netTrekker Blog

netTrekker Spotlight User – Alice Sather Reflects on Lessons Learned in NT101

netTrekker is excited to introduce this week’s Spotlight User. Alice Sather is a Technology Specialist at St. Bernard’s School in Theif River Falls, Minnesota. Alice shares her experience from netTrekker’s NT101 online professional development course.

I was recently asked why I had taken nT101. The questioner couldn’t see how a class was necessary to learn netTrekker, nor why I would have put so much time and energy into it.

I found that I learned more in nT101 than our initial in-service gave me. Using it to develop units that were immediately usable was a big plus. However, the reason I could develop them to the degree I did was because of the steps we were taken through, week by week, in incorporating more and more tools as we considered various educational issues/formats.

As I moved on from this to begin my ISTE Capstone certification, I continually referred back to ideas learned from nT101. I sincerely wonder how I could have handled starting the Capstone without the background we gained from nT101. All the projects I had to develop in my first Capstone course used netTrekker along with other tools, and I know that will continue to be the case.

If I ever find myself in a teaching situation without access to netTrekker, I am going to have to write grants until I can obtain funding for it! Period.

Tags: Spotlight User

Save 20% on netTrekker Professional Development

How do you maximize the value of your netTrekker subscription? By giving your teachers the professional development they need to ensure successful implementation and classroom use!

Save up to 20% on all netTrekker Professional Development offerings through July 15, 2010!

Here’s how it works:

If you order netTrekker Professional Development and your purchase order is received by July 15, 2010, you’ll get 10% off*!

Order netTrekker Professional Development and schedule your training session before you send in the order, and you’ll receive 20% off*! The purchase order must be received by July 15, 2010 and your training must be scheduled for a date prior to December 31, 2010.

*Travel expenses will not be discounted.

Creating awareness of netTrekker and training on its features contributes greatly to high and effective usage. Our team of experienced educators developed specific training programs designed to meet the needs of today’s classroom teachers. We can accommodate small or large groups meeting on-site or online with a customized agenda to meet your training goals.

Schools and districts that have invested in netTrekker Professional Development have seen a dramatic impact on usage rates. Susan Joyner, an Instructional Technology Teacher from Savannah-Chatham County Public Schools, saw immediate results. “We trained media specialists and second year teachers in March, and all of the trainings were quite successful.” Before netTrekker Professional Development, Savannah-Chatham’s total number of netTrekker page views sat at 277,674.  “By March 24th we were at 432,925 total page views. We are so grateful for netTrekker’s support!” netTrekker training almost doubled Savannah-Chatham’s usage, and could help your school or district achieve the same results!

netTrekker’s Professional Development offerings include Online Courses, Webinars, On-Site Workshops and Differentiated Instruction Packages. View a comparison of these options to see which training best corresponds with your needs, or contact your netTrekker Account Manager for more information.

Tags: NT101, professional development, promotion, Training, webinar

Enrichment Activities

My son stayed home sick yesterday, so I contacted his school for homework.

When I went in to pick it up, the front desk receptionist made a comment that it was the end of school so it didn’t really matter. He still has a full week of school, and then next week 3 more days. So why would we not care about school work with one full week left? Lots can be accomplished in this last week.

As a matter of fact, there are 2 months in the summer for students to practice skills. But of course, they don’t know where to go. Why not help them out?  For one, set up folders in My Portfolio with summer activities and share in the school or district folder. Include a folder on the summer reading list and links to websites with activities that correspond to books and authors on your list. Send home a flyer to parents letting them know about the folder and how to access it. Perhaps even include the universal user name and password for your school. (Just please don’t post it on the Internet!)

Joey (my son) played educational games found in netTrekker for a bit yesterday while home. Not a complete waste of a school day. And while we are counting down the days, he also knows he has mornings filled with enrichment activities waiting on him, thanks to netTrekker.

Tags: enrichment, games, My Portfolio, summer

Summer? What Summer?!

Harris, Lynne. zanzibar2004020.jpg. Dec 2005. Pics4Learning. 28 May 2010

It’s hard to believe that many schools across the nation are just wrapping up another great school year. Some have already finished, others are ending this week, while a few more are wrapping things up in the next two weeks. And then teachers get six to eight weeks off to be completely lazy, right?

WRONG!

