UM School of Education Alumni Spotlight: Teacher Meredith Kajdan

University of Mississippi School of Education alumna Meredith Kajdan (B.A.Ed. ’13, M.Ed. ’14) is a fifth-grade science teacher at Commonwealth Elementary School in Sugar Land, Texas. Today, Kajdan is combining the knowledge she gained at UM with the online educational service Glogster. Two of her students were selected to have their projects appear on Glogster’s information site Glogpedia.

We recently spoke with Kajdan to discuss her career and her use of Glogster in the classroom.

Can you tell us about your job at Commonwealth Elementary?

Meredith Kajdan

I teach fifth-grade science. I was originally hired to teach third-graders, but I was switched to fifth grade at the last minute and it’s been great. I have such an interesting group of kids with such diverse backgrounds. I have students from all over: China, Saudi Arabia, you name it. It really brings an interesting mesh of cultures to the classroom.

How did you end up in Sugar Land?

I came here with my husband. We’re both from Gulfport and both went to Ole Miss. He’s an engineer and he found a job working in Houston at a civil engineering firm and I went with him. As it turns out, I had a friend from Ole Miss who worked in the school system here and she was able to help me get me the job.

Tell us about your time at Ole Miss.

I graduated from the School of Education this past May and finished my master’s in education. I also did my undergrad work at Ole Miss. I really loved how small Oxford and Ole Miss are and the relationships I was able to build and maintain while I went to school there. You can walk from class to class or around town and see people that you know all of the time. Greater Houston has a population close to 6.5 million so you just don’t really get that sense of community like in Oxford.

How have you incorporated Glogster into your lesson plans?

Our district purchased the service and had someone come to the schools to train teachers on how to use it. To put it simply, Glogster works as an online poster board. But, instead of having to worry about supplies, students just do everything on iPads that the school supplies for them. The things they create on Glogster are very interactive and the kids love being able to use a fun technology in their classwork.

What assignments have you used Glogster for so far?

The main one that we’ve done dealt with biomes. The kids used their iPads and used Glogster to create a display for any biome of their choosing. Tropical rain forest, tundra, desert – they had complete creative control. They had to meet certain objectives within their project and display certain criteria based on the rubric I gave them when I assigned the project. The kids were given two days to work on their projects and then they presented their work to the class. While kids were presenting, their fellow students in the audience were listening to their presentation and checking to make sure the presenter hit all of the key information points. This way, the kids became extremely familiar with the material in a fun way that lets them explore their own creativity.

Interview by C. Green, courtesy UM school of education