netTrekker Blog

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!

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2009 netTrekker Fest Event

Helping customers has always been something that I enjoy. It’s powerful to feel like you are part of someone else’s “team” and you are helping them alleviate some of their “pain points”.

The netTrekker Fest on Thursday was something completely different. We were on a journey together. I learned right along with all of our customers. When everyone came in, there wasn’t much conversation, not many people knew each other.

Our keynotes gave us many new things to think and talk about INCLUDING how we all felt about the idea of going “back to school”. Sharon Draper made us all consider our level of “crispiness” and renew our faith in what we do. Dr. Kari Stubbs of BrainPOP opened many new doors of possibilities – Web 2.0 tools, Global Perspectives, 21st Century Skills and many more as well as our new integration with the fantastic BrainPOP resources. The conversations started to flow… it was amazing!

The Zoo showed us real, engaging ways to get kids asking the questions they need to learn more – and it was FUN!

CIM shared some cool tools that work with netTrekker and all areas of the technology-scape of a school or district. Gotta have those gadgets! Specific examples of how netTrekker supports these and many other types of approaches helped to round out the day with our Round Robin of afternoon sessions.

I am changed… I am inspired… I am renewed… I am ready to roll my sleeves up (even further) and work harder for this area to continue this new buzz of excitement that was generated last week.

This is our “hood” – this region is home to netTrekker – but the netTrekker Family reaches across the whole world. We continue to try to do good things for kids where ever they are. So, as I say to everyone when I sign off… Happy netTrekking!

Tags: BrainPOP, netTrekker