Get on track with TrackStar!

I learned about TrackStar at a conference, and it has become a favorite of mine. TrackStar is a tool for collecting web sites for online activities and lessons. You enter the sites into TrackStar and add directions, questions, or annotations for your students to create an interactive online lesson called a track. Create your own or search the database for one that's already made on your topic. You can search by subject, grade level, keyword, or standard. There is a fun track made for everday of the year, too! The site also allows you to build a website for your track or make a quiz. The tool is free and if you author your own track and a link goes down. The site emails you to let you know. You never get in the lab and get the dreaded message, "This page is no longer available." The view in frames guides the kids through the web pages while displaying your annotations at the top of the frame. The view in text is an online printable version of any text you entered. It makes an instant worksheet for the kids to use to record their answers and notes.

I use my Hispanic Artists and Folktales Track to guide the students through the artists and for kids that are gone during the class presentations to catch up on their own. It cuts the time needed and directs them to the examples I want them to see. (In the case of art, there are pictures I would prefer the students didn't see with every artist.) After studying the artists and reading, watching, and listening to folktales, myths, fables, and legends from a variety of countries, the students create a mural portraying a scene from one of the stories in the style of one of the artists. They present it to the class and explain how and why they connected the two. We also use one on Paris Monuments to take our students through a quick tour of Paris along with a little history along the way. Students can refer back to the tracks as they complete the final projects for the unit.My friend, Kristen, and I taught an in-service class on this tool and now several teachers use it on a regular basis in a variety of subjects.

Now, if you want to make your own, here's my suggestion. Search the database and bookmark sites you like on delicious. Then go in and create the perfect track for your class. That way you are the track master and no one else can change your track or make it disappear. POOF!