My Portfolio
Back to School Tips
Summertime is coming to an end with the start of the school year. Excited chatter about setting up classrooms, finalizing lessons, and attending many back to school professional development opportunities are all a buzz in the stores, on Twitter, on Facebook and netTrekker Village. In other words, anywhere teachers congregate.
Hopefully some of your back to school plans include netTrekker. After all, we are releasing some great new features this new school year. To help you with your back to school professional development, here is a video from our Spring Scholarship for Personalizing Learning and some tips from netTrekker users and employees.
Leslie Peterson, netTrekker Account Manager
To help increase your usage in netTrekker, and really make the new admin features POP, consider promoting netTrekker on your school website with these easy to follow directions, found at the Customer Center. Also, send home one of our parent letters, in English or Spanish, to parents reminding them that you are providing access to netTrekker with great tools for research and homework help. Remind your staff to take advantage of the Promethean and SMART resources in netTrekker by using the Collections Refinement Menu or by doing a keyword search for “Promethean” or “SMART”. With the downloadable viewers, you can use them even if you do not have a white board.
David Candelaria, Technology Coordinator/CTE Department Chair Del Norte HS Albuquerque, NM
David is currently working on the technology plan for his school. He encourages his teachers to think beyond the term, “technology”. He starts by questioning, “what is technology? Many people hear the term and think “computers”, but to me technology, educational technology, is anything that will stimulate students to be productive, innovative and enterprising. These are important 21st Century Skills, whether teaching core standards, STEM, ELL, or Special Education curriculum. ”
David just finished the netTrekker 101 course and says, “I can honestly say in taking the netTrekker course I can see the ‘plan’ and how netTrekker will engage and stimulate the 21 Century Skills aspect of my school.”
Angie Maccani, netTrekker Account Manager
When training faculty and staff on netTrekker, model how the My Portfolio system can be used for paper free communication with students and parents. Upload your documents, such as permission slips, course syllabus, field trip information, and rubrics for projects, to an Online Office or Storage Location and use the ADD A WEBSITE feature in My Portfolio. This is a great way to organize and share resources for classroom procedures, lessons, and assessments.
Sandra Doran, M. Ed. Educator, Jennings County MS, Jennings County Schools, IN
To help spread the word in my building I will be offering a one hour hands -on training workshop in our computer lab one day after school. I believe one hour is a nice amount of time for teachers and their busy schedules. I will spend the hour doing an orientation of the netTrekker site, search tips, and benefits for all learners. Before I dismiss attendees I will tell them that in two weeks I will be in the lab again to discuss: Advanced My Portfolio, English Language Learners, and 21st Century Learning.
To help introduce families I will be creating a short video tutorial to post on our school website. The link will be next to the link that parents go to for viewing students’ grades so it will be easy for them to locate.
I will also be giving a short demo to our guidance counselors. I believe that they are a vital link between parents and the school.
Danielle Abernethy, netTrekker Professional Development Solutions Team
Make sure you are familiar with the various tools on netTrekker Customer Center. Great resources to be used in your training can be found there, including videos, letters, quick reference guides, scavenger hunts, and other handouts. Aside from the Customer Center, keep an eye on the netTrekker Village. Join in on discussions about the new enhancements; participate in the netTrekker Tip Tuesday webinars and other learning possibilities. Another great tip, if your school uses agenda/homework books, consider making labels that have the URL for netTrekker and then the Student Universal Username and Password for your school. Put this on the page dealing with Library Resources or in the front for a quick reminder of where students can go for research and homework help.
Tom Turner, Network Manager for Lake Marion Creek School, Polk County Schools, FL
I am actively training teachers on how to use netTrekker, along with Weekly Reader Express, on their SMART Boards. One lesson I have learned is to make sure there is student buy-in, and excitement. This year, my television broadcast team will be showcasing their favorite sites found in netTrekker, tips for using netTrekker beyond a research tool, and other student friendly netTrekker tips. By showcasing the students using this fantastic tool, the teachers will be encouraged to explore the many possibilities to integrate netTrekker into their classroom curriculum.
If you have any favorite training tips, please feel free to share them with us here or on netTrekker Village.
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.
Paperless Trails
An image of the Auroras Dancing in the Night from the NASA JSC Digital Image Collection in the Reference Section of netTrekker.
