netTrekker Blog

Online Learning for netTrekker Search

Are you looking for a convenient flexible option for learning how to get the most out of your netTrekker Search subscription …

Then be sure to check out Online Learning - your one stop shop for all online opportunities to learn about netTrekker Search.

Check out the FREE online videos, FREE webinars, FREE Moodle Class, and more extensive non-facilitated and graduate level Moodle Class.

Tip Tuesdays - Join us each Tuesday at 4:30 PM EST for a FREE 30 minute webinar as we share ideas on how to use netTrekker in your classroom

Connection Wednesdays – Join us each Wednesday at 4:30 PM EST for a FREE webinar co-hosted by netTrekker and one of our valued partners as we demonstrate the connection between our products including BrainPOP, NSTA, Weekly Reader Express, and Teachers Domain.

netTrekker TV (Tutorial Videos) – View netTrekker TV, our library of FREE Tutorial Videos for targeted training on netTrekker features. If you ever need that just-in-time learning, or if you are a visual learner, our set of FREE online video tutorials will help acquaint you with netTrekker features and tools.

FREE non-facilitated Online Courses (1.5 hours)
NT001 – Learn to Search and Differentiate digital resources using netTrekker features and tools
NT001S – NT001 with Scantron Integration

Advanced non-facilitated Online Courses (2 hours) – under construction
NT002 – Learn to Organize and Integrate digital resources using netTrekker features and tools
NT002S - NT002 with Scantron Integration

Graduate Level facilitated Online Course (30 hours with optional 3 graduate credits)
NT101 – Explore netTrekker features and tools, to share best practices for implementation into teaching and learning, and to create standards-based projects, all in the context of differentiated instruction. Discussion boards, an interactive webinar, and a variety of 21st Century Learning resources are included in this collaborative learning community.

Tags: Moodle, online learning, tutorials, videos

netTrekker Spotlight User: Joquetta Johnson Discusses How She Uses netTrekker’s Partner Collections

netTrekker is excited to introduce this week’s Spotlight User. Joquetta Johnson is a Library Media Specialist at Milford Mill Academy in Baltimore County Maryland. Joquetta shares how netTrekker’s partner collections aided her in teaching a lesson on digital citizenship.

As a high school Media Specialist, I present a library orientation to the students at the beginning of each school year. This year, instead of the “traditional” library orientation, I taught a lesson on digital citizenship.

I used the BrainPop digital citizenship video and selected pages from the Promethean BrainPop digital citizenship flipchart which I found using netTrekker Search.  I also  found an awesome video, using netTrekker Search, called NetsafeNetBasics (http://www.netbasics.org.nz/) , which teaches kids about the dangers lurking on the internet. This video from YouTube, called, Everyone Knows Your Name (http://youtu.be/hOwpGF1SOQM) was an important part of the lesson as well.

Joquetta Johnson
Library Media Specialist
Milford Mill Academy
Baltimore County Public Schools, MD

Beat the Cyber Bully!

The Education Business Blog (Lee Wilson) recently posted an article highlighting the challenge schools face when educating students on cyber bullying. Lee explains that, while cyber bullying incidents will likely occur outside of school grounds, the effects have a direct impact on a student’s performance in school. In addition, many students simply aren’t aware of the potential consequences of their actions online. You can find the full blog post here, including mention of netTrekker as an effective combatant to cyber bullying.

Research on cyber bullying prevention indicates that prevention programs should be implemented at the classroom, school, family, and community levels. To aid this effort, netTrekker has partnered with CyberSmart! Student Curriculum to help K–12 educators get started in the prevention of cyber bullying at all these levels. netTrekker subscribers have free access to all of CyberSmart’s student curriculum lessons and activity sheets.  Students can learn how to examine their own and others behaviors and learn what constitutes cyberbullying. They can also explore how to deal with cyber bullying situations. Users can keyword search “cybersmart” in netTrekker to see the full collection of Cybersmart! student curriculum, or keyword search “cyberbullying” to target only those resources.

Cybersmart! also offers professional development workshops for educators. One of CyberSmart’s 4-week fully-facilitated online workshops is titled “Manners, Cyberbullying, and Ethics.”  This workshop supports  safe schools and digital citizenship  initiatives, as well as:

• Equips staff  model shared vision of acceptable use and good cybercitizenship
• Avoids legal issues or situations embarrassing to school administration
• Examines the ramifications and prevention of cyber bullying
• Clarifies educators’ copyright use

To learn more about Cybersmart! Online Workshops, click here. You can also contact your netTrekker Representative to learn more about effective strategies to beat the cyber bullies!

