netTrekker
Is Your netTrekker Authenticated?
The best way to get someone to do something is by making it as easy as you can and removing as many obstacles as possible. So, wouldn’t it be nice if your students and staff could get into netTrekker from school without having to log in? Well, it’s likely they can.
Many of netTrekker’s subscribing school districts choose to access netTrekker through IP Authentication. This means that when students and staff go to netTrekker from a school computer, it automatically takes them into netTrekker without having to enter a username or password. In fact, most of netTrekker’s districts with the highest usage access netTrekker in this manner, which you can imagine accounts for a certain amount of their success.
There are certain limitations regarding who can use this method, but if your entire district subscribes and you have a static IP range, you should look into it.
Click Here to go to where you can learn more and even complete our online form in order to set this up for your school/district. If you have questions, feel free to email us at contactus@nettrekker.com.
If you’re school or district uses IP authentication, feel free to leave a comment and let others know if you feel this is something useful to pursue.
Resource Round Up
We are often asked how a teacher can recommend a site or other great resource for netTrekker. These resources are often either great state or local websites, resources for very specific science topics, great book links, sites that are available in other languages, and great cultural resources. Sometimes it’s just a great personal website with lots of curriculum connections. We want to include these resources, and so we are pleased to announce a very easy form for you to submit them for our content editors to review, align to standards and have added to netTrekker for every student and teacher to use.
To submit a resource, you will need access to netTrekker Village. That means you need to be a member! Once you are a member, check out the form under Events titled “Resource Round Up“. Fill in as many details as you can and submit it. Make sure to include your name and a legitimate email so we can contact you once your resource is added in, or in case we need more information.
While you are at netTrekker Village, take a look at the new events added to the calendar. If you would like to host an event, in order to share a website tool found in netTrekker or a great lesson, please contact Danielle Abernethy. We’re hosting topics such as Museum Box, Social Networking, and netTrekker specific. Join us for one or more today!
By submitting new resources or taking part in an event, you help make us stronger and more resourceful for all of your research needs. To say thank you, you will automatically be entered in our monthly Power Networking Contest.
Up the Mountain, Down the Mountain
This past Thursday I was sent to Oregon for a training scheduled for Friday. I was ecstatic at the opportunity to train, to see the great West, and to see the mountains.
I woke up at 2 am EST and made it to the Tampa airport without incident. The flight was comfortable, but long, and by the time I landed in Portland, Oregon, I was ready to go! I got the rental car, set my Garmin for the lengthy ride ahead of me, set my iTunes to play my favorite driving playlist, and set off. The colors were simply amazing! I’m a Florida girl right now, and we just don’t see those fiery reds, blazing oranges, golden yellows or lush greens in our leaves as the seasons change. Nature’s palette was rich and exciting to view. Add in the backdrop of the mountains and the crisp cool air, I was ready for an adventure!
I just wasn’t ready to drive up the mountain.
Moulton, Jim. mt_hood.jpg. July 3, 2009. Pics4Learning. 12 Oct 2009
It’s been a long time since I drove up a mountain. And actually, I’ve always been the passenger, never the driver, and therefore could tune out the sights if needed with a book or looking the other way. But as the driver, your eyes must stay on the road, with an occasional glance in your rear view mirror. As I drove up the mountain and neared the edge, I looked at all those gorgeous colors in a sea of trees below me, and the panic attack set in. I didn’t realize how close to the edge I really was while going up Mount Hood. I then started taking note of how fast other cars were flying down the mountain, of the cars that were right on my tail to get up the mountain, or of the fact that I didn’t see a guard rail (and what would a guard rail do for me if I did have an accident and hit one?). There were also warning signs of ice, to use chains if snowing, animal crossings, and falling rocks. These did nothing more than to heighten the feeling of my throat closing and the panic attack settling in even more. I’m sure my panic attacks were heightened by my tiredness because as soon as I crawled off the mountain and to the hotel in Madras, I crashed and had the strangest dream.
It was like one of those old educational film strips, with a narrator explaining how education works. Each student has a vehicle, his or her brain. None are the same. You have the Ford Focus I was driving that strained to go up hill, the 18 wheeler that was on my tail forcing me to go faster, the SUV that was meant for that type of driving, and the zoom zoom sports car that scared the living daylights out of me as it passed each chance it got. The narrator noted that for each road there is a standard speed, but to expect some to slow down and some to speed up at their own comfort level. The narrator also pointed out there were areas to pull over and enjoy the view, areas to pull over and let the more accelerated people pass, sometimes a double lane to let people pass, and areas to pull over and test your brakes before going down a hill. All along the way you had the beautiful trees poking out with their vibrant hues and a look at the immediate fall if you didn’t handle the vehicle just right.
