My Thoughts on Technology and Education

 

I was recently interviewed by the wonderul people at Chromville about my thoughts on technology and education. Here's an exerpt:

Why must education work hand in hand with technology? 

We need to teach to the way today’s children learn and prepare them for the quickly changing job market that they will be faced with upon graduation. Technology integration is no longer an option.  There are many resources and tools available that teach the skills required for today’s learners and future workforce.

To read the full interview click HERE. 

TCEA Tots and Tech 2014 Presentations

I am very excited about attending TCEA Tots and Technology Conference in Galveston, TX. It will be two days of learning from the very best educators! I love this conference and am looking forward to presentations and hands-on learning that I can use in my 2nd grade classroom. Check out the complete schedule!

My Presentations

Tuesday June 17th at 8:00 am

You CAN do it ALL! Transform your classroom into a 21st Century Learning Environment

You CAN do it ALL! from Louise Morgan

Tuesday June 17th at 2:00 pm
Reduce the Paper! Student-Created Digital Portfolios with iPads

Reduce the paper! Student Created Digital Portfolios from Louise Morgan

Click HERE for link to Google Presentation

See you there!

Work With What You Have!

I was the Featured Teacher on today's Classroom 2.0 Live presentation today! If you have never participated in one of these Saturday presentations, it is well worth the the time.  I have learned so much about web 2.0 tools, best practices, classroom management, and more from these live webinars.

Today I talked about making the most of what you have. Instead of lamenting or complaining about what you DON'T have in your classroom, use what you DO have to its fullest potential!

In my presentation, I share how I made the decision to do more with technology in my classroom, goal setting, and examples of projects and tools that I have used to transform my classroom in to a global classroom.



LiveBinder Link: https://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=937692
(Note: Click on tab for "Louise Morgan-Featured Teacher" in the LiveBinder)

#ISTE13 is Finally Here!

I am very excited to be attending my first ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) Conference in San Antonio!  I have followed the Twitter hashtags for the past 3 years and always wished I was there. This year I am attending AND participating in the Global Education Summit at ISTE2013. During the summit I will do a brief pitch for The Global Classroom Project and then lead a group session where participants will brainstorm ideas for projects and activities for the 2013-14 school year. If you would like to join us virtually via Google + Hangout on Sunday June 23rd, please email me and I will send you the details.

Sunday June 23rd, Room 103(convention center), 2-5pm CST
Hangout will around 2:30-3:15

Please add your ideas to our GOOGLE FORM

Be sure and follow all of the action on Twitter: #ISTE13 AND #globaled13

Here is the presentation I will be using:

The Global Classroom Project from Wezie Morgan

Skyping with an Astronaut!

I didn't really plan anything exciting for our first day back after spring break, but I was pleasantly surprised when an "all call" came up on my Skype Instant Message Board looking for classrooms who were available to Skype with former astronaut Dr. Donald Thomas. I immediately responded but didn't hear back right away.  As were about to line up for recess, in came the call! He only had a short amount of time, but my students came through with some amazing questions. It was so wonderful to see how engaged and curious the students were. A big thank you to Steve Sherman at Living Maths and Dr. Donald Thomas. You made an ordinary Monday EXTRA-ordinary!

This student asked if he helped fix things in space. Dr. Thomas explained that like a car, the space shuttle is always in need of repair and upkeep.

This student asked what it was like on the moon. Dr. Thomas explained that he had never been to the moon., but he orbited earth many, many times doing experiments and research on microgravity.

This student asked what it was like to be in a 0 gravity environment. Dr. Thomas explained that  in  the space shuttle things just hang in the air where you leave them. He said you could never lose your homework in space:-)

This students asked if he went to astronaut school. Dr. Thomas explained that after graduating from college and graduate school, he was selected by NASA to become an astronaut to work on space shuttle missions.  

Blogging: How to Write an Amazing Comment

My second graders are doing such a great job with their blog posts this year. I never dreamed at the beginning of the year that blogging with 7-8 year olds would go so smoothly and that they would enjoy it so much.  Recently, I came across a blog called Global Grade 3 and discovered these simple guidelines for writing amazing comments. This post made me realize that my class is now ready to move to the next level of blogging: Writing amazing comments!

Original source: http://globalgrade3.cbegloballearning.ca/blogging-resources/

Guest Blogger Kendal: Skype!