Many teachers work summer school programs, while others attend school or district professional development sessions. Plus, big conferences are held in the summer, such as ISTE for technology, the big ASCD Summer Conference, SDE’s Differentiation Conference, and local statewide conferences. I remember one summer having to attend 2 weeks of Teaching American History, a week-long math manipulatives course, another week-long course on a new teaching strategy, two weeks of unit planning, a week at NECC (now known as ISTE), and graduate classes. That was seven weeks of my summer, and because of the program I was in, three weekends.  I also had to prepare for teaching administrators how to use hand-held devices and learn new software. My point? Teachers are not idling on a beach while indulging in a long overdue paperback book with some fruity drink and an umbrella. No, they are keeping their certifications up-to-date, sharpening their trade skills, and staying connected.

But what if you can’t attend any of the great national and international conferences that are going on? I would recommend making sure you are following some of the well connected educators on Twitter that share updates from conference sessions and sometimes a link to watch the broadcast version of the session with a back-channel to partake in the dialogue. I know I can usually find a few good sessions to watch. Plus, check out ustream.tv for archives of sessions you may have missed at other great conferences. I do this quite frequently.

What are your big summer plans for professional development? Who do you follow on Twitter to keep up with the conference talks? Share your connections with others by leaving a comment on this post.

Tags: ASCD, iste, professional development, SDE, summer

It’s a Beautiful Day

The lucky winner of a netTrekker shirt during Cherokee County Training.

I missed last night’s finale of American Idol, which was actually okay. While it proved to be a “Beautiful Day” for Lee Dewyze, it was equally a beautiful day for me. I didn’t win a recording contract (your ears are saved!), a million dollars (that would have been nice, but he has to sing for that money still), or a new Ford. Instead, I was on a plane coming back from a wonderful training in Cherokee County, GA. I had been embraced by their Southern hospitality, their passion for learning, and just really enjoyed my time training. For me, it truly was a beautiful day.

One of the things that impressed me was that this district has received a plaque in the past for over a million hits, and this year only has 800,000+, but wants to find a way to increase that and fast! They don’t settle for anything less than their best.

If you haven’t yet seen our Customer Center, you really need to take a look. So before lunch, that’s just what we did. Since they were interested in increasing their usage, and since making netTrekker their homepage was not an option for them, I showed a few other tricks. I was thinking of the widget to add a search box for the IP Authenticated Schools or a log-in box for those who have user names. I ventured out to our site to show them how to get those widgets and this techno-savvy guy on the first row sees the directions for how to make netTrekker the default search provider.

Let me share my ignorance with you. I have seen this there before, but I always thought that making netTrekker the homepage was “old school”. I didn’t realize that you can add netTrekker to the drop down box of that little search box that appears next to the Address Bar!  So now, no matter where they are on the Internet, if they type in a keyword in that search box in the top right hand side of their browser, they will get netTrekker results. [Works best with IP Authentication.]

I have really been blessed with several great trainings in Georgia lately. Newton County had some great integration trainings with very delightful tech integration specialists, Savannah held many trainings with passionate teachers from across their district, and now Cherokee with their equally passionate and delightful tech specialists. Next week I’m off to Forsyth, which is always a pure joy of an experience. But I don’t think it’s all the southern hospitality Georgia is famous for. I think I can credit it to great netTrekker users who buy into the same motto we do, “go do something good for kids” and so their passion shows through with everything they do.

Immigration

This is such a hot topic, and from what I’ve read on a few teacher boards, it’s a topic for debate in and out of the classroom.

I decided to do a bit of research on the topic in netTrekker to see if we had enough information that could be used for both sides of the argument…

I came across something rather interesting.

Kolk, Melinda. tactile.png. August 2002. Pics4Learning. 26 May 2010 <http://pics.tech4learning.com>

I started off in the Middle School Tab, used Immigration for my keyword and then refined my search for Learning Activities, Learning Games, and Interactive Media. (Can you tell my learning style?!) On the first page of results I came across a resource where the user takes on the role of a character trying to decide if they should move out west. Think about it. The western movement was a form of immigration, they migrated into the Indian Territory. However, this isn’t talking about the American Western Movement. This is based in Canada. Then further down, there are more results about Canadian immigration.

That’s right, America is not the only country that has dealt or is dealing with immigration.

