netTrekker Blog

There’s a Feature for That.

I am a social network junkie. I’m not as bad as I used to be, but I start my day off checking my RSS feeds, see what’s new on netTrekker Village, check in on my PLN (personal learning network) on Twitter, my Facebook PLN (which has a few different people than my Twitter), and a few other sites. Part of it is because I’m nosy. I want to know what other people are up to. The rest is because I learn a lot from these networks.

Guess what the teachers in my PLN are up to? Getting ready to go back to school. Can you believe it? Six to eight weeks of conferences, special learning opportunities, summer school, graduate classes, district professional development classes, catching up on their RSS readers, planning that really cool flat classroom project for next year, and maybe having the chance to read a book for pleasure and to lounge around the pool are over. It’s time to get back to work with the kids. Most are anxious to get into the classrooms because they are changing rooms and/or grade levels. Others are excited because they learned so much this summer at various conferences and through their PLN. They are all looking for or sharing ideas to get organized, for their bulletin boards, and “Welcome to the New Year” letters.

For this, let’s turn to netTrekker. Yep, we have a feature for that! How many of you have clicked on the

Teacher Tools on the right side in the Features box? If you go there you will see a list of drill down topics with plenty of ideas for back to school. My favorite one? Getting organized. I am the most unorganized person that probably ever existed. Well, maybe not the most, but close to it. So this is definitely a good place for me to start.

One of my favorites here was the classroom designer. You can draw your classroom dimensions out, add the door, windows, chalk boards, desks, bookshelves, plants, and students. Whatever you want. Now, if you’re like me, you probably rearrange your room several times before school actually starts. Then again once school does start as you try to get the right arrangement once you know the personalities of your kids. Instead of moving furniture over and over and over, you can actually design your room on one of these sites. I tried one out and designed an almost dream

classroom. 22 student desks with laptops and room to collaborate, plenty of books, a couch, beanbags, and coat racks instead of those mixed blessings called cubby holes.

There’s another great site that deals with rules. I had one rule, “Do what you’re supposed to be doing, when you’re supposed to be doing it, the way you’re supposed to be doing it, with whom you were supposed to be doing it.” That covered everything. But I’m sure there were better rules out there. I know that you’re supposed to try to keep it at 5 rules, even if Ron Clarke has something like 55, but I found that one rule worked for me. What rules work for you?

Best of luck to those who are getting ready to go back. Enjoy these last few days of vacation before the school year begins. I’m sure netTrekker has a search for that, too.

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