ISTE Winner – Roderick Hames, Gwinnett County Public Schools
At the ISTE 2010 conference in Denver a couple of weeks ago, there was a lot of excitement in the netTrekker booth. Booth visitors got sneak peak at the exciting changes coming to netTrekker for back-to-school. We had a full line-up of great customers presenters sharing their own best practices for using netTrekker in their classrooms. And we had over 125 educators participate in our Explore a New World of Personalized Learning passport game. The game required educators to learn about the new enhancements coming to netTrekker, find out how netTrekker helps personalize learning, and attend one of the many customer-presented workshops.
The lucky winner of the passport game was Roderick Hames, Business Education Instructor at Crews Middle School in Gwinnett County Public Schools, in the metro-Atlanta area. Roderick won the grand prize of a brand new Apple iPad and a one year netTrekker subscription for his school. We asked Roderick to share a little bit about himself, and it sounds like the netTrekker subscription and the iPad will fit perfectly into what he’s already doing to engage students with technology in his classroom. He shares some great examples below of how he’s made the print-to-digital transition with digital content and project-based learning activities. Thanks to all who stopped by to see us at ISTE, and congratulations, Roderick!
About Our Winner
My name is Roderick Hames and for the past 19 years I have taught computer applications, keyboarding, programming, entrepreneurship, and web design using both Mac and IBM to middle school students. I hold an Ed.S degree in Business Education from the University of West Georgia. In addition to my teaching assignments, I also serve as Program Specialist which is a leadership position at the county level to help facilitate staff development and other needs for a group of 25 other middle school computer teachers.
My website: http://www.crews.org/curriculum/ex/compsci/ is widely regarded as a hub of resources for not only my own students but teachers around the country as innovative and engaging relevant lessons. I also work after school coaching an intramural sports program. I have presented at numerous national, regional, state, and local conferences. This was my third time presenting at ISTE (formerly NECC).
I do not use any text books, my entire curriculum can be found online. My activities are project based and student centered. I work my units around a theme for each grade level. For 6th grade it is city planning and urban development. For 7th grade students learn about leadership character qualities and for 8th grade students focus on financial literacy and entrepreneurship. I work hard to create my lessons as realistic and engaging as possible. I also strive to make harder lessons video based so student can learn at their own pace. My passion is to see kids who can successfully use technology as a tool to accomplish a project that would otherwise lack creativity and skill. Since one of my passions is seeing young adults prosper and reach their full potential, using technology is a great tool to bring out hidden talents in children. I love to see kids who problem solve and can express themselves in creative professional ways using technology.
I am excited about winning the subscription to netTrekker and an Apple iPad. I fully expect to see kids who would have struggled presenting in class fight to use the iPad to present.
Thanks for Helping netTrekker Make an Impact!
A big “thank you” goes out to our wonderful customers! It is because of your support and invaluable feedback throughout the past 10 years that, this past Wednesday, netTrekker was named the WINNER of the 2010 EdNET Impact Award. Each year, the EdNET community recognizes organizations that are making a difference in education. The Impact Award is presented for the most significant, positive impact on education.
netTrekker was honored to be a finalist in this category along with Scientific Learning and Rosetta Stone. The award was presented at a virtual awards ceremony Wednesday afternoon, where Randy Wilhelm, CEO of netTrekker, accepted the award on netTrekker’s behalf. During his speech, Randy conveyed that 10 years ago, at netTrekker’s start, one of the first events he attended was the EdNET Conference. At the time, he could only hope that netTrekker would eventually be recognized for such a significant, positive impact on education. He relayed that netTrekker was honored and humbled for the recognition, and thanked our wonderful customers for their support.
So THANK YOU netTrekker users! You are the driving force behind the significant, positive impact netTrekker is making on the education community and we appreciate all you do!
And We Have Winners!
One of the hot topics in education is personalizing education. Of course, being a former classroom teacher, technology 
coach, and now a netTrekker Trainer, I could tell you many ways to use netTrekker to meet the individual needs of your students. However, we wanted to know how YOU use netTrekker to personalize learning and put it into action, so we made this year’s ISTE Scholarship Contest a video contest where teachers share their story.
It was tough, and the judges spent a lot of time watching each video entry more than once. In the end, we could only choose two for the scholarships. The others will receive nice gifts from our friends at BrainPOP.