The next thing I tried was an advance search and I entered Canada as a word to exclude from the results. There were more really cool resources, including one with interviews on what it’s like to leave your country for a new one, interviews with those working in immigration, the immigration process, and news articles/videos from various events in the last decade dealing with immigration.

I then did a search on a non-educational search engine. Even with my safe filter on I found blog sites and videos that were very slanted one way and were not always sharing facts or could cite their sources. There were too many results to weed through and no way to know whether the resources aligned to a particular state standard. Talk about a time-suck. It was an interesting experiment that reminded me of how much faster and reliable netTrekker is.

Tags: immigration, time-savings

Tip Tuesday

Today is the last Tip Tuesday for the school year. I was personally looking forward to this one because I get to talk books and summer reading, and I LOVE books and summer reading! Wish I could get my own son to share in my passion.

However, Chris Marshall will be covering the webinar. He’s going to show how to build a folder based on books and then how to add your list one of three ways to the portfolio.

There is still time to register for the 4 PM webinar. If you missed any of the past ones, check out our archives.

Tags: tip tuesday, webinar

Motivation. Training. Accountability.

No, this is not me. This is an image found during an image search in netTrekker courtesy of Science News for Kids.

I need to exercise more. I know this. I have bought the shoes, Sketcher Shape Ups to walk and a pair of running shoes. I have the outfits. I even downloaded the apps – yes more than one- designed to encourage me to eat healthier, exercise more, and be accountable for my lifestyle.  I have a shelf full of workout DVDs, two exercise balls, the different bands, a stepper and a stationary bike. And while I have all this stuff, I still wasn’t working out. I’d find an excuse. I went to bed late. I woke up too late in the morning. I was already showered and didn’t want to sweat at lunch, evenings were too busy, and then it was time for bed again.

And then I found a walking buddy. Now I have to get up at 5:40 so I can meet her at 6 to walk anywhere between 2.5-3 miles around our neighborhood. Since I know she’s waiting on me, I know I have to get up. I’m being held accountable. I even have tried a few of those training videos and have been reading up on how to improve your walking workout. Add some tunes and changing the route to keep the walk from getting boring, I think the walking will be well implemented in my lifestyle.

Last night I spoke to a friend of mine on Skype who also uses netTrekker. He wants to get his teachers using it more, so he’s trying to find ways to implement for next school year. The teachers like netTrekker, they know it’s good for them and their students, but they open up their browser and start a keyword search in the search engine that automatically opens up or in the search bar of the browser. And while the teachers know they should use netTrekker, they get caught up in the other search engines. It’s just easier for them since it’s first accessible.

So why not make netTrekker easier to access? That takes care of accessibility. Start with checking out the Customer Center and look at the Access Page. From here you can learn how to make netTrekker your homepage, add a netTrekker search box and a netTrekker log in, and even how to make netTrekker your default search engine. Once they have this set, there’s no excuse for not using netTrekker first, as their dedicated search engine. Our number one users will tell you that this is one way to improve usage. Forsyth County in Georgia has all of their computer homepages set to netTrekker, which helps make sure it’s used and probably why they are one of our top users.

Next, provide training. We have a dedicated professional development team that can help you start with the basics, train the trainer, or an integration training. We also include videos on how to get started with netTrekker. And here’s a tip – once you have them using it for the basics, take it to the next step. Show how to use it with other products, with their curriculum, and make it an integral part of their teaching. Share how to create project based learning folders with My Portfolio. netTrekker is more than a search engine, and if you use those tools, you’ll realize just how powerful it is. Plus, by keeping it from being just a another search engine, you keep it exciting.

Last, create professional development folders for the teachers and standard folders for the students. These folders become their ”netTrekker buddy”. This particular school is learning how to use SMART Boards. Create a folder with SMART Notebooks found in netTrekker to help the teachers get started. Use the “user-defined” template to add steps on how to create their own notebook. Add external links to include other pertinent information. If your teachers are studying more on the use of graphic organizers, create a folder with resources for how to use and create the graphic organizers. As for the standards folder for students, create a folder with interactive media and games for the standards that students are struggling with. Share them in the school or district folder. Use these folders for enrichment.

When the teachers and students are encouraged to go to netTrekker for their professional development or enrichment, they are accountable for using netTrekker.