Tags: cyberbullying, cyberethics, CyberSmart, Education Business Blog, Lee Wilson, netTrekker

New Science Professional Development Resources from the NSTA Learning Center

Recently, President Barack Obama launched the “Educate to Innovate” campaign, a nationwide effort by public and private organizations to improve the participation and performance of America’s students in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).  What is your school or district doing to address this renewed focus on STEM education? Are you looking for ways to help your teachers expand their science knowledge and easily integrate STEM teaching into their classrooms?

To help you improve science education and to give your teachers the science professional development they need,  netTrekker has partnered with the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) to offer seamless access to high-quality online PD resources from the NSTA Learning Center on a wide variety of science topics directly from netTrekker.

A small sample of NSTA Learning Center resources will be freely available to all netTrekker subscribers as part of your netTrekker subscription.  The free resources include:

• 1 SciPack
• 1 SciGuide
• 64 Science Objects
• 132 Archived Web Seminars
• 600+ Free Journal Articles
• 179 e-book Chapters
• Click here to download a PDF with complete descriptions of these resources.
• Click here to learn how to access the free resources within netTrekker.

Schools and districts can also provide extended professional development opportunities by purchasing additional licenses to access to the complete set of more than 4,400 NSTA Learning Center online PD resources.  The resources will be easily accessible, 24/7 from your netTrekker search results.

Click here to learn more about the complete NSTA Learning Center professional development package or ask your netTrekker Account Manager for more details.

Tags: netTrekker, NSTA, NSTA Learning Center, professional development, science, STEM

The Earth’s Rumbling

I turned on the TV this morning to listen to the news for just a few moments, and another earthquake was reported in China. This is what–the fourth one this year? Haiti, Chili, California, and China have all experienced a quake this year, and many of them caused horrible damage, large loss of life, and tested the architecture of man made buildings. My son, who is definitely an out of the box thinker, asked me during a weather report about the Olympics if maybe the Earth had shook a bit off it’s path with all these quakes and that’s why the cold and snow seems to be coming closer to the south and not so much in the north like Canada. Definitely something to look into, if you’re a scientist with patience to study this phenomenon.

An Interactive website about earthquakes found in netTrekker.

Having lived and taught in South Carolina, a state that is not known for it’s earthquake activity but has had two and is on the charts to experience another one of greater than 6.0 magnitude in the next 300-500 years, I had to teach earthquake drills and prepare my students in case that Earthquake were likely to happen today. I was thankful for my Weekly Reader articles to help, since my science books were weak on this topic, and other newspaper articles (thank you newspapers in education) with current information. netTrekker’s collections will also give you resources from BrainPOP, Teacher’s Domain, and Promethean, so definitely something available to help you teach this hot topic.

Another possibility is to check out the current events of netTrekker. While the news is not glaring at you when you log into netTrekker, it is there. Depending on your grade level, the content of the current events can be very basic to very deep. In the middle school section, I clicked on current events, news by topic, Science news, Earth Science news and found a website with information on the Weather News. High School has even more topics to choose from, and I really am fascinated with searching news by topic and looking at the various newspapers for art, science, sports and such. Another option is to search by breaking news, local or world news, or the impact of current events. I found some great articles that I may have missed otherwise with my usual news sources.

Authentic Learning – Part 1

What is Authentic Learning?

More and more, recognition is being given to the fact that students need, in addition to facts and figures, an entire skill set that will prepare them to handle diverse situations in the real world.

This preparation calls for teaching methods that promote deep knowledge, sustained investigation, reflection, and creative problem solving.  Due to the availability and complexity of information, they need the ability to assimilate and critically analyze multiple sources of knowledge by separating fact from opinion and bias from the non-biased.  Authentic Learning provides a framework in which teachers can facilitate these skills.

Authentic Learning

• will provide real world experiences and thus the ability to tackle real world problems, and in the course of doing so will realize that not all problems have easy answers.
• will provide a context to history by offering projects that allow students to put on the shoes of a historical figure.
• through digital resources, can provide simulations.
• provides opportunities for students to make decisions regarding real world situations.
• will provide products for a real audience.

It answers the question:  Why do I have to know this?  The time spent on memorizing the names of the major rivers in North America can be better spent on a group project to:

• analyze the impact of a river on a city sitting on its banks through discussions with a city planner.
• understand the impact on a single person who has dealt with a flood when that river came over its banks.
• explore the impact of pollution in the river by engaging an engineer from the US Army Corps of Engineers in a problem-solving session.