Earth Day is right around the corner, so we decided to dedicate this week to Earth Day topics. Today is a topic that has been hot on Twitter, Paperless Classrooms.
This topic was hot a few years ago, with one classroom going paperless in 2001 and creating one of the first sites about being paperless. With the introduction of handhelds, netbooks, the 1:1 computer initiative and now the iPad, paperless classrooms are still on everyone’s mind. Think about it. A student can create the written document/presentation in Zoho or Google and share it with you as a way to turn it in. Teachers have access to tools like Quia, DiscoveryStreaming’s Quiz Builder, or even handheld clickers you can administer a quiz/test that way. (There’s even a program for the iTouch to become a handheld clicker!)
Then, as I started this blog, I saw a Facebook posting from netTrekker’s CEO Randy Wilhelm about how netTrekker is helping Canada transition to digital resources. Here’s one of my favorite quotes, “With the growing movement toward interactive whiteboards, laptops and mobile computing in schools, augmenting traditional print resources with digital education solutions is now a viable opportunity in K-12 education. Educators need high-quality digital content that is appropriate for classroom use and leverages the benefits of Web technologies such as up-to-date information and rich multimedia.”
Don’t live in Canada? Would like to use netTrekker to digitize your classroom so you can go paperless? Let’s talk about some of the possibilities.
Start by using netTrekker’s My Portfolio to create a project folder. Using the refinement tabs, find resources that are primary documents, video, interactive media, or from some of our great content partners like BrainPOP or Globio. Don’t forget to add a link to your Promethean or SMART Board resource for the students to use as a review. Need to add a link to another subscription your district offers? Go for it with the “Add a Link” button in My Portfolio.
Speaking of “Add a Link”, there are some paper resources that you might enhance your project in the media center. Share that printed resource using a tool like Scholastic Book Wizard. Again, once you create the list, share that link in the My Portfolio.
Next, in your new project folder, add a quiz to check for knowledge gained. Again, use tools like your DiscoveryStreaming Quiz Builder or QuizStar by adding a link to your computer quiz. Or, check out the quizzes found in BrainPOP. The work’s done for you, and the quizzes go along with their great movies featuring everyone’s favorite robot, Moby.
Now, I don’t like relying on a quiz alone for the grade. I want the students to do something with that knowledge to show their true understanding of the standards and the ability to transfer their new knowledge to a new situation. Create a VoiceThread for students to use to debate a topic or share information. How about a Glogster where they present their information in a multimedia format? Or a Kerpoof story, movie, or picture? The students can share their Glogster link with you in the MyPortfolio Folder as a way to electronically share it with the other students and turn it in.
In the end, your entire project is in My Portfolio. Nothing needs to be printed. You have the directions, the electronic resources found in netTrekker and the links to the extra useful subscriptions your district provides to you, and a link to where they will electronically build their project and take their quiz. Now you can share this folder in the school or district area for your students to access. And, you’ll have it for next year too! The added benefit of using the My Portfolio is that you still have access to the Read Aloud and Dictionary Hot Key tools that really help engage and enable students in their learning process.
If you would like to take the pledge to go Paperless this Earth Day, check out this online site.
Amy’s got more information on Earth Day tomorrow. Then on Wednesday we’ll talk about how to raise money for your school while reducing waste. Thursday and Friday have other surprises to be shared. So tune in!
Butterfly Garden of Words
A Glogster about the word butterfly.
This weekend Amy Ellisor, our netTrekker 101 instructor, and I talked about a project some of her teachers were working on about etymology. There was a bit of frustration for some of her teachers because they couldn’t find all of the resources they wanted on the topic of etymology. If that ever happens to you, and you have great resources to share, please consider suggesting those websites to netTrekker through our suggest a link form on netTrekker Village, or via twitter by using #netTrekker along with the URL of your suggested resource. The other thing that you can do is add a link in your My Portfolio Project. This link will not appear in netTrekker as a whole, but rather in just your folder and will only be available to the people you give the rights to see that folder.
The other tip I’ll share is to check out the reference section. In the high school reference section I found quite a few great resources under the English Language area about word origin and meaning. My favorite, that I had not clicked on before today, was the iTools! and I did find a few resources there that would be very beneficial to this group of students in nT101. (I love it when I learn something new!)
