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!
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!
Jama Wade, THINKronite of the Year.
Mimi Jett, General Manager, and Mike Logan, Manager of IT/IS
Thomas Bain and Mike Casagrande, Account Managers
Katrina Smith, Office Administrator
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.
Check out our NECC Booth schedule to find a time to connect with us while in Washington DC.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!
Hidden Gems
There are so many gems in netTrekker, and with over 300,000 resources, it’s easy to get sidetracked by a few. A few of my favorites are actually found in the netTrekker Reference Section.
Aside from the typical encyclopedias, dictionaries, converters, and such, you’ll also find some valuable resources to help with the creativity side of things in the classroom. Classrooms that are creative are gems for our students. Those are the classrooms in which students can participate and come alive rather than simply sitting on the sideline.
Pics4Learning is absolutely one of my favorite places for images to use in storytelling. This resource is found in all three of the grade level tabs in the reference section, under the “Finders” near the bottom. What’s a digital story without images? And these images are fantastic for classroom use!
Also in the “Finders” section is another one of my favorite resources, FindSounds. I use to play a sound for my students during our creative writing segments. I would tell them to close their eyes and just listen. I would play that sound two or three times and then tell them to open their eyes and write me a story based on that sound. FindSounds is a perfect place to go and get these great sound bytes to use in digital storytelling and for other creative writing projects.
You can learn more about digital storytelling by reading an article from Forsyth County, GA in our latest newsletter or joining Jill Hobson in her presentation on Digital Storytelling: The Tools to Create the Magic at NECC 2009.
cheer This sound alone has so much potential! But I’d rather you think of it as netTrekker cheering on you!
Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!
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Educator Blog Roll
- Backroom Educational Technology by Michelle Morely
- Cliotech, by Jennifer Dorman
- Educational Technology by Palm Beach
- etechplace: Henrico’s FETC Blog
- Geeky Momma, by Lee Kolbert
- Moving at the Speed of Creativity, by Wes Fryer
- NCS-Tech! by Kevin Jarrett
- Randomly Speaking, by John Lien
- Southgate Technology Blog
- Teach 42 Blog by Steve Dembo
- Teach the Civil War with Technology by Jim Beeghley
- Tinkerings, by Tim Childers