A Look at English Language Learners Channel (Part I of III)
Are you a teacher of English language learners, looking for resources to facilitate classroom instruction as well as for tools to enhance students’ own learning experiences? Look no further than the English Language Learners (ELL) channel, with resources available for English learners of all grade levels. Clicking on the “English Learners” link will open two pathways: “Skill Development” and “Multicultural Pavilion” resources.
Depending on whether you are in Elementary, Middle, or High School, these pathways will present you with a different list of nodes and associated resources. However, the gist of these pathways, no matter what level, is pretty much the same. netTrekker’s Help section covering the ELL channel offers a detailed description of the channel’s offerings, but here are some highlights of the first pathway, ELL Skill Development, provided below:
ELL Skill Development
- Sites on reading and writing, listening, and speaking skills,
- Sites on critical thinking and fluency;
- Access to a broad collection of resources on ELL teaching methodologies;
- Access to assessment, research, and proficiency standards;
- Resources for parents of ELL students.
Included in the collection of ELL Skill Development resources are online quizzes and activities from The Internet TESL Journal (http://iteslj.org/) and Activities for ESL Students (http://a4esl.org/). nT has cataloged nearly 70 links from these sites, covering topics such as subject-verb agreement, irregular verbs, parts of speech, sentence completion, and vocabulary.
To augment students’ English-language growth, resources geared toward helping ELL students understanding of important math and science vocabulary words and concepts are a must. An example of one such resource is Harcourt’s Math Glossary, which makes new math terms easy-to-understand with colorful animations, audio clips, charts, and diagrams.
nT also offers links to bilingual dictionaries, resources for natives speakers of Chinese and Spanish, print resources, tutorials, and other sites references appropriate for learners of English. Be sure to check out http://www.diccionarios.com/ and http://www.tomisimo.org/, great for native speakers of Spanish, and Look Way Up (http://lookwayup.com/free/dictionary.htm) a dictionary offering multilingual translation to and from English.
Next time, we’ll continue our look at netTrekker’s ELL offerings, specifically the next pathway, the Multicultural Pavilion and its resources.
Admin Tools Update
netTrekker Administrators, this is for you! In addition to providing new resources, the latest nT release offers Admins the ability to assign and revoke the Teacher role directly from the User Management page in Admin Tools.
You can still set up a Teacher Code in the Admin Tools, and have users login and change their user role from Student to Teacher for added functionality. However, now you can assign and revoke the Teacher role simple click of your mouse within the User Management interface, as well as take care of other important Administrator tasks that you are already familiar with:
- Review usernames and roles;
- Change passwords;
- Review and alter a username’s status and ability to log in;
- Review most recent login by username;
- Assign administrative rights;
- Delete a username.
Need more clarification on the User Management tool, or a refresher of other administrative functionalities? Log in to your nT account, click on the Admin Tools link, and view our helpful Admin Videos. If you want, you can click here to go directly to the Admin Video on User Management.
You mean I can add MORE collections?
YES, YOU CAN add to the collections already in netTrekker d.i.! And you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find out that it’s Weekly Reader Express (WRE). If you’re like me, you have fond memories of getting this great magazine as a child. Now you can provide your students with the same great info through your netTrekker subscription! It simply appears in your Collections Refinement Menu as well as integrated with other resources in Search Results pages once you order it.
And the best part is that you can search their database of articles, teacher’s guide content, and reproducible activities from eleven Weekly Reader classroom magazines from 2000 to the present. —over 7 million words in all!
WRE covers a broad range of academic topics, from social studies and English language arts to science, health, current events, and career development in all eleven of their magazines.
Can you honestly resist a magazine with such great covers? Give me a gorilla any day! “How do I get this?” you ask. You can get a free trial or add it to your subscription by calling 877-517-1125 or emailing sales@netTrekker.com.
For even more details, check this out: Weekly Reader Express.
Teachers’ Domain: Interactive Fun!
Teachers’ Domain offers a diverse collection of activities and media resources for your classroom. The netTrekker sites in Teachers’ Domain contain video, interactive media, images and .pdf files. Resources accessed through netTrekker pertain to Social Studies and Science topics, but, once you log into Teachersí Domain you can search any topic and find rich resources that address all areas of the curriculum.