By its very nature Authentic Learning fosters:

• a desire to learn and the realization that learning happens everywhere
• love and joy of learning
• self-worth through creativity and personalization
• ability to investigate and critically analyze

It also negates: the monotony of memorization, the boredom, the “unrelated to me” problem, the idea that everything in life has a black and white answer.

Teachers are now challenged to facilitate this type of learning.  Through creative lesson plan design, use of digital resources, engagement of real world experts, and collaboration across the curriculum, teachers can provide a platform upon which students can build their project-based tasks.

Many teachers have certainly used the principle of authentic learning in their classroom long before it had a name.  Known as: dress as your favorite historic character, science fair projects, Italian Day, and the day the veterans of war come in, the time and energy used to create and assess these projects guaranteed the pay off of a truly engaged student.

In Part II we’ll look at some projects that use the principles of authentic learning to guide their structure.

For more help getting started with authentic learning, check out the CyberSmart! Online Workshop called Authentic Learning and Creativity. Ask your netTrekker Account Manager for more information about this or other online workshops from CyberSmart!

Personalized Learning Made Simple

How do you personalize your classroom and engage your students in the learning process? Do you have a story to share?

How do you keep up with the new trends in education and keep your skills sharp?

Personally, I like finding different technologies that are interesting to use for students to create a final product sharing their knowledge and skills. Research, interactive media, videos, and mixed media are used along the path to the final project. I like attending conferences where I can connect with other educators around the world, to hear their story and share new ideas or twists on old ones.

ISTE, which is in Denver this year,  is one of my favorite places to learn! Educators come from around the world, and there is so much to learn, to soak in, and to take back.

But with budget crunches though, it’s hard to get to such great conferences. We understand this, so we are holding a scholarship contest to help get two educators there. Two lucky winners will receive $1500 towards their expenses for the conference.

What do you have to do? Create a 3-7 minute video sharing how you use netTrekker to personalize and engage students in the learning process. How do you create the video though? What type of technology is involved? Well it’s pretty simple actually. You’ll need visual media, which can be photos or movie clips. To get the photos, etiher use a camera or take screen shots from the computer showcasing the projects and use of netTrekker. Or, grab a regular camera that has movie capabilities and record scenes from your classroom, maybe with you at your interactive white board or in a lab. You can choose to include students or not. Completely up to you and what would be acceptable with your school. You can also use a screen capturing program like Jing Project and share lessons that way.

Connect with other great educators to learn and grow at ISTE 2010.

As for programs, try the free ones on your computer. Mac users, use iMovie. Or, if you want to use still images, try Garage Band and create a video podcast file with your voice. PC users can use PhotoStory for still images and voice overs, while movie clips can be edited and finalized in MovieMaker. Need some more help? Check out netTrekker. Just type in the program name and search. You’ll find some tutorials and great resources to help you get started.

Also, feel free to email me at dabernethy@nettrekker.com. I know how daunting those video projects seem at first, and I’ll be glad to assist. I’m no expert but I am willing to assist, lend an ear, and be there for support.  I’m not a judge, so no need to bribe me with your granny’s secret cookie recipe. I’m just excited that two teachers will have a chance to go to Denver to learn and grow more just for sharing how they personalize and engage their students.

Oh wait! That’s right! Two teachers will win the scholarship, and 5 more will win a BrainPOP classroom subscription and 20 others will win a Moby Hat. You’ll be styling and the envy of your peers.  How cool is that?!

netTrekker & BrainPOP in PA Cyber Charter School

We’re excited to introduce a guest blogger today. Karry Simmel is the Assistant Principal for PA Cyber Charter School, a leader in providing online education to over 8,000 K-12 students. Karry shares how her school is using netTrekker and BrainPOP together to engage students in 21st century learning.

Here at PA Cyber Charter School, netTrekker and BrainPOP have become a vital part of our instruction.  It was just a few years ago that I was introduced to netTrekker and started to utilize their resources through the state access that was provided for all Pennsylvania Schools. This past year, the statewide subscription ended and each school had to purchase its own license.  At first I felt this was a devastating blow.  Now, through our netTrekker subscription we are able to subscribe to additional resources that have enhanced the education we provide for our 8,000 plus students.

One of the best resources that our teachers utilize often is BrainPOP.  BrainPOP provides additional learning opportunities, interactive learning games, videos, activities, and a large variety of animated educational resources to assist students, teachers, and parents.  BrainPOP increases active engagement opportunities that relate to the 21st Century Learner.  With technology advancements, students are learning differently, and demanding more creative interaction. Education is ever changing, putting more demand on teachers to be more creative in their instruction.  Basically teachers need a wider variety of activities in order to actively engage and captivate their students.  With netTrekker and BrainPOP, many of our teachers have been able to do just that. For example, upon evaluating teachers’ instruction, I often ask, “Where did you get this video or the interactive web site?” The answer is always, “Through netTrekker and/or BrainPOP.” My response, “Marvelous, simply marvelous!”

