netTrekker Blog

Explore a New World of Personalized Learning at ISTE 2010

Are you heading to Denver for the ISTE conference June 27^th – 30^th?  If so, we know that your time there will be jam-packed with workshops and time spent in the exhibit hall exploring all the latest and greatest in educational technology.  We hope you’ll take some time to visit the netTrekker booth #884 to explore new ways that netTrekker can help you personalize learning for your students.

A few of our ISTE highlights include:

• An exploration game that will help you learn more about netTrekker and give you a chance to win an Apple iPad!

• Sneak previews of the new enhancements coming in netTrekker Search for Back-to-School 2010!  Learn how the new enhancements support an even more personalized, productive, and engaging learning experience.

• A full schedule of  workshops presented by netTrekker subscribers that let you explore netTrekker’s advanced features, hear best practices, get integration tips and strategies, and more.

• Demos of the new NSTA Learning Center online science professional development content available in netTrekker.

• Visit our ISTE page for more details and check out our full workshop schedule.

If you’re unable to attend ISTE this year, stay tuned in netTrekker Village for some post-conference highlights.

We’re looking forward to seeing you in Denver at the netTrekker booth #884!

What are you looking forward to most at this year’s ISTE conference?

Tags: integration, Integration Ideas, ISTE2010, netTrekker, netTrekker Village, professional development

Training Hits a Triple! No, a HOME RUN!

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

Top 10 Reasons Future Teachers Love netTrekker

Shared by Education Students
Dr. Douglas Hazlett’s Integrated Instructional Systems Class
Thiel College Education Department, PA

1.  “netTrekker allows future teachers to use materials and resources that are credible and reliable – saving us valuable time planning our first units.” (Saves Time)

2.  “netTrekker is a resource for materials that are based on standards AND provide differentiated instruction.” (Standards-Aligned)

3.  “Searches for photos and videos are safe, unlike a general search engine such as Google™.” (Safe Searching)

4.  “Organized resources that can be individualized for student needs, including gifted and special needs students.” (Personalize Learning)

5.  “netTrekker pulls together all the aspects necessary for learning to take place while making instruction more engaging.” (Engaging Students)

6.  “netTrekker helps incorporate technology into the classroom while accommodating all learning styles.” (Technology Integration)

7.  “netTrekker is organized and easy to navigate which means less of a headache for teachers.” (Easy to Use)

8.  “The Read Aloud and Dictionary/Translation tools will dramatically help ELL/ESL students.” (Support for ELL/ESL Students)

9.  “Ideas and information for classroom management, professional development, learning styles and strategies, special education, and more.” (Teacher Tools)

10.  “netTrekker provides a lot of tips and resources for helping our students become 21^st century global players.” (21^st Century Learning)

“From freshman students investigating education topics through seniors doing their student teaching; Thiel’s educaiton students made great use of netTrekker.  Thiel College requires all education majors to develop standards-based lesson plans using engaging pedagogy (like Marzano’s instructional strategies) in fun creative ways using a variety of instructional strategies for all learners.  netTrekker is a tremendous digital assistant in this process. netTrekker provides all the answers for college students to design standards-based lessons using engaging pedagogies to increase student achievement for all learners.  Special features like timeline are very popular with students especially history majors.  Science majors love all of the interactive websites that are suggested with a keyword search.  All students use the image search feature.  netTrekker is just a tremendous resource for college education majors and K-12 teachers alike.”

Douglas R. Hazlett, Ph.D.
Chair and Associate Professor
Education Department
Thiel College

Tags: 21st Century Learning, ELL, ESL, integration, netTrekker, professional development, read aloud, resources, Teacher Tools

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

Myth or Mist?

I love delving into a good book, or sometimes escaping to a compelling movie. When my two favorite past times are joined, I try to read the book first. With this upcoming film release schedule, I decided to read Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan for this week’s National Book Month Middle School Entry.

I love mythology, and listening to the tales of the gods, demi-gods, and the different battles or skirmishes. When I lived in South Carolina, I use to enjoy a yearly visit to Brook Green Gardens, just so I could hear the stories of the statues. However, like Percy Jackson, I tend to mix up the gods quite easily. Not the major players, but there are just so many to keep up with! Which means, this is a natural fit for netTrekker. I came across two this morning that I wasn’t sure about, and used netTrekker to quickly look them up and frame my mind around who they were and their role in the life of the gods in the 21st Century.

The other item that I found interesting in this book is the talk of moving west. Mt Olympus started Greece, but it moves with the gods, and they move with society. The book even made it sound like the Roman gods were really the Greek gods, they had just moved west and that the gods also were the reason for events such as wars or Prohobition. Time to break out a timeline and map and see if you can find ways to compare those events with the gods that would have been involved – and see if the trend still was to move west.

However, one of the items that really grabbed me was the idea of mist. I am often told to get my head out of the clouds and to come back to Earth or to pay attention. Here we have the gods explaining to us that often times we “miss” events because the gods are involved and there is a “mist” that comes into play to distort our vision or memories. What would a day be like if the “mist” did not work and we actually saw the gods in action? I would love to challenge my students into researching a specific god or goddess and write what a day of that god’s life would be like in the 21st Century and the reaction us mortals would have to that god’s presence.

I think I’m going to have to finish this entire series. And I’ll definitely be using netTrekker as my source for the 4-1-1 on the gods.

Tags: integration, Lightening Thief, National Book Month, novels

Snowy Days

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a great snowfall, or had a white Christmas. I loved snow days growing up, building snowmen and igloos (which I really did try to sleep in one night), snow angels, sledding, snowball fights, and then the nice warm hot chocolate with marshmallows overflowing. Those were the best days!

Living in coastal Florida, I don’t believe I’ll be seeing a lot of snow anytime soon. I haven’t had much luck in making it to a snowy place either. Every time I get there, the snow melts and starts back up when I leave. But snowflakes can still be apart of my life, and classroom lessons, this season. With netTrekker d.i., snow can “warmly” be part of your sponge activities and lessons for the remaining few days before winter break. Let me share with you my discoveries.

I started my search in Elementary and decided to look up “snowman” and refined my search for interactive media. It took me some time to get back to this post as I practiced my mouse skills while building a snowman. Next, I searched Middle School for “snowflake” and then used the refinement menu to narrow my search for interactive games. There are two websites which help you to create your own snowflakes, without any of the cold.  My last stop was high school, where I did a search for snow. Again, my trusty refinement menu came in handy as I narrowed my searches down by subject. I used Language Arts and Writing and Grammar as my refinement selection and found a lesson plan from the New York Times for students to write riddles about their favorite season. I tried my hand at a few, then went back to the snowflake site to illustrate.

Did you do a winter search in netTrekker d.i.? Care to share with us one of your great finds and how you plan to use those sites in your classroom? Just leave a comment below!

(Image citation: Irish, kelley. dsc00265.jpg. 2008. Pics4Learning. 15 Dec 2008 http://pics.tech4learning.com)

Tags: integration, netTrekker d.i., Pics4Learning, refinement menu, snow, winter