Refine your searches to show Teachers
The Teachers’ Domain site encourages you to register, requiring you to complete a short and simple profile. The process asks:
- The type of school
- Where it is located
- A user name/password you would like to access Teachers Domain
- Your name
- A COPPA regulations confirmation that you are over 13 years of age
- A question of how did you hear about Teachers Domain?
If your school uses a universal user name for the students to access netTrekker d.i., consider registering it here as well!
To continue on with the theme of hearts that Amy introduced with the SMART resources, here is an example of an interactive resource found in netTrekker d.i. from Teachers’ Domain. My search word was heart. I refined my search to only show Teachers’ Domain resources and then selected the entry about
Teachers
heart transplants. It pulls up an interactive program for your students to actually conduct a heart transplant. It includes the background information, questions, and the standards for this activity.
It is simple and truly a rich resource to enhance your classroom, all available in netTrekker! View this short video to see this classroom application in action.
Handheld Technology from TI
Texas Instruments’ Activities Exchange is a collaborative forum of activities for use with TI calculators, complete with downloadable handouts and access to calculator and PC software applications. These resources are not only free but also linked to state standards and to textbooks. They’re perfect for supplementing lectures and required reading, practicing standardized tests, and, last but not least, motivating students via a wide variety of projects and investigations.
A search for TI resources using nT will reveal over 2,500 math and science resources for classroom, small-group, and individual use.
If integrating this type of handheld technology into classroom instruction is new to you, you’ll benefit from the training and support materials Texas Instruments provides for its users. Here are a few places for those just getting started:
Click here for downloadable Guidebooks, manuals for TI’s family of products, from the TI-Nspire operating system, to computer software and calculator applications, to the calculators and their accessories. Click here to access all TI Freeware available for your calculator(s).
Before downloading and using using TI’s Activities Exchange resources, it’s a good idea to pre-download and install the LearningCheck App for the popular TI-83 Plus and TI-84-Plus calculators. An advanced search on TI’s site indicates that there are over 500 math activities that utilize this application, which allows students to monitor their own progress as they complete teacher-generated questions, practice tests, and exams. Click on the image on the left to see two screenshots from a sample program that uses the LearningCheck App.
If you’re interested in creating and uploading your own activity, click here for file-extension guide. This is useful, too, for educators new to Activites Exchange who need help with activity downloads.
Last, but not least, here’s a teacher-authored resource that will help you with your calculator. Based on common issues faced by new users of the TI-83 and TI-84, it’s organized into problem-and-solution format and is intended to help students fix errors they might encounter. See sample problem and solution by clicking the image at right.
Be SMART with Interactive Notebooks
Earlier in the week, we featured the Promethean Collection of interactive Flipchart lessons. The SMART Collection in netTrekker d.i. also provides you with over 1,000 interactive whiteboard lessons to use with your students, even if you don’t have a whiteboard.
Check SMART on the Collections menu to browse SMART notebook lessons
Developed in SMART Notebook software, lesson activities are correlated to curriculum standards and you can easily customized each lesson to suit the needs of your classroom. Each one is created in a subject-specific template with an age-appropriate design and works for a range of grades. Many SMART-created lesson activities have interactive multimedia files and dynamic graphics that students will love.
To locate SMART resources, perform a keyword search and then use the Collections refinement menu to quickly browse over 1,000 SMART notebook lessons.
This week to celebrate Valentine’s Day, American Heart Month or during your study of the body systems, have a great hands-on review of the functions of the chambers of the heart by doing a keyword search for the Circulatory System. In the Refinement Menu for collections check SMART on the Collections menu. Once you learn about the heart, there is an interactive piece where you actually put the heart back together and resuscitate a patient.
Simply click on Download Notebook Interactive Viewer to download SMART notebook lessons
Don’t have a SMART Board yet? Follow the link to the smarttech website at the bottom of the screen, select software downloads and simply click on “Download Notebook Interactive Viewer” . You will then be able to view any of the Notebooks found in netTrekker d.i.
It’s that SMART!
The Venerable PBS
First, I searched for “pbs teachersource” and got several results, one of which was the PBS Teachers site, of course. From there it’s easy enough to look around and seek specific items of interest. They have a large amount of Professional Development, Teacher Resources, and Standards-based Resources available from the home page. Nice.
