This year we purchased DE Assessment for our school. I have been sold on this product since I first saw it 3 years ago (as Think Link). I’ve done a little training, and we just finished our first round of benchmark tests (yes, we started late).
Today, I realized it was really going to have an impact on somebody besides me.A teacher walked into my room with her eyes wide and said, “OH…..MY…..GOSH! This is the coolest thing ever!” When I finally got her to calm down, I was able to ask her what she was talking about.
It turns out she had just created her first Practice Probe in language arts. The question bank directly addressed the skills she was working on, and several questions applied directly to the stories they read (Tell Tale Heart and Legend of Sleepy Hollow). She was able to choose easy and moderate questions for most of the test, then added one or two hard questions to help separate advanced students from the others.”It only took clicking a few buttons! And I was done in minutes!” she exclaimed. ”I used to have to cut and paste questions I found to make my tests look like TCAP tests. Now it is automatic.” With that, she was out the door to go talk to her department head about how much she loves DE Assessment.
This type of response is what it will take to get the program again next year. My fingers are crossed.
A short while ago, I got a Skype message from Danielle Abernathy asking me to take a look at an upcoming post for her new blog, NetTrekker d.i. I was quite honored to do so. The idea of a blog for NetTrekker was quite appealing to me, and I immediately thought about posting a short blog here at Discovery to let others know it was out there. Then, I found out it was “live” yet. Shhhhh.But now, the blog is very much live and is one I highly recommend you add to your RSS feeds.Our school has had access to NetTrekker as long as we’ve had access to DE Streaming (long enough that everyone still calls it unitedStreaming except me). Yet, I feel it is a greatly undervalued tool at our school. The quick and easy way to search, I’ve heard, is Google. Google rules the world. Yet, I can personally attest to the fact that I have spent countless hours over the years searching Google in vain for “just the right resource.”NetTrekker can solve that problem. NetTrekker allows you to really zero in on what you want, and the results have been vetted to make them relevant to educational uses. If you haven’t used NetTrekker, or if your school or district doesn’t subscribe to NetTrekker, you are really missing out on a great tool your teachers will come to love.Danielle’s new blog will help you learn a lot about how to use it effectively. So what are you waiting on? Head over there now!
The Tennessee Educational Technology Conference (TETC) will be held in Nashville, TN, from December 10 to 12 at the Nashville Convention Center. This year we have the wonderful opportunity to have THE Hall Davidson as a keynote speaker. Yes, the DEN’s original Rock Star will be our very special guest.In addition, I just received word that my presentation on Using Skype in the Classroom was accepted! Final details will be posted later. The DEN LC has more proposals awaiting approval as well, so look for those details at a later date.You can register for TETC here.
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