If you follow these steps, you will see an increase in your usage. It’s not too late to book professional development this summer. We have limited days available. And if you’re thinking fall, consider booking now because we’ve already started getting requests! (I just booked a trip for the end of September!)

And by using netTrekker, your students will see a healthier lifestyle with the Internet. They’ll be more focused on their projects, have tools there to assist them, and will keep them on task.

Tags: accountability, netTrekker, professional development, usage

Content That’s Good For You

All content is good for you! Go ahead and indulge.

How many times do you look at the ingredients of an item you’re buying at the grocery store? Content matters in our everyday life. You want it to be wholesome, maybe just a little bit of sweetness, and chock full of your favorite foods. You don’t want junk that’s bad for you, and often question the value of adding certain oils or words that you can’t pronounce.

In other words, content matters.

netTrekker’s Content Editors understand this. They search and evaluate the websites that are aligned to the state standards, match your curriculum, and are quality. They weed out the websites that are not wholesome and made up of junk. All to save you time and headaches when doing Internet projects.

 This week’s Tip Tuesday was presented by one of the Content Editors, Becky Moeggenberg. If you missed it, you can watch an archived version of the presentation on our netTrekker Tip Tuesday Page, finding that session and clicking on the link to the streaming video.

During the webinar, Becky shared a document about some of the most recent content updates in netTrekker. We were asked if we could provide that, and so it’s been added to the archive page.

Don’t forget to Tweet your favorite websites or fill out the netTrekker Resource Round Up form to suggest websites.

Career Choices

My favorite class to teach when I taught middle school was Career Choices. I’ve always enjoyed hearing about everyone else’s careers, from the education it takes to get the job, the skills and knowledge to retain the job, and what the job entails day to day. As a career teacher I was able to explore with the students that there was more to being a nurse than applying a band-aid, more to being a fashion designer than knowing your summer colors and fabrics, and more to being a lawyer than playing golf with the right people. I also showed them how a career will decide your lifestyle. We played a game based on a career of their choice and for nine weeks they had to balance their paycheck with regular bills like rent/mortgage, car payments, student loans, and such, along with surprises like a flat tire or speeding ticket. Plus, they had to keep a journal of their career and what they learned about that career through extensive research using the Internet.

This class came to mind this morning when I saw a co-worker on facebook mention that it was nursing week, and wishing all her fellow nursing friends a great week and thanking them for a job well done. It reminded me of a conversation between former students that went something like this:

Student 1: “When I graduate and finish school,  I’m going to be a doctor. That way I can get the fast car, the big house, and a title. DOCTOR!”
Student 2: “And a huge student loan bill, bigger than most, since you don’t like to study now and will probably have to repeat a year or two. And a big malpractice insurance bill since who in their right mind is going to trust you to be their doctor??”
Student 1: “You’re going to be a nurse right?”
Student 2: “Yes. I’m going to work my way up to a nurse-practitioner. I’d like to work in a doctor’s office and do more than just take a temperature and weight.”
Student 1: “Right. And guess who I’m going to hire? You! Then you can see all the patients while I go play golf and attend all the fancy functions. Maybe I’ll even let you be my arm candy.”

Typical student talk, but student 1 did realize how lofty his goal was, how much education he was going to need, the cost of the education and how his current study habits were not going to cut it. The last I heard, he was going to join the military and take classes in the health field, but not necessarily so he could become a doctor. I wish him the best of luck. Student #2 is right on her career track, and said that the class really helped her focus on her path.

To help the students with their career path, making the right educational decisions, and to learn more about their chosen career field, we used online articles and newspapers geared towards their field. I definitely didn’t have the budget to subscribe to all the different journals that are out there. You probably don’t either, but I’ve got a tip for you.  Did you know that in netTrekker, if you click on “Current Events” in middle or high school tab, and then click on “News By Topic”, you will find newspapers that cover Social Studies, Mathematics, Health News and more? Great resources for studying your favorite career. Another area to check out is the Career and Technical Education Section. I can promise you, from my experience, it’s difficult to find trusted resources for career research. Thankfully, netTrekker makes it easy with these two sections.

Last week we thanked educators for their dedication, this past Sunday we thanked Mom’s for their passion and love, and this week we celebrate the nurses who care for us. I’d like to just give a big shout out to every career field, because each role is important to help make the world go around in interesting ways. Thanks everyone!

