G. Morgan: 5th Grade Educator

Before the Pandemic I can honestly say I never used Zoom or Google Meet before. Since the Pandemic, I used Zoom a handful of times and Google Meet more than I can count. Last year once March 13th came around and schools were shut down, we had meetings weekly with our virtual students as well as with my team teachers. The faculty meetings and team teacher meetings were held on Zoom, but the student meets were on Google Meet. There are so many benefits of having a tool right on hand to connect with others. You can share screens, show your face, present awards, teach lessons, and so much more.  Having both in-house students along with virtual students poses a challenge at times. However, tools like Google Meet make it easy to allow virtual students to still be “with” their classmates. Moving forward I will continue to use Google Meet for weekly virtual meetings, when collaboration is needed between in-house students and virtual students, and for mini lessons with students.  Over ...

I honestly had getting a professional Twitter account on my “should do list” forever now. I have not taken the plunge. I feel that I do a good job of getting information out to students and parents through Google Classroom and REMIND. Sometimes I ponder whether having too many different places for people to look would be overwhelming. Five Pros: Social networking in an educational setting Sharing ideas and collaborating with colleagues A source to get information out to parents/families  Easy interface  Links to many other resources/websites Five Cons Too many platforms for parents and students to check Potential to be hacked  Potentially someone following me that I would not want to know about my students  Potentially getting retweets or posts on my feed that I would not want parents/students to see Coming from a low-income school district, it is possible some parents do not have a twitter account to see information that I was getting out anyway   Professional ...

Here is the link to the podcast I chose. There was not a “share” option, so I just copied the link. I hope this takes you to the correct spot. It is 2 min. Called “Outer Space”. I chose to go through Google Podcasts. This has been something I wanted to check into for a while now. I chose to go through Google Podcasts. This has been something I wanted to check into for a while now. The reason I chose this podcast was more for a student example. I would love to do something similar to this when we do our space unit coming up in science. I think the kids hearing another kid do a podcast would be refreshing. They often only have examples from me.  I searched a few different podcasts. Nothing I was searching really seemed appropriate for 5th graders. I tried finding something with testing motivation. I thought that would be good leading into the PSSA testing weeks that are approaching. I was unable to find anything. Let me know if any of you have anything short, and motivational to sh...

Once my students create their blog link on their Google Site. I plan to start with them adding a Flickr photo, citing it correctly, and telling me why they chose the photo. My students love to search for images, but think they can just download them and use them. I think it is important to show them a proper web tool to use and how to cite it properly. I also am interested to see what and hear why they chose what they did. There are many other ways Flickr could be used in the classroom. Students can use it to search for images to use on projects or interactive assignments.  I chose an ocean. It is my happy place. I can picture myself laying on the beach, listening to the waves without a care in the world. This is more than just water and a sunset. I think it is calming and beautiful. I look forward to introducing my students to this web tool.    Cuba Gallery. (2011, February, 4). Ocean. Cuba Gallary’s Photostream. Retrieved from https://flic.kr/p/9fyftm  

Sharing ideas with others is an essential part of learning and continuing to gain knowledge. This is true for both children and adult learners. Learning from others and then making things your own is something teachers do all the time. However, what you do not realize is that there are times when teachers learn something new from students, too. Everyone offers different perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds that can help one learn something new or change the way you view something. It is important to include collaborative projects in your classroom. It is also important to teach students the importance of sharing opinions and ideas in respectful ways, knowing their audiences, and also how to respond properly to others.

Title:  Teaching with Blogs Authors: Kendra Oliver and Richard Coble Location: https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/teaching-with-blogs/ This source is relevant because it discusses the effectiveness of blogs in the classroom as well as gives some blog ideas.   Summary:  According to Oliver and Colbe (2016), “Although people often think of social media as a space for non-academic interactions, blogs can be helpful tools for instructors interested in enhancing their students’ communication skills and increasing their students’ investment in learning. (Why Teach Blogs, para. 1). I always try to find a blog quote that strikes my interest, but also sums up the article along with the reason I chose it. Many traditional teachers may find a lot of the technology advances to be daunting, and may feel that students “need” the more traditional learning environment. However, times have changed drastically, and students “need” to be involved in technology because it is all ar...

