netTrekker Blog

It’s Linda Morrell Day!

At Thinkronize, we value our customers and continue to appreciate their feedback and support towards our mission… ”enhancing the education of youth with highly effective technologies”.

Today, we would like to honor one of the first and most prominent advocates for netTrekker d.i. – Linda Morrell – Instructional Technology Director at Cobb County, GA.  Linda provided netTrekker d.i. district-wide to Cobb County in the earliest years and with her team have provided us with a wealth of knowledge.  We want to honor Linda Morrell by officially making today, February 27, 2009 – Linda Morrell day at Thinkronize!

You can join in on our well wishes at the netTrekker Village.

Joel Petersen

VP Strategic Relations

Thinkronize – Makers of netTrekker d.i

Tags: Cobb County, customer, Linda Morrell, netTrekker d.i., Thinkronize

A Biting Find to Read

Psst. Wanna know a secret? I’m terribly afraid of vampires. Yeah, they really freak me out. Which is probably why I’m the last one on planet Earth to read the series Twilight. Jill Allen, the Director of netTrekker’s Customer Relationship and Training Department, seemed shocked that I, an avid reader, had not read this series. She almost convinced me to begin Twilight during FETC. Almost, because, well, I was still a bit nervous about the whole vampire deal. (Yes, I know there are no real vampires. I have an overactive imagination though.)

On March 2nd we will be celebrating Read Across America, and it should be a celebration for all readers, not

just limited to elementary students. Middle school and high school students should also enjoy this day of reading. And from what I understand, Twilight is the new Harry Potter,  when it comes to encouraging reluctant readers to crack open a book.

With Twilight being a newer book that’s just starting to take hold in the classroom, I wasn’t sure if I would find any resources in netTrekker d.i. . Not only was I pleasantly surprised to find a few, I was also pleased to find results that were not from bookstores selling the book or movie reviews. I used “twilight” as my keyword search. My first two results were related to the series! The first site was the official website of Stephenie Meyer. It was interesting to read about the dream that inspired her to write the story and how the town of Forks became the setting.

The second site is the one that I’m enjoying right now as I write this. It’s a site from the Library of Congress and includes a presentation from Stephenie Meyer at the 2006 National Book Festival.

If you search with Stephenie Meyer as the keyword, you’ll find three websites about the author. On the same note, there are 30 sites about vampires, most dealing with other writings involving these legendary creatures.

If you know of any great sites with lessons on how to use Twilight in the classroom, please share those links with our content editors in the netTrekker Village. Our content editors are always on the prowl for fresh new relevant sites.

Tags: netTrekker, read, read across America, Stephenie Meyer, Twilight, vampire

Seussical Reads

By the way, the blog is written in collaboration with Amanda Barton from Content Editors and the entire Customer Relations Team. My name is Danielle Abernethy, the main voice of the blog. I am a former military BRAT, and once lived in Bitburg, Germany. On Saturday mornings, my brother and I would go down to the German bakery for fresh bread.  On the way, we would pass a “Dr. Seuss”. I firmly believed that this  Dr. Seuss (a family doctor)  was my favorite author Dr. Seuss. So one morning I got up, grabbed my Dr. Seuss books, and went to visit the good ole’ Doc. Thankfully he was a very understanding old man and didn’t turn away this naive eight year- old. He told me he wasn’t the author Seuss, but he would read with me just the same. We read quite a few books that day.

On March 2nd, all across the world, we’ll be celebrating Dr. Seuss’s 105th birthday, along with the celebration of reading during Read Across America. This is one of my favorite days in schools, and I personally love the fact that Dr. Seuss is celebrated at the same time. He is the reason I love to read! I am tempted to take my son (Joey) out of school, drive down the road to Universal Studios to Seuss Landing and celebrate with them. It’s my favorite place to play in Universal.

But I’m a responsible parent, so we’ll take our trip on the weekend. In the meantime, I’ll find other learning activities for school or home, and what better place to find these activities than through netTrekker d.i. By using “Suess” as my key word I was able to find 40 results in elementary. My favorite website found there is Seussville. This weekend Joey and I created our own story using characters, backgrounds, and sounds from Seuss world. We also found a website that had Joey practicing his math facts with Dr. Seuss.

When Joey gets older, I can go to the middle school tab and type in Seuss to find 16 results or the high school tab to find 14 results. Among those results are sites showcasing the political side to Dr. Seuss books. Here’s a trivia question, which famous World War Two Leader was the basis for Yertle the Turtle? Social Studies Teachers studying World War Two could have students study the different leaders and try to deduce who the leader was. If you know the answer, leave it in a comment below.

So with that, I’ll leave you to netTrekker to explore.
Use Seuss as the search keyword to open the door.
More than lessons, games and resources you’ll find.
For one of the greatest authors of our time.

(I think I’ll stick to writing blogs
Instead of leaving my audience in a fog!)

Tags: Dr. Seuss, netTrekker, read, read across America

100 Ways, 100 Days

I remember my first year of teaching when a small party was held in a teacher’s room to celebrate the 100th day of school. This day of celebration was new to me at this point, and not nearly as popular as it is now. I asked what was the big deal? Her response – “We are celebrating all that we have learned, all that is yet to come, and the fact that we’re half way through the year. It’s a chance to reflect on how much we have learned and how much we still need to learn.” Before I could tell her that half way was actually the 90th day of school she said, “And 100 sounds so much more impressive than 90, don’t you think?”

Has the 100th day of school already passed for you? If so, how did you celebrate with your students? If not, how do you plan to celebrate? I’d like to share with you a few possibilities.

I was told the reason I was not familiar with 100th Day of School celebrations is because it’s usually an early childhood or early elementary lesson. I learned from another teacher at a conference that the 100th day of school does not have to stop with our primary students though. This high school teacher has her students reflect on the 100th day by writing 100 things they learned that year, and only 25 could be personal. After all, we’re helping our students develop into the successful adults they will become. She found this activity to be a great opportunity for students to go beyond a learning log and really reflect on all they have learned.

In netTrekker d.i., you can find some other great activities for the 100th Day of School. I went to the Thematic Units (bottom of elementary page) and chose to browse all themes. From there I selected 100th Day of School. I love interactive activities, so I refined my search and found a really neat Promethean Board Activity. It has even more ideas to help with your planning. (Don’t forget, if you don’t have Promethean’s ACTIV Boards, you can download the viewerto use these great interactive lessons!)

I then reset my refinement and then chose “learning games”. I was so surprised at what I discovered! I found my favorite little monkey, Curious George! He sponsors a video where students explore what a 100 looks, feels, and even sounds like. The video is on Teacher’s Domain and is available for streaming.
Another resource is the Scholastic Resource. What I liked about this article from Instructor Magazine is that on the right hand side you can click on Math or another subject and pull up activities for them. I loved the Zero Hero and the Community Service Lessons I found there.

Whether it’s your 100th day of teaching or 120th – let’s celebrate how much we have learned!