May this day and forever be filled with love, peace, joy, and happiness for you and your family!

I am so behind on updating my blog due to school. BUSY, BUSY, BUSY and more BUSY! However,  I know that it will be all worth it in the end because I have the best instructors in the world. I am a firm believer that they are preparing my classmates and I for our future students in the classroom. I have a little free time today while my family is preparing Thanksgiving dinner. I should be preparing, too, but for some reason no one likes my cooking. Please, don't ask me why because I think my cooking is the absolute best! BUT anyway :-), I have decided to update and give my readers information about some of the things that has been going on in my classes. This semester is almost over! Wow, I can't believe it! I think this has been the most challenging semesters thus far. A lot has happened, but I would't change it for nothing in the world because it has made me stronger! I will always remember that God gives His toughest battles to His strongest soldiers.

There is ALWAYS something to be thankful for....ALWAYS!!! Find the time to stop and think of the people who makes a difference in your life and thank them! I wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy your family, relax, smile, and eat until your stuffed like a turkey (I know that I am)!!!! :-)

Osmo for the iPads

Osmo is the new innovative interactive game system for the iPads. I have never heard of Osmo until my 21st teacher, Mrs. Weathers, introduce it to my classmates and I. If I say so myself, "Osmo is fantastic!" I fell in love with it. Osmo is not only a great educational tool to use at home, but it is also great to use in the classrooms. The students would absolutely love it!!! Osmo comes with a reflective mirror for the iPad camera;white board stand; two sets of game pieces (2 complete alphabet tile sets and 7 wood tangram shapes) and instructions for downloading 4 free apps from the Apple Store. Also there are so many games and activities that you can download from your iPad for FREE. Yes, I mentioned FREE (something that we all love.....RIGHT?

 It is fun and interesting to see how the Osmo interacts with the world!

My favorite part of Osmo is the drawing. I'll be honest with you, drawing is not one of my talents like it is my sisters. She is an expert at drawing! I always need a little help. So, for the people who's not an expert at drawing (like myself), Osmo can help you with drawing the "perfect picture." Once you are finished with your picture, it allows you to share it with others.

We all had the privilege to play with Osmo. My friend, Katelyn Sparks, was very shocked about her picture. I was so tickled!

Great Sponge Activity to do in the Classroom

I enjoy Dr. Thornburg effective teaching class. She is the sweetest! I only attend her class once a week, but I wish it was twice a week because I learn so much from her. She's interesting, fun, funny, and caring.  I wish that she taught some of my classes in the future. One of the last topics that we discussed in her classroom was sponge activities (brain breaks). Everyone in the class had to come up with a sponge activity and share it with the class. Before I share my sponge activity with you, (some of you may call them brain breaks) let me tell you what it is. A sponge activity is something that teachers give students to work on as they are entering the classroom or to keep the students busy while the teacher takes care of necessary business. Now, I'll share my sponge activity! :)

The teacher will have popsicle sticks placed in a container of each student name in the classroom. The teacher or leader of the day will pass the container around to each student and let them pull out a popsicle stick from the container. Each student should have someone else’s name. Once all students have received a popsicle stick with one of their friends name on it, each student will have to share something nice about that student with the rest of the class. This is a great way to build confidence in the classroom. Dr. Thornburg also added that it is a great activity to do on the first day of school so the students can get to know one another.

I am so thankful to be in Mrs. Weathers 21st Century class. I learn so much in her classroom that I know that I will take into consideration when I get my own classroom. Today, we talked about using iPads in the classroom and how it is great for an autistic children and typical children. It is great for them to create sentences or even using a series of images. One of the benefits that we talked about in class was a child can enjoy independent learning and leisure time.

We also talked about the app Social Stories being used in the classroom. According to Mrs. Weathers, social stories describes a situation, skill, or concept in terms of relevant social cues, perspectives, and common responses in a specifically defined style and format. The goal of Social Story is to share accurate social information in a patient and reassuring  manner that is easily understood by its audience.

When should teachers use Social Stories?
- When a student is on the autism spectrum or has ADD/ADHD
- When a student fails to complete work, homework, expectations, etc.
-When a student lacks social skills

Here are a more apps to use in the classroom to make stories:
Little Bird Tales
Kid in Story
My Story

Here is an example of a Social Story!

STEM: It's Elementary

This is actually one of my favorite articles so far. It is about having STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) in your classroom. As stated in the article, by giving our kids the tools they need to succeed in STEM, we are giving them a huge leg up as they enter the job market. I think that stood out to me the most in the article because getting students prepared early is very important and will help them in the future. Meanwhile, I like how Dr. Green helped us boil down the four essential tasks that teachers can do in order to lead their students to STEM education, which is change your lens, enlist a villiage of STEM educators, integrate STEM across he curriculum, and give kids more than just access to technology.

http://www.weareteachers.com/blogs/post/2015/04/03/stem-it's-elementary