With the direction of education evolving, I personally feel there is not a better educational resource to have at your finger tips than netTrekker and BrainPOP.  Through the years that I have been using netTrekker, it also continues evolving, learning, adapting, and growing to ensure that today’s student’s needs are met and students are provided with a variety of educational opportunities.  netTrekker is the search engine that links the bountiful resources BrainPOP has to offer to any classroom, student, teacher, and parent.

Though we do pay for these subscriptions, they are proving to be a priceless investment to meet the educational needs of the 21st Century Learner.  This is our specific targeted audience at PA Cyber Charter School.  Safe sites are more and more difficult to come by. Through netTrekker we know our students are viewing protected, educational, and meaningful sites that are specific to the information needed.  No matter what type of school a student attends, netTrekker and BrainPOP are two resources that specifically target the progression of education.

In my own personal words, “Don’t go to school without netTrekker and BrainPOP!”

Are you using netTrekker and BrainPOP together? How is it helping your teachers and students?

Tags: 21st Century Learning, BrainPOP, integration, netTrekker

Readers Become Writers Become Winners

Yesterday was Read Across America Day and we talked about including a writing component as an important part of any good reading program. It’s amazing what students can do when filled with knowledge from their reading adventures. Tools like netTrekker, especially when enhanced with Weekly Reader Express, help students with researching, gaining insight and expanding their knowledge on a variety of topics.

But what do they do with that insight and knowledge? Do they write a blog? Do they write a newspaper article? Do they share their side of the story?

If your students have participated in any non-fiction writing as either an individual or as part of a whole publication in the year 2009, consider entering them in the Weekly Reader’s Student Publishing Contest. Did they write about President Obama’s inauguration? Or did they write about hibernating animals? Or their thanks to a soldier? Did they share knowledge about the first Thanksgiving? Or simply share their thoughts on the entire learning process? Do you have students who have produced any nonfiction writing sample that is a great example of crisp writing, is engaging and demonstrates the principles of good writing? If so, then your student’s writing could win your school a $500 check, and the two of you a trip to Washington D.C. Weekly Reader is looking for an individual writing sample and a sample from a publication (such as a class blog, a newsletter, a journal, etc) from elementary, middle and high school levels to honor with this award. That’s a total of six winners, and your student could be one of them!

For more information on the contest, check out the contest web site.

(And as a side note, if you used netTrekker in your research for any of these writings, share this in your video entry for the netTrekker Scholarship to ISTE 2010!)

Tags: 21st Century Learning

Ethnic Identity in a Multicultural World …

The importance of ethnic identity in coping with a variety of life situations has been a major focus of current literature. While identity development is a difficult task for all adolescents; it is particularly complicated for adolescents belonging to ethnic groups. Teens feel a pull between their “home” and “school” identity – caught between parents’ ethnic beliefs and values, and that of the mainstream society.

To help your students understand our multicultural world, you may want to use a story to provide context and understanding.  A great example of such a story is a semi-autobiography by Julia Alvarez titled, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents.

This story spans 30 years in reverse chronological order of four sisters that fled from the Dominican Republic with their family.   They were forced to adapt to American life which proved to be difficult and embarrassing as they met friends, and tried to fit in.  They experienced identify confusion as they adjusted to life in New York and trips back to Dominican Republic. The story is told in a series of episodes beginning in adulthood and moving back to their early life as a wealthy family on the island.   Themes on family life, character, and love are intertwined in the story as topics of immigration and ethnicity are addressed through Hispanic eyes.

To extend these topics in the classroom check out netTrekker’s Multicultural Pavilion
It provides geographic and cultural information on continents, countries, and regions. Resources on ethnic identity, acculturation, cultural sensitivities, diversity, cultural heritage, and social justice issues are also included here.

To provide a multicultural experience for your students, check out these netTrekker resources:

PBS: Beyond the Border
A companion site to the PBS site that explores the story of 4 brothers who leave their family in Mexico to seek a better life in Kentucky – and find a different version of the American dream.

BrainPOP: Faces
Face the facts as Tim and Moby introduce you to the wonderful world of the human face! In this BrainPOP movie, you’ll learn about some of the many roles the human face plays in your life, and you’ll find out how faces differ from each other. Discover a few reasons that facial features vary from person to person, and why where your ancestors came from might affect how your face looks. Finally, you’ll see why the face is so important for communication, and you’ll find out which emotions look the same on faces all over the world. Are you ready to put your best face forward?

