This project was lots of fun to do. I used the iMovie app as well as the camera and photo apps to edit picture a little bit. I enjoyed talking to my grandmother who worked at the sunflower ammunition plant, and having her show me pictures that she took when she worked there. Since most people weren’t allowed to take pictures, I had to find some of the older ones and “pretty ones” online.

The reason I picked the Sunflower Ammunition Plant is because it has a lot of history with me and my family. All of my grandparents worked there and my fathers parents retired from there. It has been a bigpart of my home town and I’m glad I had this opportunity.

Craig Kemp has some great ideas on home to become a better teacher by reducing the stress in your daily classroom life.

The first thing the Craig suggests is laughing. Now we all know that laughing is the best medicine, but laughing can actually make you a better teacher! Laughing in the classroom with your students helps you, as a teacher, relax. This helps you become a more effective teacher for your students. You also help the students relax and help them understand what you are trying the teach.

The next thing Craig says is, to believe in what you do, and stay positive. This simply means to have a positive attitude on whatever the lesson is that you are trying to teach. Even if you hate the lesson for the day, a student of yours may really connect with it. If you help one student with this lesson, then it was worth it. You cannot control everything that happens in your classroom, so understand that staying positive is extremely important. If you as a teacher are not positive and excited about the lesson, how will your students be?

Staying organized is possible the best way to reduce stress as a teacher.  Being organized, and knowing where you can find something without having to look too hard for it will make your everyday life much easier. Staying on top of emails and papers will help keep clutter down, and make your job easier. The more you have to do and the less organized you are, the more stressful your life will be.

Along with staying  organized, taking a time out can benefit a teacher a whole lot. Taking a time out can help you gather your thoughts and keep you from getting too overwhelmed. Quieting your mind and starting over will help you reduce stress. If you just keep adding to this and that, you will begin to lose your mind and become super stressful.

The final thing that Craig says to do is have positive reinforcement. This means having a firm, but fair management in your classroom from day 1. Doing this will help you and the students understand what is excepted of everyone in the classroom. This shouldn’t be too difficult, and should be rather self explanatory. Your rules should follow the school rules fairly closely and shouldn’t be very demanding of any particular student.

Following Craig’s rules will help you as a teacher stay stress free and be the best teacher in your school. Little changes in your day can make a big difference in the long run, and taking breaks, staying organized, and laughing are just a few ways to do it.

 

You can find Craig Kemp blog here.

The cool thing about OSMO is that any age can use it. It could be very useful as a “reward” for good behavior, or as a form of assessment. This is kind of expensive, so that would be the downfall and the only reason that it would be hard for some classes to have multiple copies. I think that Osmo is a very useful app and if readily accessible, should be used as often as possible. This app, although expensive, is very good for fun and for education.

As a math teacher, I would plan on using this when the students are learning their shapes. The Tangram feature on OSMO would be useful for having students learn how shapes interact with each other. It would also give the students a visual of the shape, instead of just a 2d drawing in a book or on the board.

For and English class, I would use the words feature. This provides the students with a new way of thinking about words. The students would learn how to spell words better, connect pictures with words, and using context clues to figure out what the picture is.

I was unable to look at the Masterpiece and Newton features, but the gaming and drawing features would be useful for students that have ADHD that have problems with focusing. This will give them a productive outlet.

Overall, I would give OSMO a try for any classroom. It was a very fun productive game that helps students put connections together without “working” at it.

 

My OSMO word game

 

1) sphere

2) triangle

3)right

4)pyramid

5)square

6)hexagon

7)cone

8)obtuse

9)acute

10)polygon

11)rectangle

12)prism

13)cylinder

14)oval

15)decagon

16)pentagon

17)heptagon

18)octagon

19)circle

20)cube