And as the narrator explained this to the class watching the film strip in my dream, the comparisons made me realize even more that the panic attack my son, and any other learning challenged student, must feel when faced to learn something new in a way they are not comfortable with must be like. While the end destination is absolutely thrilling, peaceful and worthwhile, the ride itself can be a bit scary. It also made me think of those who go so fast, that they miss the view, and even become bored with the end result because there’s not enough of a challenge for them. For instance, take that SUV that was able to go along at just the right pace, taking in the views, and able to enjoy the end result without crashing into a panic attack. Then there was the 18 wheeler that came pushing up on my tail (where I couldn’t even see the headlights, just the grill), who was like those who just don’t understand everyone moves at their own pace and that we must accommodate for them. (He wouldn’t even pass me when he had a chance, instead increasing my fear by staying right there.) It also made me realize the value of carpooling, or collaborative learning.
I wish I could say it was easier going down the mountain, but I can’t. I still panicked a little, but I knew when to pull over into the slow zones and let others pass me by and I was prepared for the onslaught of nerves prickling my neck. Thank goodness it didn’t rain or snow, I would really have been in trouble.
But the trip up the mountain did make me more thankful to work in education, and with netTrekker. I see netTrekker as a tool helping to support all levels on the course of learning with readability and grade levels, accommodating where possible by making it easier to find a place to pull over and practice those skills with resources that match the student’s learning style, lending a tool to help make it easier (like chains on the tires for snow) with features like read aloud and dictionary hot key. And yes, the collaborative learning power of My Portfolio and netTrekker Village.
But more importantly, we have some of the best teachers as users who are sharing these features with their students and enabling them all to drive, easing the learner out of the panic attacks, so they can drive smoothly up the mountain.
These pictures are courtesy of me pulling over on the way down, once I was by myself on the road and felt comfortable to take a snapshot. The image of Mt. Hood is from Pics4Learning, as indicated in the caption.
Are You the Biggest User?
This blog post is the first of an exciting series to come. Many of us are inspired by the hard work and accomplishments of the men and women who participate in The Biggest Loser. Through coaching and the support of peers these dedicated individuals learn new things and discover tools and strategies to gain a wonderful new lifestyle.
This experience is much like the virtual community in NT101, netTreker’s Online Professional Development Course. We are currently in our sixth session and our participant group includes a diverse group of over 200 people including teachers, media specialists, curriculum coordinators, administrators, and content evaluators all representing many regions of the United States.
I recently sent out a request to the NT101 Alumni groups to write in and let us know how they are doing “after they left the training camp.” Within just a few minutes, I had an amazing response. Jo Anne McClelland from Sierra Sands School District in Ridgecrest California wrote back to me, “I Have a Great One!” She explained to me that on the first day of school, during first period, as she was checking attendance, she noticed one of her eighth graders who had not answered roll call. Knowing he was a new, unfamiliar face, Jo Anne matched him up with the one name left on her roster. At the end of the day she received a message from the office that this new student was from China, had only been in the United States for two weeks and spoke very little English. JoAnne knew absolutely NO Chinese. After working with him a few days, it was evident that he read and understood English a little better than he could speak.
JoAnne called in “netTrekker to the rescue” with the Read Aloud feature. “I just pull up a list of search results that relate to our lesson of the day, have him use my computer and he loves exploring, with the assistance of ‘Mike’ or ‘Lauren’ to help him learn English and history. It’s been 7 weeks and now he brings an electronic translator to class and is able to complete most of the written work that the class is working on. Thank you netTrekker!”
This is just one of the many training success stories. Visit netTrekker Village to join our online learning community, meet members in your regional group, participate in discussions, enjoy reading Best Practices, watching videos and learning about exciting upcoming events. If you have training success story to share, please let us know. You may be the next Biggest User.
Techno-Novice Call For Help
There’s a request for help on the discussion board by a netTrekker Villager who would like me to fly to him and assist him for a week. Unfortunately, I’m not going to be able to make it to Northbridge, but I still want to help. My first tip, take it at an even pace. Try one thing at a time, and then add the next step. Don’t try to do all of it at once!
There are more great tips and ideas in the Teacher Tools Section of netTrekker. There are a few resources that are linked to the One Computer Resources and a few more for the One-to-One Computing.
A great tip I have learned over the years came from a friend of mine, Tom Turner. Tom’s school bought a bunch of SMART Boards last year and he needed to find a way to “hook” his teachers into using them. His secret weapon? netTrekker.