Join me in congratulating Jackie Shanti from Clara Barton School, Milwaukee, WI and Andy Losik from Hamilton Schools, Fennville, MI. They will be attending ISTE2010 as our scholarship winners. You can check out their videos, and the other entries, on our scholarship info page.
They will also be sharing their story in the netTrekker Booth at ISTE2010. Come by and say hi, and learn something new from a netTrekker Educator.
Thank you to all who entered and shared your story. They were all fascinating and edutaining!
Paperless Trails
An image of the Auroras Dancing in the Night from the NASA JSC Digital Image Collection in the Reference Section of netTrekker.
Earth Day is right around the corner, so we decided to dedicate this week to Earth Day topics. Today is a topic that has been hot on Twitter, Paperless Classrooms.
This topic was hot a few years ago, with one classroom going paperless in 2001 and creating one of the first sites about being paperless. With the introduction of handhelds, netbooks, the 1:1 computer initiative and now the iPad, paperless classrooms are still on everyone’s mind. Think about it. A student can create the written document/presentation in Zoho or Google and share it with you as a way to turn it in. Teachers have access to tools like Quia, DiscoveryStreaming’s Quiz Builder, or even handheld clickers you can administer a quiz/test that way. (There’s even a program for the iTouch to become a handheld clicker!)
Then, as I started this blog, I saw a Facebook posting from netTrekker’s CEO Randy Wilhelm about how netTrekker is helping Canada transition to digital resources. Here’s one of my favorite quotes, “With the growing movement toward interactive whiteboards, laptops and mobile computing in schools, augmenting traditional print resources with digital education solutions is now a viable opportunity in K-12 education. Educators need high-quality digital content that is appropriate for classroom use and leverages the benefits of Web technologies such as up-to-date information and rich multimedia.”
Don’t live in Canada? Would like to use netTrekker to digitize your classroom so you can go paperless? Let’s talk about some of the possibilities.
Start by using netTrekker’s My Portfolio to create a project folder. Using the refinement tabs, find resources that are primary documents, video, interactive media, or from some of our great content partners like BrainPOP or Globio. Don’t forget to add a link to your Promethean or SMART Board resource for the students to use as a review. Need to add a link to another subscription your district offers? Go for it with the “Add a Link” button in My Portfolio.
Speaking of “Add a Link”, there are some paper resources that you might enhance your project in the media center. Share that printed resource using a tool like Scholastic Book Wizard. Again, once you create the list, share that link in the My Portfolio.
Next, in your new project folder, add a quiz to check for knowledge gained. Again, use tools like your DiscoveryStreaming Quiz Builder or QuizStar by adding a link to your computer quiz. Or, check out the quizzes found in BrainPOP. The work’s done for you, and the quizzes go along with their great movies featuring everyone’s favorite robot, Moby.
Now, I don’t like relying on a quiz alone for the grade. I want the students to do something with that knowledge to show their true understanding of the standards and the ability to transfer their new knowledge to a new situation. Create a VoiceThread for students to use to debate a topic or share information. How about a Glogster where they present their information in a multimedia format? Or a Kerpoof story, movie, or picture? The students can share their Glogster link with you in the MyPortfolio Folder as a way to electronically share it with the other students and turn it in.
In the end, your entire project is in My Portfolio. Nothing needs to be printed. You have the directions, the electronic resources found in netTrekker and the links to the extra useful subscriptions your district provides to you, and a link to where they will electronically build their project and take their quiz. Now you can share this folder in the school or district area for your students to access. And, you’ll have it for next year too! The added benefit of using the My Portfolio is that you still have access to the Read Aloud and Dictionary Hot Key tools that really help engage and enable students in their learning process.
If you would like to take the pledge to go Paperless this Earth Day, check out this online site.
Amy’s got more information on Earth Day tomorrow. Then on Wednesday we’ll talk about how to raise money for your school while reducing waste. Thursday and Friday have other surprises to be shared. So tune in!
iCan Create an iCon
I splurged yesterday and took the day off to spend with my son and a friend of his at SeaWorld. I let the kids play for a bit in the Happy Harbour, letting the kids get wet and run off their extra energy. While there, I met another teacher from Georgia and we started talking about netTrekker. It happened innocently enough. Her child asked a question about whales, she didn’t know the answer, and I said, “Hey, I can help you look it up.” So there we were, with kids running around splashing and screaming all around us, looking up information about whales on netTrekker using the iPhone and eventually her Droid. (Yep, netTrekker works on the Droid as well!)