The following is a blog post one of my 2nd grade students put on our class blog about Skype:

In class we are doing skype.Skype is when you go on the computer and you talk to people aound the wold.It is so fun.Yesdirday we skyped with Mr.S he is a math teacher.I will tall you one of the math qustin he did to us:Ok,the sone and the father whent on a hunting trip.They found a bear the sone got skrached and the father died.The sone went to the hspital.The docter said I can"t operat on this boy he is my sone.Who is the docter?The anserw is the mom was the docter. Kendal - 2nd grade

Learning about Mardi Gras via Skype

My teaching partner (who is also  photographer), Ginny Limer, took some great pictures and made these collages of our recent Skype session with Ms. Naugle's 4th grade class in New Orleans. They taught us all about Mardi Gras by giving reports and using visuals. They even showed us a traditional dance!

Our First Skype Session and What We Learned

My students sharing an excerpt from MLK's "I Have a Dream " speech while the other class watches and listens via Skype.

What a fun day we had Skyping with a 3rd grade class in suburban Chicago. My students read their reader's theater excerpt from Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech and the other class shared some of their writing. Afterwards, the students asked each other questions. We learned that a Chicago Dog has a bunch of stuff most second graders don't like and that deep dish pizza sounds really good. My students shared their favorite sports teams and their ancestral heritage. During the call we also discovered that both classes have blogs so we made a plan to read and comment on each others' blogs! My students really enjoyed the experience and asked if we could do it again!

Flattening the classroom walls through Skype and more!

Skyping with Mr. S of Living Maths in Cape Town, S. Africa

Since the beginning of the year, I have been working to incorporate technology into the classroom in many different ways.

• Blogging - We got started on this right away. The first few days on the portable laptop stations were quite challenging, but the payoff has been a classroom full of students who are motivated to write and post on their blogs on a weekly basis (more than I can say for myself ;-) Our blog is password protected, but we allow guest comments. The students are so proud when they get positive feedback on their work.
• Edmodo - We joined an Edmodo group through the Global Classroom. Students from all over share and ask questions about seasons, holidays, school, and their favorite things. This is a lot of fun and a nice extra for the kids to do in the computer lab or when they have free time in the classroom. 
• Voicethread - Again, through the Global Classroom we joined the "Seasons Around the World" project and "Kids Speak". My students have enjoyed adding slides and their voices to the Voicethread and hearing kids from other places tell about themselves.
• Skype - I intended to start much earlier, but this week I finally unwrapped the webcam I received through DonorsChoose and hooked it up! I immediately called Ms. Naugle's class in New Orleans to make sure we had a good connection since I have signed up to Skype with her this coming Friday. We were so excited when she answered and we got to say hello to all of her students. When we join them again on Friday they will be teaching us about Mardi Gras.

I have a feeling we will be adding a few more stars to our global project map now that we are Skyping. This afternoon I set up Skype sessions with Mr. S of Living Maths in Cape Town, S. Africa and another teacher in suburban Chicago. During these sessions, my students will be learning new things from students and teachers from far away places. How cool is that?

The POWER of Pinterest and a Useful Writing Process Tool

A funny thing happened today. I was looking around my "stats" page just to see where most of my blog traffic is coming from.  I was NOT surprised to see that the majority of my traffic is coming from Pinterest! Over the past few months a lot of teachers have jumped on the Pinterest bandwagon. It's a great place to share and keep a visual record of all the great ideas out there!  One of the sources listed on the stats page was a blog I have never visited: In No Simple Language. There was a post about Pinterest and all of the cool things this blogger has discovered there. One of the "cool" things was this:

This was one of my first "pins" on Pinterest. It has been really useful this year because I have incorporated blogging into our classroom writing process. I have kids at all stages of the writing process so this is really helpful for us to see where everyone is. When they get to "publish", this tool helps me manage the 3 computer stations we have the room.  You gotta love the POWER of Pinterest!

Our Global Classroom Project Map

I just created this Global Classroom Project map on the wall outside our room. We are hoping to add more schools from other countries soon! 

Hoping to add a lot more stars!

So far we have one international contact - A cupcake greeting  from Mrs. Harrison's class in Belfast, Northern Ireland!  

Our contacts in the U.S. include students sharing on Edmodo in Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New York.  We are also working on a seasons project with a school on Long Island, NY and a Voice Thread project with a school in Ohio!  