Tom did a search, refined his search by the collection of SMART, and pulled up those resources to share with his teachers. Once he showed them how easy it was to find SMART notebooks already created by other educators, how cool they were to use on the SMART Board, and what other interactive sites were like on the SMART Board, they were hooked! Once they got used to just using pre-made SMART notebooks, he then taught them how to make their own. He even used resources in netTrekker to help build those resources.
If you have a great tip on how to get started, please visit netTrekker Village and let Dean know. Help a fellow teacher out.
Engaging Students Through Personalized Learning
You’re going to start hearing this a lot from us in the near future – netTrekker helps you engage students through personalized learning. This is, in fact, our new “tagline.” You may be asking yourself, “What was netTrekker’s tagline before, and why did they need to change it?”
Good questions. netTrekker previously used these two taglines:
- The #1 educational search tool for K-12 schools.
- Redefining search to help every child learn.
Why did we change our tagline? We needed a tagline that:
- Better reflects our focus on student-centered learning tools
- Positions netTrekker as more than just a “search engine/search tool for schools”
- Represents the purpose of our expanding line of educational solutions
In coming months, new content, tools and resources will be added to netTrekker, shifting its function from that of an educational search engine to a digital solution (content and tools) repository built on the industry’s most powerful search platform.
How did we choose THIS tagline? Engaging students through personalized learning.
After much consideration of feedback from our customers and employees, review of primary and secondary research findings and trends in the industry, as well as first hand discussions with educators, this tagline was selected because it:
- Speaks directly to the biggest challenge facing the education world (engaging students).
- It introduces the new category of solutions that we are evolving into (personalized learning).
One of our Customer Advisory Board members who helped us reach this decision was Mary Woodard, Director of Library Services in Mesquite ISD in Texas. She shared why she thinks this was the right tagline for netTrekker and what she hopes netTrekker will become with this new mission – Engaging students through personalized learning.
“In this tagline, I see two words that are a focus in our district: engaging and personalized. In order for 21st century students to be successful, they must be engaged with their learning, and this is a challenge in today’s fast-paced world. Web 2.0 technologies now make it possible for students to customize and personalize the information that they receive, so that it is tailored to their specific learning needs. This customization makes learning personal and meaningful for each individual and is the best way to keep students engaged. I’m excited to see how netTrekker might merge web 2.0 features like RSS and embeddable widgets with their already robust search engine.”
What features would you like to see netTrekker add to help you engage students through personalized learning?
Concept to Classroom
Can you say FREE Professional Development? Can you say work from home in your own time (and maybe even in your PJ’s)? Concept to Classroom, our first netTrekker Site of the Day spotlight, is a free series of award-winning professional development workshops covering important and timely topics in education such as:
- after-school programs,
- cooperative and collaborative learning,
- inquiry-based learning,
- web quests,
- use of the Internet in the classroom, and more.
The workshops are intended for teachers, administrators, librarians, or anyone interested in education — and there’s no technical expertise required. They are self-paced, so you can explore them on your own time and go back as often as you like; you can take all of the workshops, or just one. Professional development credit can also be obtained after completing a workshop. Bring on that online learning!
Click here to login to netTrekker and access today's Site of the Day.
Quick! Login to netTrekker before midnight (eastern) today to access the netTrekker Site of the Day. Be sure to add it to My Portfolio for quick/easy future reference. After midnight, the new Site of the Day will go up and you’ll have to look for today’s site using netTrekker’s search tool.
Not yet a netTrekker subscriber? Visit www.nettrekker.com and click on the Free Trial link at the top right of the page for 14 days of complimentary access to netTrekker.
Coming soon: netTrekker Site of the Day Spotlights
Click here to login to netTrekker.
With so many amazing resources to be found in netTrekker, we thought it might be handy to highlight a resource each day via the netTrekker blog. So, starting next week, we’ll feature a quick, short post each morning to highlight a netTrekker Site of the Day.
Each morning, the Site of the Day will be posted linking you to the netTrekker login page. Jump in, click on the Site of the Day banner and save the resource to My Portfolio.
Share the Site of the Day with your colleagues–if they don’t already have a netTrekker subscription, they can register for a free trial.
We’ll do our best to give examples of how to use the resources with students in the hopes that you’ll share ideas of your own too. If you’re interested in being a guest blogger highlighting how you use netTrekker with students, drop me a line by clicking here.
Or if you find an awesome site in netTrekker that you think should be highlighted, drop us a line with the URL and we’ll take a look at it.
