netTrekker Blog

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
• Email
• 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.

Teachers’ Domain in Action

Tags: interactive media, netTrekker, Teachers' Domain, The Collections, video

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.

Tags: Arthur, huck finn, NOVA, PBS, PBSTeacherSource, professional development, The Collections

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.

Tags: animals, globio, lessons, resources, science, The Collections

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. 

Tags: Integration Ideas, The Collections, Training

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.

Tags: National Humanities Center, netTrekker, The Collections