But what in the world do you do with etymology? It’s interesting to discover the origin of words, but what do you do with that knowledge besides winning the next game show? I took the word butterfly and applied it to Glogster. It’s not a complete project, but definitely one that can be replicated. I added the definition, some other ways the word is being used, along with the origin of butterfly. I could definitely add some more information, but for a start, I’m feeling pretty good.
Earn a Scholarship to NECC ’09
We want to help you get to NECC ’09 in Washington, D.C., June 28-July 1!
A few months ago, I was calling customers who have attended NECC for years to ask about co-presenting with netTrekker. I was getting the same response, “I’m sorry to say that I won’t be attending because our out-of-state travel has been eliminated due to funding issues.”
NECC is such a wonderful conference where you can learn new technologies, connect with friends, share what you’ve learned, and diligently seek out the latest classroom tool in the exhibit hall. If that’s what you love about NECC, we want to help you continue that experience.
netTrekker is offering two $1500 scholarships to educators to apply toward NECC travel expenses and registration. Earning one of the scholarships is simple. Create a project-based assignment for your students within netTrekker’s My Portfolio and submit the URL by April 15. You may submit up to 5 entries. Be creative! Encourage your students to use 21st century skills by building in collaboration; have your students to create a podcast or post a blog comment; add external resources like a link to a BrainPop video.
Not familiar with My Portfolio? We make it easy for you to learn.
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Review our free tutorials. Scroll past Atomic Learning videos.
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Register and attend a free 30-minute webinar to learn how to build your project in My Portfolio.
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See examples on the NECC Scholarship website.
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Follow the discussion on netTrekker Village.
- Check out the Blog Series dedicated to the My Portfolio
If you’re selected as one of the winners, we ask that you spend 30 minutes in the netTrekker d.i. booth at NECC sharing your project with others.
Can’t wait to see you in D.C.!
Getting the Message Out
Your project folder is complete, and now it’s time to share it with your students. You can share your folder either in a class folder (that you create) or the existing school or district folder.
The District folder and the “Create a Class” feature were introduced in December of 2007. The District folder makes it possible to share your project folders with any other teacher or student within your district. The class feature allows you to create a class that your students can join by entering the secret word (that you assign). You can learn more about creating a class with this video tutorial.
In order to get your folder into one of those areas, you have three choices. You can move, copy or bookmark. Everyone has their preference of which one, but I personally prefer the bookmark method. Here are my reasons:
· If you move your folder to the district or school, the admin has the right to delete it. It wouldn’t be done on purpose, I’m sure, but accidents happen. There’s no way to retrieve a deleted folder.
· If you copy a folder to the district or school, and then update your original folder later, you’ll need to make sure you update the copied folder as well. I know I would forget to do this.
· If you bookmark a folder, you are actually creating a shortcut to your project folder. If you update the folder, then everyone will be able to see the update. If the bookmark gets deleted, you still have your main folder. Your work would not be lost.
Here are the steps to bookmarking a folder:
1. Open the folder you want to share.
2. Click on Edit
3. Click on Advanced Options (in the Edit Window)
4. Select who you want to view and who you want to have the rights to change the folder. (I usually select everyone in the district to view, but I don’t change the rights to the change the folder unless it’s a collaboration project.)
5. Save the changes (that window will go away)
6. Click on Bookmark (middle of the folder window)
7. A new window will appear asking if you’re sure this is what you want to do. Click Save.
8. The bookmark will appear in your main portfolio. Go back there and put a checkmark next to the BOOKMARK.
9. Click on MOVE and select the destination.
One quick important note, you will need do the advanced options for each subfolder of the main folder you are bookmarking. You will not need to bookmark the subfolders.
For the videos on netTrekker d.i.’s My Portfolio, check out our HELP section.
Organization is Key
My Portfolio provides a place to collect links from netTrekker d.i., links from your other subscriptions and sources. You may add templates, a timeline, famous person search criteria with results, and images.
Folders can become quite busy with websites, images, and saved features.
However, once you put everything together in one folder, you get a mess. And right now, my folder is a big mess!
Think of your file cabinet. More than likely everything is in a folder and organized, not just thrown together. That’s our next step, to create folders for organization.
