Thinkfinity

 **//Thinkfinity // ** // Thinkfinity.org is a valuable educational tool and web platform for teachers. The Thinkfinity site offers more than 55,000 free educational resources, teacher lesson plans based on national education standards, and interactive activities for K-12 teachers. In addition, it offers professional and comprehensive professional development for teachers, as well as adult and family literacy practitioners. // || Process: //**// During the month of November, I teach a unit on the Pilgrims and the First Thanksgiving, I was looking for ways to enhance my traditional Thanksgiving Unit. I searched the Thinkfinity site for two supplemental lessons to use with my Thanksgiving unit. After finding various lesson, I thoroughly read and briefly evaluated each one. I also visited the websites that were listed as additional resources. I wanted to make this year's Thanksgiving Unit more creative, integrate technology, and use a variety of lesson plans, books, web resources and activities. However, most importantly, I wanted to utilize information and activities that were appropriate and easily understood by second graders. I incorporated two different Thinkfinity lessons into my unit. I will continue to use the Thinkfinity website as a valuable resource for enhancing and integrating technology into my lesson plans //.// In addition, I found a special lesson that I will be using during the month of December: The Gift of Holiday Traditions: Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Christmas. I believe this lesson will help my students gain an understanding of how other cultures celebrate during the month of December. However, most importantly, the lesson meets the following NCTE/IRA standards for Language Arts: // //1, 2, 3, 5, 5, 8, 9, 12. In the future, I will continue to utilize the Thinkfinity website for its various resources //. ||<  || Reflection: //** // As an educator in the 21st century, I have a great responsibility to my students and myself, to learn about new technologies and determine ways to integrate them into our classrooms because our students will be competing in a global society. Therefore, I should be using technology to communicate, assemble and analyze information based on the demands of a changing society. As a teacher, I should be focusing more on enhancing teaching and learning using 21st century strategies. I must create opportunities in our classroom for students to interact with each other in genuine learning experiences providing connections that are significant to developing their attitudes, motivation, and engagement toward learning. Our classrooms should be a reflection of the technology environments that students immerse themselves in on a daily basis. //// One of the Thinkfinity lesson plans included a website that students got to visit to hear how Pilgrims spoke. My students really got a kick out of listening to some of the things that the Pilgrims said as compared to what we say now, //@http://www.plimoth.org/kids/talk.php. ||  
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