Getting By With A Little Help
I mentioned yesterday that I read a variety of blogs, articles and other goodies first thing in the morning. Well at night, I treat myself to a bit of the entertainment news and last night in my alerts were a few pages with updates about David Cook.
I admit, I didn’t watch American Idol faithfully until his season, and season 8 didn’t hold my attention as much because David Cook was not a contestant. I’m a cougar cub for David Cook, what can I say?
Well in last night’s alerts was something about Adam Lambert, a very talented runner up for season 8 – but still not my favorite over David. Adam grabbed my attention last night, and in turn has influenced me to buy my son Adam’s debut CD. Why? Because of this commercial he made for DonorsChoose. DonorsChoose is an awesome program where teachers can write up a project or request resources that they need funding, then regular people like yourself can donate. You can give as little or as much as you can. Adam is passionate about the arts, a great outlet for kids with ADHD (like Adam mentioned in one interview) and even for kids with learning disabilities, so he advocates donating to the arts in schools.
If you are a classroom teacher, and you need to find resources for your classroom, check out DonorsChoose and see if your wish list qualifies. You can include a netTrekker subscription add-on to Weekly Reader or BrainPOP. Weekly Reader Online will help you save trees, while promoting literacy skills and global understanding using this trusted classroom resource. BrainPOP – well “the more you know, the more you know”, and their movies will help you be in the know, along with the quizzes and interactive media. Both premium upgrades lend to more interaction in the classroom, and deeper learning of content.
If you are looking for grants, then check out netTrekker’s Teacher Tools (the feature I mentioned yesterday). Click on 
Professional Development and then there will be a topic on grants. There are many great sites with grants still available, for as little as $100 to the thousands! The Federal Government to Best Buy to HP to Dollar General offer grants that can benefit reading programs or your greatest dream as a teacher. We even have great links to websites that will help you write the grants you’re searching for.
Thank you Adam for highlighting DonorsChoose. Best of luck to any teacher submitting for a grant. Make sure you also keep an eye on our Funding Update Page by Alan Whisman for federal funding information. (You can subscribe to the page via RSS and make it even easier to keep up with. And while you’re at it, subscribe to the main blog as well!)
TeachEngineering with a Special Touch
In a recent article from eSchool News about building momentum in STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), there was an urge to not forget the T and E in the curriculum.
“One of the findings is that discussions of STEM tend to be focused on science, sometimes math, rarely both together–usually they’re siloed, and the T and especially the E are really just left out of the discussion in policy, education, and classroom practice,” Greg Pearson, an NAE program officer, said.
“Even though we use that acronym, in terms of what’s really happening and what people really mean, engineering is the silent letter.”
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!
netTrekker has a New Home!
Our office buzzed with excitement yesterday as everyone began their first day in the new netTrekker headquarters. The space offers new possibilities to improve the way we think, operate, and live out our company motto of “doing something good for kids!” As we expanded and outgrew our last building, our teams were split between two neighboring offices. This new space allows us to come together again for a more collaborative and customer focused environment.
Randy Wilheim is the CEO of netTrekker and the true heart of the company. He’s a visionary and knows how to make those visions reality. He envisioned a “home” where the team could work together, all in the same office, so ideas could take root and grow. He wanted a place where the meeting rooms were of abundance so each team could meet to accomplish goals. He visualized a place where ideas could flow and he thought back to where things flow in his own house, so he included a beautiful kitchen with plenty of space to work, laugh, relax and be energized. And since the kitchen is the heart of the home, he wrapped his employees, the netTrekker family, in a heart. If you look up at the front of the office, there is a blue piece of art that is the shape of a half of a heart that winds through the office space.
When the offsite team was up there in July, Randy gave us a tour of a new building and space, and I can promise you that it is every bit of Randy’s vision and more. And for those of you who have visited the offices before, you remember how on the wall was our mantra, “Go do something good for the kids.” it’s still there, reminding each netTrekker employee of our ultimate goal and the reason we are blessed to walk through the doors of netTrekker each day (or work from home for them).
As the new school year starts, I encourage you to find the heart of your classroom and a way to wrap your students in that heart. Use it as a subtle way to remind you and your students each day of their mantra–their purpose. Maybe start the first day off deciding what that mantra is. And remember to build in time to laugh, work in a relaxed cooperative group setting, and to do something good. It will not only do your brain good and increase productivity, but will do your heart good too.
Check out these pictures of us kicking off the future of netTrekker with our new home!
Jama Wade, THINKronite of the Year.
Mimi Jett, General Manager, and Mike Logan, Manager of IT/IS
Thomas Bain and Mike Casagrande, Account Managers
Katrina Smith, Office Administrator
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