Lower East Side Tenement Museum: We Are Multicolored
Explore the multicultural influences on your life by creating a flag that combines flags of different countries. Also learn the symbolism of colors and shapes in the flags of the world.

Education World: Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month!
Lots of activities that can be done in a classroom to celebrate the month. Includes biographies of Hispanic Americans in History, graphing from the US Bureau of Census, trivia questions, and more. Site also provides a long list of related sites about Hispanic Heritage on the Internet.

Tags: ELL Channel, literature, Multicultural Resources

The Family

I had a great blog post ready to go. My son thinks of Moby as sort of a “superhero”, so on Wednesday as we were goofing around with homework, we created a video of him being a superhero called “Recycle Man” for his public service announcement homework assignment. He was wearing his Moby shirt, and well, it was a cute video. But as soon as he realized his classmates, and my blog readers were going to see it, he made me promise not to show it. I’ve put it away for future blackmail needs, but I can’t break my promise. Which also means, I had to find another blog idea.

When inspiration doesn’t hit right away, I start checking in on my social network and sure enough, an old teacher friend from SC reminded me of this little creature in BrainPOP that maybe you haven’t met before. By now you all know the family of Annie and Tim, and how Moby belongs to them. Annie is our BrainPOP Jr leading lady, Tim is our BrainPOP and BrainPOP Español guy, and Moby is the star in three series. But there are other characters that you’ll meet here and there, and with that, I’d like to introduce you to my favorite lab rat, Gary.

Gary is the little rat that you see running in and out of a window pane on the main site. The poor guy looks like he’s been an active part in most experiments with his hurt tail, bent whiskers, the boo-boo on his head, and the bandages across his tummy. But don’t let his looks fool you! This lab rat has some special treats just for you! If you are watching a science movie, look under the movie player. There you will find a variety of activities that go along with the movie. Gary is the one responsible for sharing all the science experiments that go along with the science movies, with step by step instructions of what you need to complete the experiment.  I used him in my days as a technology coach to introduce a topic, we’d try out his experiment, take the quiz and then we’d watch the movie to learn even more about our given topic before doing the next activity in our lesson, which probably included some great netTrekker resources!

There are other great characters you will meet in BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr. (Joey thinks one of the fish in Belly Up from BrainPOP Jr is named after him.) You’ll get to know them with each exploration into this great new partner of netTrekker’s!

Not yet a netTrekker subscriber? Click here to request a free 14-day trial.

Hook, Line, and Reel ‘em In

Last year my niece came home from school all excited about a project she had to do on her favorite president. I asked her who she selected, and she answered Abraham Lincoln. I’m always curious as to how little minds work, so I asked her why President Lincoln was her favorite. Her response, “He was born on my birthday!”

BrainPOP is a great way to introduce new topics.

Since we had our work cut out for us, I decided to take advantage of her school’s subscription to BrainPOP Jr. When I was a technology coach, I used BrainPOP movies as a way to hook interest in the lesson. BrainPOP Jr. has another great feature. It teaches the students how to take notes. Annie stops periodically throughout the movie to ask a question and take notes. I had Zoe practice this skill with Annie and Moby so that way when she furthered her own investigations she knew how to ask questions and find the answers. She even enjoyed playing with the activities found under the movie and used the activity template for her puppet’s hat.

After watching a great thorough introduction to President Lincoln, Zoe then accessed her netTrekker account. She conducted her search and refined her search by reading levels 1 and 2. She wanted to just find more movies, but her mean old aunt made her do some actual reading. I did allow her to use the Read Aloud tool as needed.

The Puppet of Abraham Lincoln

Once Zoe had all of her notes together, she decided to create a little puppet play about Abraham Lincoln. She started her play with BrainPOP’s “Pop a Joke” feature, getting a her classmates to chuckle and even introduced note taking to her fellow classmates, telling them that Moby and Annie taught her that great skill! The puppet turned out pretty neat and now resides on her bookshelf, the play got an A so she was thrilled, and Zoe gained a better understanding of why President Lincoln is her favorite US President with two fantastic tools.

And what’s even better, she now has access to both of these great resources by logging into her netTrekker account. Her BrainPOP movies are always at her fingertips with one search. Yours too! Try it today!

If you have any great lesson ideas on how to use netTrekker and BrainPOP together, please share them either in a comment below or over at netTrekker Village on our discussion. boards!