Mrs. Grisby is the Talent Development teacher at Morehead STEM Academy. She received her Master of Arts in Teaching from Wingate University and she has an Add-on Gifted & Talented Certification. She has been teaching for 13 years. She has been doing amazing things with Technology at Morehead STEM academy. Check out my interview with her!

Q: What is your philosophy of teaching?

A: I stood in the middle of my new third grade classroom deciding how I would create and plan opportunities for my students to think, reflect, and justify their opinions. That was my first day as a teacher and I knew then that teaching is my passion and gift. I know that I was placed on this Earth to educate and bond with children. I believe that every child is unique and deserve to be treated as such. It is my job to provide a caring, nurturing, and lifelong learning environment for every child. 

"If we teach children everything we know, their knowledge is limited to ours. If we teach children to think, their knowledge is limitless."  Author Unknown


Q: How do you know so much about instructional technology?

A: I am constantly on the lookout for new and creative ideas on how to use technology. Reading and exploring about technology are two things that I do daily. Educators all over the world tweet and blog about new ideas, I include myself in these conversations so that I can learn something new and share it with my students and colleagues. Also, we have an excellent technology team here at Morehead STEM Academy. They are always willing to educate and share.


Q: When you are planning, how do you ensure you are doing higher level activities with technology & your students?

A: When I am planning activities for my students, I look for ways to use technology to solve real-world problems. Real world problems allow my students to use the facts to synthesize and generalize ideas so that they can gain an understanding and discover new meaning for their work. For example, they use the Internet to research a problem. When they have enough research they use an app or website to create a product that demonstrates solving their problem. I find that students are most engaged and willing to work harder when the work means something to them.


Q: What suggestions do you have for someone who gets easily stressed out trying to implement technology into his/her classroom?

A: My advice to someone trying to implement technology into the classroom is to have a system. Technology can be overwhelming and intimidating but having a system will ease the stress of learning something new. To decrease the feeling of being overwhelmed, introduce two or three apps weekly. Make sure your students understand your expectations and be consistent about your expectations. Students should be taught every step that it takes to operate the new app. Within time, your students will be showing you things that they discovered while using the new apps. Keep a list of apps and websites and sometimes allow students to choose from the list how they want to present their assignments/projects.  Do not get stressed out! Remember  " You need to have a system."

Congratulations to Mr. Gorski for achieving Techie Teacher of the Month! Mr. Gorski teaches Middle School Social Studies, and has been teaching since March 2005. He went to college at SUNY University in Buffalo, NY. In an interview with him, I learned these things:

How do you know so much about instructional technology?


"There are far more things that I don't know than I do know. I learn about new technologies all the time. The most important thing that I do is constantly wonder how I could use something in the Social Studies classroom."


When you are planning, how do you ensure you are doing higher level activities with technology & your students?

"Technology based projects and mini-projects are great when you're knee deep into a topic. We don't have to wait until the end of a topic to bring technology based learning. Mid-way through a topic students have background knowledge and a well thought out project condenses learning enabling students to express their learning in different ways.

In short, when I'm making a project, I want students to take their academic discourses - the stuff we learn in the classroom - process the info and then give it back to me in an entirely new format. Students can't successfully write scripts, shoot commercials, act out materials or make digital shorts online without deeply knowing the content."

What suggestions do you have for someone who gets easily stressed out trying to implement technology into his/her classroom?

"Expectations, planning and practice are key.

Step #1: Students need to know explicitly that the world's most boring alternative assessment is waiting for them if they can't stay on task.

For beginners, start with a more basic project - a web based comic strip, for example. Go through the whole process of creating an account, how to log in, how to select characters, a background and of course having a script ready to go. Write down the questions you had and make them a "troubleshooting" section in your directions. If you're going to show 30 young ones how to do something, it's best to have it down cold.

Once you're comfortable with the process of making a project on your own, make a super great example to show your students and a rubric to go along with it. How many key words do they need? What groups of people will be interacting? How many frames must you have? Teachers know a great project when we see one. But take that extra time to go over the rubric and show students how to create a great project gets them excited to do the work and gives them a clear goal to reach.

Don't worry if the project was awful the first time around. Your students had a blast making those projects and are dying to see each others. Embrace this. Put as many as possible on display. Give the kids sticky notes and let them leave comments for each other. Laugh about the goof-ups and praise the things that went really well. Then, do it again next month.

Watch the difference."

What is your philosophy of teaching?

"I describe my teaching style as the purposeful application of new technologies built upon a strong base of traditional literacies. While STEM courses receive the spotlight in American education debates, I believe that the Social Studies can be at the fore of a progressive educational agenda as well. The intelligent integration of modern technologies facilitates the learning of core historical concepts. Students learn to not just absorb, but construct knowledge, develop their creative abilities and sharpen their research skills.

Technology centered learning isn't about forcing fun into the lessons, but allowing it to come organically by giving students new and exciting ways of expressing what they have learned."

Stay tuned to hear from our next Techie Teacher of the Month!