Nettrekker d.i.

School.nettrekker.com

Website Review #1

http://school.nettrekker.com

I chose the website, Nettrekker d.i.(differentiated instruction). It is a teacher curriculum resource that offers lesson plans, student activities, and related websites. This website is provided to Converse County School District #1 (Douglas) by the Wyoming Education Gateway Initiative. Our school district is a subscriber of this program/website. During our staff development day, we spent time browsing and using this website. From what little time I have spent on it, I have found it to be very beneficial and effective in internet research. It is specific for the teacher and student alike.

As mentioned, this site is very beneficial for students and teachers. I especially like the fact that it is categorized into grade level, but I still can access, elementary websites if I like. Here is a summary of site contents:

• lesson plan resources for teachers correlated to the standards
• student content resources
• web links that have been tested and organized for relevancy

-overall rating

-authority/credibility

-multimedia content

-Content language for the ESL learner

-readability score (have we found a source that our students can read and understand.

• -Level 1 grades 1-3
• -Level 2 grades 4-6
• -Level 3 grades 7-8
• -Level 4 grades 9-10
• -Level 5 grades 11-12+
• Web links that have been tested for grade level.
• Additional views for information, such as timelines, biographies, calendar, and more
• Collection of link to reference websites
• Filter for specific information:

-Assessments, bibliographies, biographies, formulas, lesson plans, learning exercised, learning games, maps, charts, primary source, quotations

• It provides access to all of the above in Science, Social Studies, Language Arts, Mathematics, World Languages, and Health/Physical Fitness all within the elementary, middle, and high school level. The site is endless!
• Has a voice read-aloud feature (quick time is required)
• May use java virtual machine for some interactive demonstrations and examples

As I reflect and see a connection with this site, I am excited and please that there is a website with a tremendous amount of validity. When I am on the web looking for information, stories, etc, I seem to get “as lost” as my students. As I began using this site, I wanted to find some specific information on psychologists. Because these sites have been rated and are valid, I now know that what I have printed is effective material.

I see this as an effective tool for my students. When they are researching a topic this website will allow them to look at valid sources, not just the .coms that they believe are valid. There is also an added bonus for the student. One they have registered on a school computer, they can access nettrekker from any other computer. This puts the parent component into the picture.

Chapter One: New Literacies for New Times by Donald Leu

New ideas and more ideas come from this chapter!

One, I am very excited to visit the memory.loc.gov site. I too believe that students should be looking at historical documents and artifacts. They should be reading the document, writing about them, and using their critical thinking skills.

Two, The Internet is our students. They use it everyday. I watch my daughter and son, use it for more than research. They use it to chat, shop, create projects, etc. If my children are that versed in using the Internet, we know that our students are. It is a highly motivation teaching tool. One that needs to be monitored closely, but such an effective tool.

Three, as we lead our students in to being more productive, civic-minded, and empowered students and people, we need to help them focus on the following skills:
*identifying important questions
*Navigating information
*critically evaluating information
*synthesizing information
and *communicating the solutions.
These skills as we all know are higher level skills found within Bloom's taxonomy. The Internet can be overwhelming, but no more overwhelming when reading a book as a research source. We as educators need to work closely with our students in a focus-centered activity. I find that if I lead them to the direct source, their work is more productive.

This chapter without a doubt has sparked my teaching. I have been tying to be more innovative in my teaching. The multiple list of websites have sparked the teaching. I have more tools to add to my tool box, and after 22 years of teaching. I am always looking for some "free and new" tools :)

Funds of Knowledge for Teaching by Luis Moll

I have found with this reading that it's number one component is to make learning relevant, building relationships, and through these two key components, the learning can become rigorous. It was prevalent in the reading how important building relationships not just with the students, but with the family, too.

In my teaching, I find that I can build relationships quite easy with my students. I do have to admit that I don't do very well with phone calls home, or involving parents in our everyday classroom. This was something that I made a commitment to last year. I am doing better in bringing in the parent and community into my classroom.

I reflected upon the following terms that were shared in the reading: thick/multi-stranded, think single stranded, and funds of knowledge.
I work hard to know students in a thick/multi stranded relationship. By building relationships we as teachers can best meet the needs of our learners. We know their concerns, their needs, and that sometimes "school" is not their number one priority.

Funds of knowledge....is just a cool word for culture. What a great term to take into a government, psychology, and especially a geography classroom.

This was a wonderful article to reflect upon. The research is becoming more evident. We need to build relationships and make learning relevant!

Introduction :Trading Cards to Comic Strips

As I read the first two pages of this introduction, I immediately began thinking of my own 2 children. My children read Blues Clues to me. Many times they would make up new songs to cartoon songs. It became a family tradition to do this!

What a connection!

Popular culture text are what our students are using. They are extremely computer/technologically literate. I am still trying to figure out how to use my husband's i-pod. I really am not that "illiterate", only in some categories .

Setting up this blog was a bit of a challenge. Thanks Patrick for the great directions. I'd still be back on step 2. :)

One key idea I felt was expressed in this introduction, is to make school learning more relevant to our students. Popular culture text lends itself to that. The three step purpose of this text is making the student's learning relevant.

The challenge awaits us!