First, open the folder you want to organize. On the left hand side there is a button that says “NEW FOLDER”. Click on that and you can create a new folder. You will have an opportunity to name the folder and give it a description as well. I created several folders for this project, including Famous Scientists, Images, and then two Website folders, one for Science Fair Project Ideas and one for the Scientific Method.
The next step is to move the items from the main folder to their respective sub-folder. On the left side of the websites are check boxes. Check off the ones need to moved to a specific folder, then click on move (right hand corner). When you click on move, your entire portfolio will open with the structure viewable. I selected scientific method websites to be moved into the
The steps for creating and moving items into folders.
“Websites: Scientific Method” folder. I didn’t see the folder at first, but next to the Science Fair folder there is a plus sign. By clicking on the plus sign, I can expand the Science Fair Folder to see the sub-folders. I then click on Websites: Scientific Method and then move.
By doing this, you can easily organize a project with all your resources right there at your fingertips. Some quick tips:
- Folders will line up alphabetically and they will also line up numerically.
- If you need to order your materials, consider numbering the folders
- This process can also be used in the school or district sharing area.
Hop to it! If we don’t organize now, we’ll be a mess later! (Take it from someone who knows!)
Template Test Drive
How’s the folder coming along? Shaping up pretty nicely? Which websites did you add to your portfolio?
Today’s tip is how to use the Templates in the My Portfolio. Next to the ADD WEBSITE button is another button that says ADD TEMPLATE. netTrekker d.i. has two templates available. These templates allow you to add details to your portfolio which comes in handy when dealing with research or project based learning.
The first one is a Digital Literacy Template. This template has five questions a student should ask themselves before they decide to use a website for research. What a great practice for 21st Century Literacy! Now with each template, you must add a title. The description is optional, but is a great place to add directions. With the Digital Literacy Template the five questions are already in place, but there is space for you to add more details. For example, the first piece of information a student should question is the author or creator’s level of authority. What does this mean? The space below gives you a place to put prompts or more details for the students, such as “what level of educational degree do they hold? Are they an enthusiast, hobbyist, or do they work in the field?” Or you could tell the students to look for a biography of the creator and tips on what to investigate.
The second template is a USER DEFINED TEMPLATE. This is a blank page for you to add your own content. You must add the title, but the rest of the information is up to you. I like to use this page to write the project directions, to create a Web Hunt or WebQuest, or to list the printed material you want students to use in the project. The possibilities are endless! Here is a PDF of the template I used for the science fair project. Another possibility for the blank template is for students to collect and save their research notes. They don’t have to keep track of the paper and pen or remember where they put their file. All of the details they need for that project are contained in one space.
The template is not a worksheet, but rather a digital reference or guide for the students. It can be printed off if needed.
Share with us how you use the templates by leaving a comment below. If have one that is extraordinary, send it to Danielle at dabernethy@nettrekker.com. She’ll share them on the blog for others to use.
Linking outside of netTrekker d.i.
Did you get your folder started? I hope so, because today we’re going to look at how to add websites not found in netTrekker d.i.
netTrekker d.i.has over 300,000 digital resources that are relevant and aligned to your state standards, but there are bound to be websites not in netTrekker d.i. that you would like to add to your Portfolio. You may wish to add the link to an online quiz, your personal website, an online document or a link to another subscription provided to your students. Any of these links may be easily added to your netTrekker d.i. portfolio.
Steps to add a website not found in netTrekker d.i.
First, click on My Portfolio and open up the folder you want to add the link to. You will see several buttons running across the top of that folder, including a button that says “ADD WEBSITE”. Click on that button and a new window will pop up. This is where you will add the URL (I recommend copying and pasting the URL so there’s no mistake), the Name of the website you are adding and then a description of the website.
Please note that Read Aloud, Dictionary and Readability will not work with links originating outside of netTrekker d.i.
Some of the items that I like to add to folders include Quizzes from Quia, a book list from Scholastic’s Book Wizard, a link to my blog or wiki, or BrainPop videos. What websites will you be adding to your portfolio?
On a side note, if you have a great link that should be added to netTrekker d.i.’s database, you can send it to us via the CONTACT US TOOL. The CONTACT US TOOL is located on the right hand side in the yellow MY TOOLS box.
My Portfolio: Start Sharing Now!
