netTrekker Blog

Thanksgiving

All over Facebook, my friends are posting a daily post of what they are thankful for.Today, my son’s school held their annual Student/Parent Thanksgiving Luncheon. My teacher friends are busy updating lesson plans for this holiday. Turkeys and baking goods are popping up all throughout the grocery stores. These posts and events, are inspired by the upcoming national/federal holiday of Thanksgiving.

How many of you know the history of Thanksgiving? The first Thanksgiving was declared by George Washington in 1789. It was declared in September before the recess, and celebrated on November 26, 2009 as a day of “publick thanksgivin’”. Each President after George Washington continued to declare a date for the nation to give thanks, with the date always varied. President Lincoln however needed order to the date, so he established that the day of thanksgiving will be the last Thursday of each November. President Franklin D. Roosevelt however looked at the “economic” calendar and realized that the last Thursday of November cut the shopping time for the Christmas holidays, and therefore he moved it to the second to last Thursday November. But not everyone agreed with this, and so not all states celebrated on the same date, which just caused confusion. So Congress got together in 1941 and after many considerations, set the day of thanksgiving as the fourth Friday of November.

Wait a second? You thought the first day of thanks was celebrated with the Indians and Pilgrims? Actually, that would be correct as well. In 1620, the Pilgrims landed and tried to build a life for themselves in a deserted Indian Village. If the Indians didn’t come back in 1621 and witnessed the poor shape the Pilgrims were in and offered them help in learning how to farm and be sufficient, there’s no telling where the Pilgrims would end up. So later that year, the Pilgrims and the Indians sat down to a three day feast to celebrate their friendship. It’s a shame that the relationship with the Indians did not last as long as it could have.

But the day of thanks and friendship also are marked back to early Greece, other parts of history, and throughout religion. The more and more I read the different websites in netTrekker, the more I found about this day that we get to celebrate thanks. It’s more than turkey, football, and getting up early the next morning to shop the big sales. If you conduct a search in netTrekker you too can find the entire scoop.

Share your favorite way of celebrating Thanksgiving on netTrekker Village.

Today is netTrekker’s Safe Search Day!

Today we recognize those schools that are keeping students safe online with outstanding netTrekker usage in the 2008-2009 school year and for an extremely successful district-wide implementation of netTrekker.

We would like to send our congratulations to those districts that finished in the Top 100 this year. Click Here to view the full list of qualifying districts and to read the press release honoring them during netTrekker Safe Search Day.

Our company’s mission is to engage students through personalized learning, by helping connecting educators and students to digital resources and tools that enhance the teaching and learning process. These districts exemplify our mission with their ongoing support, and we hope they can serve as an example to others.

We would like to see all our schools and districts keep students safe by achieving high netTrekker usage rates. To assist you in this effort, we have created a set of tips to help you increase netTrekker usage at your school. Click Here for your free copy, so you can join the Top 100 list next year!

Tags: netTrekker safe search day, top 100

netTrekker has a New Home!

Our office buzzed with excitement yesterday as everyone began their first day in the new netTrekker headquarters. The space offers new possibilities to improve the way we think, operate, and live out our company motto of “doing something good for kids!” As we expanded and outgrew our last building, our teams were split between two neighboring offices. This new space allows us to come together again for a more collaborative and customer focused environment.

Randy Wilheim is the CEO of netTrekker and the true heart of the company. He’s a visionary and knows how to make those visions reality. He envisioned a “home” where the team could work together, all in the same office, so ideas could take root and grow. He wanted a place where the meeting rooms were of abundance so each team could meet to accomplish goals. He visualized a place where ideas could flow and he thought back to where things flow in his own house, so he included a beautiful kitchen with plenty of space to work, laugh, relax and be energized. And since the kitchen is the heart of the home, he wrapped his employees, the netTrekker family, in a heart. If you look up at the front of the office, there is a blue piece of art that is the shape of a half of a heart that winds through the office space.

When the offsite team was up there in July, Randy gave us a tour of a new building and space, and I can promise you that it is every bit of Randy’s vision and more. And for those of you who have visited the offices before, you remember how on the wall was our mantra, “Go do something good for the kids.” it’s still there, reminding each netTrekker employee of our ultimate goal and the reason we are blessed to walk through the doors of netTrekker each day (or work from home for them).

As the new school year starts, I encourage you to find the heart of your classroom and a way to wrap your students in that heart.  Use it as a subtle way to remind you and your students each day of their mantra–their purpose. Maybe start the first day off deciding what that mantra is. And remember to build in time to laugh, work in a relaxed cooperative group setting, and to do something good. It will not only do your brain good and increase productivity, but will do your heart good too.

Check out these pictures of us kicking off the future of netTrekker with our new home!

Tags: netTrekker

Connect with Us

Connections are made when two or more people have a common thread that ties them together, and are often made at an event of some sort.

netTrekker Village has several events listed on the calendar, including both online and onsite events. At NECC this summer, we are proud to feature six special guest speakers who each will be presenting a 15- minute session in the netTrekker booth #931 on how they use netTrekker or on a special feature in netTrekker. Marci Campbell, Jill Allen and I (Danielle Abernethy) will also be presenting in the booth at NECC, so there are plenty of opportunities to make a connection and learn from other educators about how you can get more from your netTrekker subscription. We are also pleased to announce that our two scholarship winners, Ryan Evans and Teresa Diaz, along with Teryl Magee, Chad Lehman, Jill Hobson, and Tom Turner will also be presenting in our booth, sharing insights about netTrekker from an educator’s point of view.

Our Sunday Night event at NECC, which was announced on the Village, is already full. We announced this one through the Village Message System and were pleasantly surprised by the quick number of people that signed up. But don’t fret, we have more events planned! If you’re in the Ohio, Indiana or Kentucky areas, there’s a netTrekker Fest happening on August 13th that is definitely worth checking out. Check the calendar for details.

Other events are online, including free webinars. Currently we have free webinars for how to make the most of netTrekker Village and the new Customer Resoruces section of netTrekker.  More of these events will be announced, and through mid June. We will also have many other free webinars on how to use netTrekker’s My Portfolio, special guests sharing how they use netTrekker, and more!

It is important that you RSVP for any of the events you are interested in. The RSVP feature is found on the right side of the event.

So join us at an event, and connect with us!

Tags: connect, NECC, netTrekker, netTrekker Fest, netTrekker Village, village, webinar