  Title:  Using Blogs in the Classroom Author: U-M LSA Sweetland Center for Writing Location: https://lsa.umich.edu/sweetland/instructors/teaching-resources/using-blogs-in-the-classroom.html   This source is relevant because I want to investigate how to incorporate blogs into my classroom to encourage collaboration between students and teachers.  Summary:  U-M LSA Sweetland Center for Writing explains how blogs can be great for collaboration, it can improve students’ writing skills, and it could empower students. The empowerment part really struck my attention. According to Sweetland Center for Writing (2021), “While reading their fellow students’ blogs and comments, and responding online with their own comments, students recognize the value of clarity and what makes for strong and engaging posts” (Empowering Students, para 1). This is a great point and shows the importance of social media, blogging, and having an online presence in the world today. Students wil...

  Title:  Deeper Learning: A Collaborative Classroom Is Key Author: Rebecca Alber Location: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/deeper-learning-collaboration-key-rebecca-alber This source is relevant because it discusses the importance of collaboration along with skills to collaborate clearly.  Summary:  According to Alber (2017), “Teach students how to listen and ask good questions with these exercises designed to scaffold deep, meaningful collaboration” (para 1). This quote struck my attention right way because some students know how to “talk” to classmates, but they are not truly collaborating. This article dives into the importance of not only speaking, but listening, too. I will break down the main headings and what they cover.  The first heading is, “establish group assignments” which covers being creative, doing your part, and accountability. The second heading is “teach them how to listen” which discusses skills such as making eye contact, showing empathy, a...

I am always looking for ways to improve my own practice. I feel that RSS Reader will help me organize sites I follow and keep me up-to-date on the newest ideas. This will be an ongoing opportunity to continue to develop professionally.  Here are the five feeds besides my classmates’ feeds that I subscribed to and a reason why:  This was recommended and is filled with quick and easy tips to run a successful technology classroom. Fifth graders are still pretty young, so it is nice to find quick and easy ways to help them learn “techy tips”.  http://www.educatorstechnology.com/   This blog focuses on what is best for kids and that is what we are all here for! http://nativeclassroom.blogspot.com/ I have listened to ED Ted videos before and read the material. I want to keep up-to-date with this fantastic resource.  https://blog.ed.ted.com This blog has a lot of information about Google products and they are my BEST friend, so thought it would be a great blog to follo...

 I chose to modify my PA History Final project by adding in Symbaloo. I chose this because it is a research project and it would be nice to have resources all in one place. A major advantage is that each corner can be for one of the four places students can choose from for their project and students can collaborate to find websites that will be helpful. A disadvantage is that some students may just wait for others to find good websites to utilize.  Here is the project template with a general overview of what to do. Students would have detailed instructions on Google Classroom.  Final Project with Symbaloo Shared link added that we will add to. 

I found a really cool blogging challenge idea for students! Check it out here. It seems as though she changed the challenge a bit due to the pandemic, but there is still a “self-paced” blog option available. This is an idea I could use moving forward with my own students. It impressed me that she came up with so many different unique ideas including tying in emojis, real photographs, and Earth Day. I also liked how there were reflection Google Forms and feedback forms along the way. I feel that this would be an idea I can for sure utilize in my technology class or as a cross-curricular activity. 

Technology has been on the rise in education over the past decade. However, the recent pandemic has expedited the use of technology in the classroom. Our school was in a slow transition to virtual learning learning, but now that transition became rapid as we need virtual classrooms set up on a daily basis for both face-to-face and virtual learners. The use of Chromebooks along with Google Suite helps this process due how user-friendly the products are. Many resources online now have automatic connection to the Google Classroom platform which makes delivering lessons easy. Furthermore, the grading system my school district transitioned to also has a built in feature to connect right to Google Classroom where grades are imported with the click of a button! A silver lining to the craziness of the pandemic is that it moved my school district much closer to where we need to be to prepare our students for the future of rising technology. I feel as though I get better daily with technology an...