided our group into sets of two people. Then we battled to see who could spell the word correctly first. This of course got competitive quickly! It seemed so easy to get carried away and want to play all day with this packet. We then changed and played with the Tangram packet. This was a little more challenging. Upon starting, we chose a hard level. It was harder than we expected! We worked through the games and ran out of time way before we were ready to stop! 

Osmo is the new way to teach in the modern classroom! The possibilities are endless and the children will be learning while playing. They will want to challenge themselves with harder and harder levels without even realizing that they are learning! Osmo is definitely on my Christmas list and I cannot wait to discover all of the amazing things that can be done in my future classroom with it!

Social Stories

In the early elementary school classroom, we as teachers expect that our students know basic social skills. This is not always the case! Teachers must teach these skills to both our typical students and also our students with special needs. Students with special needs are sometimes over stimulated and over exposed in our classrooms and do not know how to cope with these things yet. Social Stories are a WONDERFUL way to teach them how to handle these situations.
Social Stories are a way for the child, whether typical or not, to see the situation played out for them with appropriate examples of how to handle them. If the stories are saved on a digital device such as an iPad, they can be carried with the student all day long. The student can refer to these stories when a situation arises where they are unsure of how to react. Social Stories are made by the teacher, student, or parent and presented to the student or class as a way to teach the children how to act in certain social situations. For example, if the class is having an issue with the proper procedures of carpet time, a social story can be made to teach them how it is supposed to be done. This can be in the form of a video with voice over explaining the procedure, or even a digital story with pictures of the proper behavior.
In the classroom, social skills are being developed as well as curriculum being taught. Some children need more assistance learning these things. Advantages of social stories are endless! We can include parents in the learning of these skills as well as in the classroom! Our children need us to help them along and social stories are a perfect way to do this.

Glogster

     Apps in the Early Childhood classroom are an up and coming trend. Of course I knew nothing of this trend until it was brought to my attention on the very first day of class! As I sat in Mrs. Weathers' 21st Century class I was amazed at all the possibilities of technology in the classroom. She told us about her pre-k classroom and all of the wonderful things that they could do with an iPad at 4 years old! She showed us examples and convinced us that technology is an asset that we must all have in our teacher toolbox.
     Since that very first day, a spark was lit inside of me to find out all that I could about using technology in my classroom. Mrs. Weathers helped along the way to guide us into using technology in a way that would supplement learning, not hinder it. We were given a list of apps and how to use them. An entire day was devoted to playing with these apps and exploring the possibilities! We were learning through exploring these apps ourselves, which will only help us in the future.
     This week we gained a GREAT resource! Every student in Mrs. Weathers' class presented an app that could be used in our future classrooms. Every student got a copy of how to use the app and how we could integrate it into our curriculum. This booklet will be a phenomenal resource in the days to come! The app I chose to present was Glogster. This app is derived from a website (glogster.com) and is the ultimate sharing app. It has been called a digital poster board as well. The possibilities are endless!
     The best thing about this app is that as a teacher, we can set up a classroom and add all of our students as friends. Then whatever they post, we can see and what we post they can see. It is great for when the teacher is out. He or she can post assignments, links, videos, and other resources for the students to work on while they are at school. Homework assignments can also be posted here. There are SO many ways to use this app. It is also user friendly! The kids will be able to use it easily and effectively!
     The world of apps in the classroom is one that needs to be explored by future teachers! We can change the way our students learn and how they do home assignments. More efficient learning is the goal, and educational apps are the way to get us there.

STEM Champions

     Education school has been a whole new experience for me. Every day in the classroom is a new adventure! Today in Mrs. Weather's class we got to "play" with STEM activities. It. Was. Great. My group was named Grand Champions of the day for completing and dominating the competition. (Super proud of us. I knew we could do it!)

     Our teachers are always finding ways engage us in the classroom. I cannot remember a day in Education school when the class was all lecture. We ALWAYS have hands-on activities to work with and things to manipulate. Today just happened to be STEM activities in Mrs. Weather's class! As I mentioned in a previous post, STEM activities were very intimidating to me before reading an article that was assigned by Mrs. Weathers. After class today, STEM is something that I am super excited about! It opened up a whole new world of ideas for future lessons.
     After working with the lessons myself and having to work together as a group in the classroom I see the need for STEM lessons in the elementary classroom more than ever. In our group we had to brainstorm together and work as a team in order to be successful. Some ideas did not work and other ideas just needed more work. These things helped us come together as classmates and achieve a common goal. As we were working, I understood the need for these types of lessons in my future classroom. The students will be able to work with different students in the classroom that maybe they do not normally talk to. They will be able to hear ideas of the other students as well as share their own ideas. I understand now that this is a VERY important part of building a classroom atmosphere. Students will collaborate with others and learn from them all while working towards a goal. How much better can a lesson get?! Student learning is number one on every teacher's goal list, why not make it fun?
     Huge thanks to Mrs. Weathers for planning lessons that keep us engaged and showing us things that will boost our own classrooms one day! I look forward to her class every single day and cannot wait to see what awesome advice she always has to give. I cannot wait to see where STEM takes us!