We have a tool in netTrekker d.i. called My Portfolio which is useful in creating Project Based Units. For the next week, we are going to explore the My Portfolio features and all of the uses. We are going to showcase how to save searches, add links outside of netTrekker d.i., how to add a template, how to organize your project folder and then how to share your folder with your school or district.
Let’s start at the beginning.
netTrekker d.i. offers you the opportunity save specific websites to a folder.
When you are logged into netTrekker d.i., you have the ability to save websites that you discover during your search. Start by doing a keyword search. I chose to use the keyword “scientific method” and will be creating a folder to prepare for the spring science fairs. In the middle school tab, this keyword brings me 136 results that I can easily customize using the refinement menu.
Next to each result you will see a checkbox. If after reviewing the website you decide it is one that you want to save, just put a check mark next to it. Go ahead and view the results on the next pages and check the ones you want to save on those pages as well. Once you have your results checked off, scroll to the top of the page. Under the refinement menu you will see a button that says “Save Search”.
(If you are IP Authenticated, you will need to log in at the top right hand corner in order to see the save search feature.)
When you click on Save Search, a new window will come up. This is where you start your organization of
your saved search and name your folder for the results. Your keyword and the date of your search will
The save search window allows you to give the folder a title and a description.
automatically fill in the title field. You are welcome to change the title if you choose. Next, you’ll see a place to add a description. This is not mandatory, and you can leave it blank if you want. You can see the changes I made to the Title Field and the description I added in the photo
Since this folder will be about science fair projects, I did another search on science fair experiments. After selecting the search results I thought would be most helpful to my students, I clicked on “Save Search” again. Instead of creating a new folder of results though, I checked “Add to Existing Folder” and then selected my Science Fair Project folder to add these results to.
You can also save Famous Person Search Results, Dynamic Timelines, and images to your folders as well.
It’s your turn now. I want you to decide on a topic and create a folder of a project of your choice. Tomorrow will add more detail to your folder.
Research Review
We’ve been noticing great postings out there about netTrekker d.i. on various blogs. I’ve done a little digging on some recent postings and it looks like the blogs are coming from students at La Conner School District in Washington State. I have yet located the teacher’s blog with the assignment, but the students have done a fantastic job of detailing their research results and strategies.
Here are a few of the links for you to check out:
• http://fohnjared.blogspot.com/
• http://zoriak.blogspot.com/
• http://classworklc.blogspot.com/
• http://guitarhero2012.blogspot.com/
I love how these students took to the time to compare and contrast the features of netTrekker d.i. and Google. We know Google is a great search engine, but when you’re working in a school setting, time is of the essence, and you need to reach students with different needs. netTrekker d.i. clearly triumphs according to these students! They mention the readability, the dictionary hot key, and the website ratings. Here’s a quote from the first blog:
“I think that Nettrekker is the better search engine over Google. Google might come up with more results but Nettrekker is better because it helps you narrow your results and it gives you ratings which help you to find better sites faster. Nettrekker was the site that returned more relevant information to me than Google did. Nettrekker is way easier to use because you are in a more refined site and you aren’t out on the World Wide Web. I tried all the things suggested like the dictionary and the subject headings and they prove that Nettrekker is better than Google because it helps you to refine your research and find more relevant information.”
What a great quote, especially from a student!
Edit the description of a website to keep notes for research projects.
My Portfolio within netTrekker d.i. provides a great way to record your research information. Remember those index cards that we all used for each resource with the details from each periodical, including notes to use in our paper? I always lost mine. With netTrekker d.i., if you find a website that you want to use as a resource, you can save it to My Portfolio. The default setting includes the date you saved the search. You’ll now have this information for your bibliography. Then once in the My Portfolio area, you can edit each website and change the description with your notes. (This description will only be seen by you.) You can also add a template and add all sorts of information there, including a note to yourself of what type of information you are still looking for, printed resource information you are using such as a journal or periodical, or even a rough draft of your paper.
Look for our upcoming series, 5 Days of My Portfolio in January. This blog collection will definitely be of use to the teachers creating project based learning units and to students conducting research.
And to the teacher of these fine students, thank you! Keep up the great work. If you don’t mind, I’d love to interview you for a future blog on how you are using netTrekker d.i. Please e-mail me your contact information.
If you are using netTrekker d.i. with your students, leave a comment below telling us how.
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