Curious about just what I’d find using netTrekker like most folks do, I performed a couple of fairly random keyword searches to then refine using the Collections. Here are some winners:
I tried “wolf” from the High School tab and got a lesson plan from NOVA about wolf relocation programs that included handouts and answers!
I tried “twain” from the Middle School tab and found a fairly extensive curriculum from a PBS show, “Culture Shock,” for teaching The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and dealing with the controversial material in the book. I know I hated reinventing the wheel when teaching, so having a unit I could modify instead of creating one from scratch was always welcome.
Lastly, I thought I should try an Elementary tab search, so I looked for “president” and got a short, cute activity from PBSkid’s Arthur section. I happen to like Arthur, so it looks like fun to me, and it also includes everyone’s favorite part of early childhood education: snack! Maybe I’ll talk Presidential elections, Arthur-style with my kindergartener and we can vote on the snack, too. 
Lions, Tigers, and Koala Bears! Oh My!
As I looked through the website, I noticed how easy it is to navigate, which is a necessity for younger kids (GLOBIO’s target audience is 7-12 years old.) It also has great curb appeal which is very important. A website can have great information and be easy to use, but if it’s not pleasing to look at, kids won’t stick around long.
GLOBIO consists of several areas. One that is content related, a kids community, an area for grown ups and educators, and more. They have also even begun creating Learning Activity Guides for educators that correspond with their content. These resources consist of great articles, pictures, videos, audio, and more. The subjects matter varies from different animals, light, behavior, the human body, ecosystems, all the way to the moon. Just to name a few.
Promethe-WHAT?
Pro-ME-thee-in, that’s what!
Some of you are quick to brush this wonderful resource aside because your school or district doesn’t own Interactive Whiteboards, but WAIT!
You can still view & use Promethean Flipcharts even if you don’t have Interactive Whiteboards!
Simply click on 
to download software which will allow you to view these teacher created resources.
Then click on 
and either open the flipchart immediately or save it to your desktop.
“I don’t have time to find the Promethean Resources.”
By utilizing netTrekker’s COLLECTIONS refinement menu, you’re able to quickly and easily browse through thousands of Promethean resources.
“What kind of resources does this Promethean offer?”
These educator created flipcharts allow teachers to browse lesson plans, in multiple subjects, and incorporate into their curriculum. Whether it’s to be used in the planning of a concept or for the students to master a concept, Promethean flipcharts will enhance any lesson.
In fact, here’s how you find one!
Under the Middle School Tab, I entered the keyword, government.
I narrowed my results by selecting Promethean located in the Collections refinement menu.
Scrolling down, I found the flipchart Promethean: A New Government.
Collections: Quia
It’s Monday morning in the computer lab, I was just informed that the 5th graders will be coming to the computer lab to work on their geography projects. I have 5 minutes to prepare some extra activities for those students that finish early – and for me that means it is time to find Quia activities.
Quia has created a concept that provides educators “the ability to create customized educational software online, built around their own course materials and made available to their students over the web.” Over a million educators have registered to use this service and almost 700 of these shared assessments have been catalogued in netTrekker d.i.
The Quia activities found in netTrekker d.i. span over 100 categories from Accounting to Zoology in the form of quizzes and tests including matching games, scavenger hunts, hangman, and much more. These assessments can be accessed by individual students or for whole class instruction.
I login to netTrekker d.i., click on the Middle School tab, enter the keyword geography and click search. From these 1000+ resources, it is very simple to pull out only the Quia activities by using the Quia Collection Refinement menu… I can hear them coming down the hall … I have 1 minute before they arrive in the lab… I quickly select 4 of the Quia activities, Save to My Portfolio in a folder shared in the School Portfolio… the 5th grade class has arrived and I am ready to help them with their geography project and also direct them to some extra activities!
netTrekker d.i. has over 70 Quia resources catalogued in the Elementary section. Some of the more popular include activities to help students practice 
geography and map skills. Jeopardy-like games are utilized to practice reading skills for the emerging reader – by practice alphabetizing, rhyming words, and word families.
netTrekker di has over 130 Quia resources catalogued in the Middle School section. Some of the most popular include activities to help students practice matching up the World Language vocabulary. And to get students off to a good start on a research paper – have them play a challenge board game to review info needed for a research paper.
netTrekker di has over 140 Quia resources catalogued in the High School section. Some of the most popular include activities to help students review economics vocabulary. 