Classroom Blogging 101

One of my goals this year was to get all of my 2nd graders blogging. In theory it sounds wonderful, but logistically it can be a little tricky with only 2 classroom computers and 30 minutes in the computer lab per week.

Luckily we have 2 COWS (computer on wheels) available for checkout so I got them for 2 days. The students were very excited about using the laptops, but some had never used them before. It took some of them a little time to get used to the mouse pad and other features. Also, most of them are not familiar with the QWERTY keyboard so typing was painfully slow. On the second day everyone got logged on to the blog at www.kidblog.org much quicker and we were able to practice posting and commenting.  Our class blog is password protected for now, but I am hoping to open it up to some of the classrooms we will be working with on the Global Classroom Project.

18 students on laptops = 1 busy teacher!

Two weeks later my students are eagerly writing about fall and Halloween. Their favorite prompt is "Plan a Halloween party". They have embraced the writing process and look forward to our conference time together. After all of the revising and editing is done, they get to create a new blog post! I have added some teachers and administrators at our school as "guests" so they can leave comments. The students love getting feedback from their former teachers and the principal!

Having only 2 classroom computers has worked out fine since everyone is  in different stages of the writing process.  We will check out the C.O.W.S every few weeks, but it takes a lot of time to set up, log on, etc....

Sometimes the teacher shares her computer ;-)

Can Homework Encourage Creativity?

I recently participated in an #elemchat Twitter Chat about homework (here is the transcript). Many teachers give meaningless homework which is nothing more than busy work. My children attend a Fine Arts Academy (charter school) where the approach to learning is a little different. Although they have the usual math problems and book reports, they also have the opportunity to get creative with their homework assignments. The teachers are aware that all students learn differently and so they give options for homework and projects.  For instance, instead of just doing a report, students are given the option to make posters/books/artwork, create songs, cook, use technology, choreograph a dance, or dramatize it with live action, photography, or video. I love that the students are given choices. My son enjoys using technology and makes really good Prezis.

Click on the > to progess through the Prezi

My youngest daughter is very "hands-on" and recently worked with a group to create this magnificent crispy rice relief map of Texas. What I like about these kinds of assignments is the time and effort my kids put in to them. My son is very "techie" but my daughter is more "artsy" so they can choose assignments that work well with their learning style.

  

As a teacher, I want to offer my students options as well. Instead of the usual "write your spelling words 2 times" and "do 50 math problems", I want the students to be able to use Spelling City, make rainbow words by using 2 or 3 crayons to write the words, or create "pyramids" with the words:

P

Py

Pyr

Pyra

Pyram

Pyrami

Pyramid

Pyramids

In math they can use sites like Cool Math, take pictures of patterns in our world, or make cootie catchers to learn math facts:

The possibilities are limitless.SO! As teachers...no matter where we teach...it is our job to tune in to our students and pull the very best out of them! It's easy to get in to a rut and use the same assignments from year to year, but that's not the kind of teacher I want to be. How about you?

Blogging in the classroom...

My goal for 2011-12 is to have a classroom blog but I have questions...can you help?  READ MORE...

Professional Development - on my couch!

RSCON3, will take place from Friday, July 29 to Sunday, July 31, 2011.  This global online conference is for everyone concerned with education. With more than 65 presentations and 12 keynote speakers it is sure to be an incredible event! Organized by educators for educators, it is FREE but will offer more valuable and inspiring Professional Development than money can buy - and you don't have to leave your couch!

3 Days of FREE Professional/Personal Development

INSPIRING, CREATIVE and LEARNING FUN!!!

Visit RSCON#3!

My First Glog!

     As I have been perusing all of the great teaching/education sites out there, I ran across Glogster - a site where teachers AND students can make presentations using pictures, videos, sound clips, graphics, and more. I decided to check it out and try the free sample. It's not bad for my first try.  It took a little while to figure everything out, but once I got going it was fun.
     At our school we have to make an all-about-me poster to share with our students at the beginning of the year.  It's always a pain because it needs updated every year.  Glogster is so much easier!  It allows you to pull pictures from your computer or the web - instead of literally cutting and pasting you can drag, drop, and bling it out!  I thought this particular glog would be good to project during Meet the Teacher and the first day of school!  I am considering purchasing  a subscription for my classroom. This would be a great program for students to make their own all-about-me posters and to do reports and presentations.
What do you think?

*I received no compensation for this post.  The opinions expressed are my own.