Morgan recently joined the education team at Oliver Brown Elementary School where she serves as a library media specialist. Prior to her position at this school, Morgan transformed the library at Ogden Elementary School in Ogden, Kansas, into the hub of student life and learning. As library and media specialist at Ogden Elementary School, Morgan taught every student, every week, from pre-K to sixth grade.
The former second-grade teacher seamlessly integrated both library and content standards into her instruction, supporting students as they tackled projects involving research, writing and presentation skills. Morgan collaborated with every classroom teacher to reinforce their instruction and maximize learning. She went to great lengths to help Ogden’s young learners hone their skills, teaching intervention groups daily and leading an after-school program to remediate math and reading skills. Ogden students routinely demonstrate among the highest growth scores on district formative assessments.
Morgan took on numerous leadership roles at Ogden Elementary and within the district, including lead ELA teacher, volunteer coordinator and PTO president. She chaired the student intervention team, served as a district co-teaching coach, and mentored first- and second-year teachers. Morgan worked on the hiring and bullying prevention teams and chaired multiple committees for the school’s Family Night events. As the liaison with local universities, Morgan brought interns, student teachers and aides into the district. She wrote or collaborated on millions of dollars in grants, which brought Ogden thousands of books for impoverished families, a school therapy dog who resides in the library and serves students social-emotional learning needs, and a program to connect students with deployed military parents via Skype.
An avid reader herself, Morgan is constantly looking for ways to get books into the hands of her students and their families. During Ogden Elementary’s literacy nights, Morgan placed hundreds of books out, carefully selected to appeal to the interests of students, siblings, parents and caregivers. The reading games and activities she led during the events were designed to bring Ogden’s families closer and support them as they helped their children achieve their learning goals.
Morgan earned a bachelor’s in elementary education in 2008 and a master’s in special education in 2010 from Kansas State University, as well as a master’s in library science in 2017 from Emporia State University.
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