Newton’s 3 Laws of Physics can be confusing – until a student practices matching the terms with the definition.
Quia provides high-interest activities for the student by providing them with an interactive game to practice and learn skills and facts. Even though the students think that they are playing games, they will actually be learning geography!
As an added bonus by using Quia within netTrekker d.i. – you have the assistive tools for your students to use with the Quia activities – Assessments with Assistance! Dictionary HotKey provides definitions and translations for the instructions listed with the Quia activity, and for those students needing auditory support, instructions can be read to the student with the Read Aloud feature.
New Free Content: National Humanities Center Collection
(Note: This blog post is the first in a series of posts about nT’s collections, through which you’ll learn about netTrekker d.i.’s highly valued content partners.)
As part of netTrekker d.i.’s latest publish, three-hundred teacher resources from National Humanities Center (NHC) have been added to the Social Studies and Language Arts trees. These resources have been harvested from the NHC Toolbox Library, which offers free access to primary resources, from historical and literary texts to works of art.
Educators will benefit greatly from how these primary resources are bundled with teaching suggestions and strategies, discussion questions, and notes, all created and compiled by college professors, K-12 teachers, and NHC staff.
You can access the all of the newest NHC links by simply doing a keyword search for “National Humanities Center.”
Or, use select “National Humanities Center” in the Collections Refinement Menu to find NHC resources within
keyword search results, for example, on “Native Americans” or “Civil War” or “Gilded Age.”
netTrekker’s new NHC links cover America’s beginnings, Nationalism and Sectionalism in the U.S., the Gilded Age, and African American identity.
Refine a keyword search for “African Americans” to find great NHC resources–pulled from the three-volume series “The Making of African American Identity”–just in time for Black History Month.
nT’s resources from Volume I, which covers African American history from 1500 to 1865, offer materials for study of slavery and emancipation as well as African Americans’ involvement in the Civil War and contributions to art and literature. Volume II (1865-1917) explores life for African Americans following freedom, and you’ll find a wealth of documents and related materials for studying the works of Charles W. Chesnutt and W.E.B DuBois, and for examining the institutions and political actions that shaped African American men and women in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Finally, Volume III (1917-1968) follows the further development of African American identity through years of segregation, protest, and changing perception of race in twentieth-century America. You’ll find nT links to primary documents from Marcus Garvey, Alice Walker, Malcom X, Gwendolyn Brooks, Zora Neale Hurston, Martin Luther King, Jr., and many, many others. 
Getting the Message Out
Your project folder is complete, and now it’s time to share it with your students. You can share your folder either in a class folder (that you create) or the existing school or district folder.
The District folder and the “Create a Class” feature were introduced in December of 2007. The District folder makes it possible to share your project folders with any other teacher or student within your district. The class feature allows you to create a class that your students can join by entering the secret word (that you assign). You can learn more about creating a class with this video tutorial.
In order to get your folder into one of those areas, you have three choices. You can move, copy or bookmark. Everyone has their preference of which one, but I personally prefer the bookmark method. Here are my reasons:
· If you move your folder to the district or school, the admin has the right to delete it. It wouldn’t be done on purpose, I’m sure, but accidents happen. There’s no way to retrieve a deleted folder.
· If you copy a folder to the district or school, and then update your original folder later, you’ll need to make sure you update the copied folder as well. I know I would forget to do this.
· If you bookmark a folder, you are actually creating a shortcut to your project folder. If you update the folder, then everyone will be able to see the update. If the bookmark gets deleted, you still have your main folder. Your work would not be lost.
Here are the steps to bookmarking a folder:
1. Open the folder you want to share.
2. Click on Edit
3. Click on Advanced Options (in the Edit Window)
4. Select who you want to view and who you want to have the rights to change the folder. (I usually select everyone in the district to view, but I don’t change the rights to the change the folder unless it’s a collaboration project.)
5. Save the changes (that window will go away)
6. Click on Bookmark (middle of the folder window)
7. A new window will appear asking if you’re sure this is what you want to do. Click Save.
8. The bookmark will appear in your main portfolio. Go back there and put a checkmark next to the BOOKMARK.
9. Click on MOVE and select the destination.
One quick important note, you will need do the advanced options for each subfolder of the main folder you are bookmarking. You will not need to bookmark the subfolders.
For the videos on netTrekker d.i.’s My Portfolio, check out our HELP section.
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