How to create a netTrekker shortcut on your iPhone
I mentioned in another post that I have netTrekker as a shortcut on my home screen on my iPhone, and I was asked how to do that. I made a quick set of instructions, including screen shots of how to do this on the iPhone and turned it into an animation. Did you know that you can take a screen shot of your iPhone by holding the sleep button on top and the round home button on the front, bottom of the screen and then let go. It’s pretty easy to do, and great for making tutorials.
To create the animation, I used an online program called Imator. Pretty easy to use for beginners like myself. Does someone want to create one for the Droid?
I hope the teacher submits a video entry for the ISTE 2010 scholarship. I told her she could use the example of her son wanting to learn more about whales at SeaWorld. She seemed pretty excited when I left her filming her video with his flip camera and him on the Droid explaining how he uses netTrekker at school and now on vacation.
Have you submitted your video yet for the ISTE 2010 Scholarship? Deadline is April 16, and ISTE2010 promises to be fantastic, with plenty of opportunities to learn, connect with your PLN and explore the excellence of technology in education!
Myth or Mist?
I love delving into a good book, or sometimes escaping to a compelling movie. When my two favorite past times are joined, I try to read the book first. With this upcoming film release schedule, I decided to read Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan for this week’s National Book Month Middle School Entry.
I love mythology, and listening to the tales of the gods, demi-gods, and the different battles or skirmishes. When I lived in South Carolina, I use to enjoy a yearly visit to Brook Green Gardens, just so I could hear the stories of the statues. However, like Percy Jackson, I tend to mix up the gods quite easily. Not the major players, but there are just so many to keep up with! Which means, this is a natural fit for netTrekker. I came across two this morning that I wasn’t sure about, and used netTrekker to quickly look them up and frame my mind around who they were and their role in the life of the gods in the 21st Century.
The other item that I found interesting in this book is the talk of moving west. Mt Olympus started Greece, but it moves with the gods, and they move with society. The book even made it sound like the Roman gods were really the Greek gods, they had just moved west and that the gods also were the reason for events such as wars or Prohobition. Time to break out a timeline and map and see if you can find ways to compare those events with the gods that would have been involved – and see if the trend still was to move west.
However, one of the items that really grabbed me was the idea of mist. I am often told to get my head out of the clouds and to come back to Earth or to pay attention. Here we have the gods explaining to us that often times we “miss” events because the gods are involved and there is a “mist” that comes into play to distort our vision or memories. What would a day be like if the “mist” did not work and we actually saw the gods in action? I would love to challenge my students into researching a specific god or goddess and write what a day of that god’s life would be like in the 21st Century and the reaction us mortals would have to that god’s presence.
I think I’m going to have to finish this entire series. And I’ll definitely be using netTrekker as my source for the 4-1-1 on the gods.
Among the Hidden
On the recommendation of a friend, Chad Lehman, I selected Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix as the book to read this week for my entry in our month long blog series about books in honoring the National Book Month. I was totally engrossed in the book, that to be honest with you, I let my ice-cream melt! It’s that good!
I don’t want to give the book’s plot away, but it’s the first in the Shadow Children series, set in the future where we have things such as “Population Police” and the government is fiercely involved in the daily lives of people. Due to a drought and then a famine, a law has been enacted that only allows families to have no more than two children. A third child is to be aborted right away. However, many families have chosen to have the third child and hide them away, hence the name “Shadow Children”.
Many comparisons can be made to this book and to the one child per family law of China, using a graphic organizer. Another topic for discussion is how droughts can effect the food supply and demand, and even how a pet, cattle, or other things we take for granted help drive up costs and take food away from others. So many possibilities and ideas, making this a great novel for the classroom.
Either way, you will definitely find resources in netTrekker. I found an interesting article about a family in China who had twins after their first born and therefore their home was sealed up until they could pay the extraordinary fine for having more than one child. I found lesson plans based on this book, and information on the author.
I’d love to hear how you use this book in your classroom! Leave a comment below.
Thanksgiving
Folks, Tami. tksgiv03-1.jpg. . Pics4Learning. 13 Nov 2009
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.
Kolk, Melinda. plimouthplantation2.jpg. Apr-02. Pics4Learning. 13 Nov 2009
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!
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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