Ambassador of the Week: Matthew Cheek
Osmo Ambassador Matthew Cheek is primarily a math teacher, but he doesn't let that stop him from using Osmo as many ways as possible! Besides all the tweets (he tweets at LEAST 10 times a week about Osmo), Matthew has also had a news story done about the amazing ways he's been able to engage his students using Osmo. He's now got the attention of his entire district and everybody wants in on the Osmo action! Thanks for your support, Matthew! Keep up the great work!
Matthew, in his own words: 🍏
From the moment I saw Osmo it was clear that it had a “wow” or “cool” factor and I wanted to try it out and see for myself. Once I did, I was blown away by the potential in a school setting. I knew that I had to get this technology into the hands of my students in any way I could. As I began to get Osmo in our classrooms and I saw student’s reactions and successes I wanted to help spread the word to those who may not have heard about this amazing tool.
A few words from Matt’s boss: 🍎
Matt Cheek is a student focused educator that is always finding ways to meet student needs at their academic readiness while holding learner engagement through choice and voice at the forefront! Matt brought in his "Osmo" that he originally purchased for his own children at home. He saw the power in engaged learning with varied level of readiness that adapts to the students. Matt's excitement was brought to the school from the moment the first student tried...and was posted on twitter with the our schools trending hashtag #celebratinglearnersatJC. The second I saw a picture of a 5K student with a smile of pride holding up their own extended math problem that was inspired from learning with Osmo, I HAD to see it for myself. As the Director of Teaching and Learning, I got Matt to my office and we purchased eight more sets! Thank you Matt and Osmo.
~ Director of Teaching and Learning at the Johnson Creek School District: Lisa Krohn
Osmo from the kids’ perspectives:
HL - I like masterpiece because I follow the lines and trace and color pictures.
AH - I like using the Tangrams so I can see what made. I like Osmo because you get to play putting the numbers up and getting fish.
BS - The fish game is super cool! We get to pop the bubbles and get the fish. It helps me learn my numbers.
MW - Osmo helped me find how to make the numbers. I liked how there was no wrong answer.
EZ - I liked Osmo because its always fun to play and makes me happy. I like Coding Jam because it helps me make music like my family.
EH - I like the song one cause you get mail from people and its so cool. You can make songs with different characters and they all have a lot of different ways they play their instruments.
AS - I like Tangrams you get to build the pictures.
RB - I like the fish game. We get to do use numbers to pop the bubbles.
BH - I like that when you are adding and counting it is really helping you with your math a lot. It helps you with equations when you are starting math. It will really help you! It feels like your trying to save fish.
RC - The coding one with Awbie is fun. It can be hard when Awbie is going into a tree but with a friend and help we got Awbie to the strawberry. Coding Jam is also fun, because the girl that does the experiments dances crazy like Mr. Cheek and Ms. Leonardi!
AB - It helps you with addition, in case you forgot how to do addition, it can help you with it because when you are trying to get to a number there is more than just one way to do it. I feel great when I use Osmo.
LW - It is fun because we get to do activities we don't get to do very often put numbers together to try and get the fish free. It can be tricky because you only want to build the numbers in the bubbles and not get the hooks.
PR - I like the Numbers game because its hard. Its harder because the hooks take your fish and sponges suck up your water. Osmo makes math easy and fun.
Stay connected with Matthew and his Osmo tweets: @cheekmw16
