Thinkfinity

= __**Thinkfinity**__ =

__**Description of Assignment:**__ This assignment made us explore the Thinkfinity Portal at []. This website provides thousands of educational resources, interactive websites, lesson plans, parent resources, and after school programs. Our job was to pick two lessons that we could incorporate into a unit that we teach in our classroom. Each lesson had to be described in a write-up explain what part it played in our overall educational unit. This helped us come up with great, easy ways to infuse technology into our already existing curriculum.

__**Assignment:**__ [|Eggsactly_Equivalent_from_Thinkfinity.doc] The first lesson plan I took from Thinkfinity was called Eggsactly Equivalent. This lesson was based around filling multiple egg carts so they represent the same portion even though the fractions look different.

[|Survey_of_Hair_and_Eye_Colors_from_Thinkfinity.doc] The second lesson plan I took from Thinkfinity was called Survey of Hair and Eye Color. This lesson was based around a worksheet guided survey study. The students collect data of the class' hair colors and eye colors then analyze the data by most popular and least popular as well as what the data would look like as a decimal if out of a sample of 100 students.

__**Reflection:**__ The Thinkfinity assignment opened my eyes to a resource I was aware of but had never used. I was unaware of just how much this portal provided for classroom teachers. I truly enjoyed viewing actual lessons planned out. They helped me to see how this website or interactive activity could be used in class for more than a free-time game or extra practice. As a teacher, I find it hard to always create ideas, so it is great to have a new resource that has ideas I can use rather than create from scratch. I chose two math lessons to work into already existing units, one on data and the other on fractions. The data analysis unit is based on surveys and graphs but often ends up being a class activity where we do one survey and put it on the board or look at premade graphs. This lesson opened up the option of letting the survey be student run along with a worksheet and follow up activity. Just by inserting this one day into my unit, I feel that the students will have a stronger foundation when it comes to representing data. The great thing about this lesson was that not only did it include the usual mode, median, and ranger options but it also brought fractions and percents into the picture, which shows up in the next unit. In the fraction unit, I inserted the other lesson plan found via Thinkfinity. This lesson demonstrates equivalent fractions through pictures. So many times, we tend to jump right into the number representations because that’s what the end result should be but by giving the students one day of placing eggs in the baskets several different ways, I think the number version of the same fractions will have more meaning to them. I am excited to apply the lessons and continue to gather more from this great resource. I hope to even branch out into the Language Arts lesson plans in order to enrich my grammar lessons.