Thinkfinity



**Cruising through Thinkfinity By Jackie Ruley**

=Brief Description:= This assignment introduced us to the use of Thinkfinity. Thinkfinity is a portal used for integrating technology in the classroom. Thinkfinity provides a wealth of educational and literacy resources for students, parents and after-school programs. The information is reviewed by the nation's leading education organizations to ensure that content is accurate, up-to-date, unbiased and appropriate for students. I was challenged to find and select two lessons that I could use as part of an instructional unit in my class. Once I made my decision, I had to describe my instructional unit, the Thinkfinity lesson and why the lesson would be an integral part of the instructional unit.

=Link:= []

What do you like to eat? Where is your favorite restaurant? Have you ever wondered what makes a menu so attractive? Let your students do the research and create their own. In the process, they will learn descriptive language.



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Grocery Store Scavenger Hunt: Researching Nutrition to Advertise for Health Read it before you eat it!



=Process:= When I started searching for topics in Thinkfinity, I wanted to find topics that would interest me and that would engage the students. One thing that every culture has in common is eating. This started my search for topics under resturants, food, eating, etc. I came across a topic on descriptive writing that would allow the students to analyze menus from various resturants including fast food and to use descriptive writing to create their own menu and a topic on grocery store scavenger hunt allowing the students to research nutrition labels. =Thinkfinity Sites to explore:=

How to give a Presentation How Journaling can improve your writing skills.

=Reflection:= Thinkfinity offered so many suggestions to get the creative juices flowing. The course that I selected was to help the students improve in their descriptive writing and learn the value of nutritional labels. Thinkfinity provided the framework around the course work. I found the detailed directions and suggestions very helpful, yet it allowed room for my own creativity. As I worked through the course work, I wanted to make sure that the students would be engaged. This age group gets bored very quickly, so I wanted to challenge them in a fun way.

I like the tool and the resources, but it took time to search for what I was looking for. Once I put in the leg work, it allowed me to tweak it, delete what I didn't like or agree with and add to it until I got the end result that I was looking for. I thought it was a very user friendly, a great resource and practical way of reaching all learning styles.