Giving Thanks

Today is Thanksgiving day and I wanted to take a moment to say that I am thankful for all my friends. I'm thankful for all the educators who have welcomed me into their classroom to teach students about the benefits of Web 2.0. Did you know that the last Thursday in November was officially proclaimed Thanksgiving Day by none other than President Lincoln?

As I start to pack my bags for my next journey I thought I would also share a few more photos:

Here we are celebrating a great Thanksgiving dinner of turkey, mashed potatoes and corn:

After that we had to have dessert. I just love Apple Pie and vanilla ice cream:

After all that eating, I was sleepy so we decided to take a nice afternoon nap.

Learning on a weekend

Since we couldn't go to Gettysburg today for the Remembrance Day parade, we decided to do some other things here around my friends' house.

First, I started to learn to play the fife. According to Wikipedia, "a fife is a small, high-pitched, transverse flute that is similar to the piccolo, but louder and shriller due to its narrower bore." I learned that during the Civil War, fifes and drums were used to regulate a soldier's day from the time he got up until it was time for bed. Musicians would also entertain the soldiers with various songs just for entertainment and to keep their spirits high. You can read more about Civil War music over at the Teaching the Civil War with Technology Blog.

This is a photo of me practicing the fife.

Also today, one of my friends and I took some time to tear apart an old computer. We learned about how the inside of a computer works and got to see all of the different parts and pieces that make up a computer. This was a lot of fun.

Here is a photo of me and CJ playing with what is left of the computer:

Wizard Of Oz play

Hi everyone,

On Thursday night I went to see a presentation by the SJS drama club. They presented their version of The Wizard of Oz.

They have been practicing their lines and working on the acting. The play was funny especially the part when the wizard used the umbrella as the ball of fire. My favorite part was when Belinda, the Wicked Witch of the West, came out with her cats and the Winkies. One of my friends was a Winkie and was a good witch assistant.

I think that they did a great job. Today they had to do the play again for the school. If I was there I would have been nervous to go on the stage. But they were very professional and did a very good job even though some of them had to ask the prompters for their lines.

Here are some pictures from the play:

Hanging out backstage

good I got my seat to see the play

I got a progam on who is in the play

I was lucky to get on stage before the show starts

I had so much fun going to see the play. I can't wait to go to Gettysburg and after make cookies or go to a hockey game.

Safely Arrived in Mechanicsburg, Pa

Greetings from chilly central Pennsylvania. I wanted to let everyone know that I safely arrived at the Beeghley Family home.

I spent the afternoon with some of my friends at St. Joseph School and then stopped by basketball practice and picked up pizza for dinner. Tonight we plan to celebrate Jacob's 4th birthday.

Plans for my week include going to a preschool classroom, teaching a graduate class, watching a class play and going to Gettysburg for the annual Remembrance Day parade. I may even sneak in a Hershey Bear's game while I'm in town.

Until next time...stay warm.

Morpheus...We will miss you.

I had soooo much fun at Dunbar Township with the K-Kids. Today I helped some students form the letter F, did some exercises with the power up ladies, and helped introduce the number 3. We sang a turtle song in music class and I had fun posing for a picture. I got to wear their Connellsville Area baseball cap and hold a football that they gave me to take on my travels. I hope I can return next year.
K-Kids...thanks for teaching me soooo much and...I'll miss you.

Morpheus Plays the Drums

Today I learned to play the drums with my new band friends. Mrs. Dugger is the band teacher and when she said I could play...I was so excited! It was so much fun.

Morpheus in First Grade

I spent the day in first grade today. I showed the students my website and talked a little about my travels so far. The students took turns reading a story to me during story time. I really enjoyed listening to the first graders read, “The Mystery of the Missing Muffins.” They took me outside for gym class and we jumped rope together. On the way back to our room one of the girls lifted me up so I could get a drink at the fountain. I went to lunch with them and got to meet some other students from other classes. In the afternoon we went to an assembly to see who won the prizes for the fundraiser. One of the first grade students was selected to go in the money machine and a few of the students got to spin the wheel and win money. Our class was even in the pig race, but the 4th graders won this year.
It was a GREAT day in first grade!

Morpheus and the K-Kids

Kindergarten is soooo much fun so far. I helped the K-Kids with their calendar activity and weather chart first thing after the bell rang. I found out that today is suppose to be really warm so I hope we get to go outside later. I saw a really nice playground when I was geocaching yesterday. They made me my own stick for their behavior chart and took my picture for lunch count and attendance. I enjoyed helping with their math and reading worksheets. This week their new letter is Ff so we glued feathers to make the lowercase and uppercase letters. We just ate snack and now we are getting ready for playtime.

Morpheus Arrives at Dunbar Township

Wow, I finally arrived at Dunbar Township Elementary School. It is the largest of the eight elementary schools in Connellsville. Today was Parent Conference Day and there were no students. I went home with Mrs. Michael who is the computer lab teacher. It was Election Day so we stopped to vote on the way to her house. It was very exciting because I had never voted for a President before. Everyone at the polls was nice to us, but they wouldn’t let us take any pictures. When we got to Mrs. Michael’s house her golden retriever, Annie, met us at the door. She was really excited to see me and kept sniffing and licking me. I thought she was cute too.

The next day I met Mrs. Michael’s fourth grade computer lab students. They took me geocaching for their lab activity. It was a lot of fun finding the hidden container called a geocache. In the container was a writing assignment and treats for everyone. We used a hand held GPS unit and typed in longitude and latitude coordinates to find exactly where Mrs. Michael hid the cache. Then we followed the compass on the unit to find exactly where the cache was hidden. The students had to write where they would take me if I got to go home with them tonight. You’ll get to read some of them later. Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunt that is sooooo much FUN!

At the end of the day I got to meet the K-Kids. They are one of the Kindergarten classes at Dunbar Township. I can’t wait until tomorrow to see what fun things the K-Kids and I will be doing.