EDIT 2000

Don't forget! We're not meeting face to face today, but TLAT #2 is due (I'll be grading tonight!) and you'll complete today's activities on your own. We're starting the last major section of our class over Problem Solving & Critical Thinking tools.

Exploring Thinkfinity

One of the uses of technology that many of us are very familiar with is the use of online resources for research activities. This task will help you to locate online resources to use in your grade/content area. First, we will preview several reliable educational resources. Don't forget to refer to the Georgia Performance Standards for your subject/grade level before moving on with this task (it will make it easier in the long run.)

There are many online resources that teachers use to collect tools and information. Today, we'll explore Thinkfinity. Here, we'll find resources for all content areas and all grade levels. So everyone in our class should be able to find something they can use. First, let's watch this overview of Thinkfinity. Then we'll watch the detailed tutorial that really explains how to incorporate web resources in classrooms.

Using what you learned from the video to explore the resources within Thinkfinity, spend about 15 minutes exploring the site to see what you can find. Try and focus on student interactive materials like the ones demonstrated in the detailed tutorial.

Creating an Enrichment Kit

One of the problems in education is the issue of “summer learning loss.” As a teacher, parents will look to you for ideas on how to prevent this “learning loss”. To help solve this problem, your task is to locate 8-10 exceptional web-based resources that a student from your grade/content area could use over the summer to enrich (NOT remediate -- look at what they'll be learning the next year after you've taught them) what they have learned in your class during the school year. You can focus on one topic or a multitude of topics. If you are focusing on elementary grades – you can focus on multiple subjects. These resources should include games and other interactive resources. Your resources should not be a set of webpages that contain only text. The Thinkfinity site is a great place to find interactive activities for any subject or grade level. (Hint – on any of the partner sites – look for words like “student interactive”).

As you locate your resources, add them to a new webpage on your portfolio called “Summer Tool Kit.” For each resource, provide the title of the resource, the web link, and a short description of how this tool can be used (make sure to decide if your audience for your descriptions is students or parents).

Once you have finished collecting your resources, write a 2-3 paragraph letter to parents describing the summer enrichment kit that you have developed. Give them highlights of what they will find in the kit, suggestions for how they might use it, and a link to your Summer ToolKit webpage. (If you are teaching high school students you might want to talk to them in the letter instead of parents). You can attach the letter to the webpage. Here’s an example for an elementary Spanish student (the parent letter is attached at the bottom of the linked page). Here is an example of the same assignment for elementary language arts. In this example, the student used a social bookmarking tool called Delicious to collect and organize her resources – then, of course, she attached the parent letter to the bottom of the page. If you’d like to organize your resources using this tool (instead of simply listing them with descriptions on your website) – you can learn how to use it here.

For Next Week

1. Complete your Enrichment Kit; it is due on Thursday, April 12.