Tags: 21st Century Learning, career, netTrekker

ELL Resources: Inspired testimonials from NT101 Participants

No two children, like the beautiful butterflies that open this blog, are identical.  And like butterflies, netTrekker’s ELL Channel and differentiated instruction features help each learner to take flight. As the school year is quickly coming to close, I’m reminded that it’s IEP and 504 plan time. These very important meetings dedicate time to students with special learning needs to have their plan re-evaluated and decide what should be included for the following year.

As the netTrekker 101 online course facilitator, I just wrapped up module six on using netTrekker with English Language Learners. The course participants filled the discussion forums with very thoughtful content which may be helpful to those of you who are writing IEP and 504 plans.

I am delighted to share with you several of the participants’ comments from the discussion board about the Dictionary Hot Key, Read Aloud, Readability, and other refinement features in netTrekker.  Enjoy these testimonials from passionate educators.

“ I love these features!!  What a wonderful service for students!!  First of all, the students LOVE to use earphones—I KNOW they are not just skimming over the information because they are sitting there listening to the netTrekker article…in TOTAL!!

It’s also a great feature for one of my teachers who is legally blind.  He loved it because he could listen instead of using his super magnifiers & putting his face up to the screen.

I loved the dictionary hot button when I went to some science related websites via netTrekker.  There were words that I didn’t know & instead of moving ahead, I stopped to find out the meaning of the word.

Wonderful Service to students and teachers alike!!!”
Gina Lunsford, Woodlands Christian Academy, TX

“As a high school English teacher, I think the best feature from this week is the read aloud button. In my classroom I have so many different levels (especially reading levels). Many students struggle with reading on their own. This button makes it an even playing field.

I look forward to utilizing this to help the students grasp concepts better in my classroom.”
Carrie Brisbane, Charter Tech High School, NJ

“Even as a regular education teacher my students can benefit from the readability tab and read aloud feature. There are low-level readers in our classrooms as well and it can provide that extra support that the student may need.

I love the dictionary hot key feature because it provides not only a definition but word origin as well.  It is always fun to discuss with students where words originate from and how they came to our country.”
Kalin Wilburn, Mansfield School District, OH

“The read aloud feature allows students to explore and learn on their own even if their English reading skills are not particularly strong. Many second language learners learn spoken language much faster than written language because they are immersed in the spoken language of their second language in their new country. Read Aloud provides these learners the opportunity to strengthen their reading skills because the see the words as they listen to the reading.”
Sarah Garrett
Glacier Hills Elementary, MN

To take full advantage of the many resources to support ELL students and to customize enrichment resources for all of your students, visit the ELL Channel in netTrekker.

A few spaces are still available for the Summer 2010 session of NT101. TO REGISTER: Contact your Account Manager.  If you have questions or need additional information, please e-mail Amy Ellisor, the NT101 Course facilitator, aellisor@nettrekker.com.

Tags: ELL, ELL Channel, ESL, netTrekker, read aloud, refinement menu

Training Hits a Triple! No, a HOME RUN!

One of the favorite resources was the Reference Section, especially Pics4learning.com

Savannah is an absolutely beautiful city and the people of Savannah are hardworking, dedicated, and as welcoming as their Southern Heritage claims. I’ve had the pleasure to recently train in Savannah and experience this first hand.

It’s always a pleasure to hear back from the schools after we train to know how well the training went after the fact. That day things may have gone okay, but you won’t know until a few weeks later how effective the training really was. One way to find out how things went is through the evaluations we get back. It’s even better though when we hear directly from the schools with comments about how they have used the knowledge in training.

For Savannah, their success came with tripling their district’s over all usage of netTrekker. They have had netTrekker for a few years. Their 2010 training sessions were more focused on the features, giving more hands on time, and connecting it with their subject and curriculum. Susan Joyner, one of their instructional technology teachers, told me that the usage tripled from the last month after training. Out of curiosity, I decided to compare it with the year before. They actually increased usage by 700% this year!

I’d say that’s more than a triple. That’s a home run!

And it’s a tribute to training, their involvement in netTrekker 101,  and their Instructional Technology team continuing with implementation and getting the word out.

What’s your plan to increase use of your investment in netTrekker? Contact your Account Manager for more ideas, including training and other great resources.

Tags: integration, netTrekker, professional development, Training