Thinkfinity Training Outline

Total Time: 45–60 minutes

Quick Intro (5 minutes)

Digital Learning Commons Homepage

• Introduce staff to the website and show them how to access resources.
• Point out the Search box (appears on every page) and the About section.
• Explain differences between Students, Educators, and Parents sections.

Thinkfinity

Thinfinity (formerly MarcoPolo) provides free, high-quality educational resources to teachers and students. They make it easy to integrate Internet resources into your classroom. These standards-based resources include lesson plans, student materials, reviewed Web resources, and interactives. To see how Thinkfinity resources align to state standards, go to Thinkfinity in Washington. Thinkfinity also provides professional development support to teachers via regularly scheduled distance learning sessions.

Intro Activities (15–30 minutes)

Search Thinkfinity: This search function is located in the upper-right hand corner of the Thinkfinity homepage. The Thinkfinity search engine provides access to all of the educational resources created by the Thinkfinity Partners plus Partner reviewed materials. Results are displayed and sorted with the most relevant ones appearing first.

Partner Search: Thinkfinity Partners are listed on the right-hand side of the homepage. You can go directly to a Partner website by clicking on its image. Then you can explore each of the partner's sites and content individually instead of all at once.

Teaching Resources: Teaching resources are located in the blue box below the Thinkfinity icon. Click on the More icon to access this section. You can access specific materials from the left-hand navigation box or the main section of this web page. You'll find various materials and ideas to help integrate Thinkfinity into your curriculum.

• About: Find information about how Thinkfinity was developed and how the system is structured.
• Thinkfinity Content: Explore Thinkfinity's wide variety of lesson plans, standards related content, and other educational resources.
• How to Use Thinkfinity: Find guides and tips that will support you in using Thinkfinity in the classroom.
• Thinkfinity Resources: Additional resources.

Digging Deeper (15–20 minutes)

Teaching Resources: Take the time to dig into each one of the teaching resources. There is a wealth of rich resources in this section.

Professional Development: Find content that will help you integrate and effectively train others to use Thinkfinity resources. Thinkfinity has a training center, online training opportunities and materials, and more.

Thinkfinity in Washington: Access lesson plans and curriculum that align specifically with Washington State Standards, EALRs, and GLEs. You can search for the high level EALRS, or dig deeper to the individual components. The link below will take you directly to the Thinkfinity in Washington homepage.
http://www.thinkfinity.wednet.edu/

Additional Resources

Technology Tips: Find more strategies for enhancing your teaching with web content in Classroom Integration. You'll find these technology tips under How to Use Thinkfinity in the Teacher Resources section.

Training Resource Center: Electronic copies of print materials, ready-made training presentations, activity development templates, and an interactive Agenda Creator. You can browse Thinkfinity's training resources or search resource titles and descriptions for specific keywords. Training resources and agendas created using the Agenda Creator can also be saved so that they are readily available from this page.

Training Tips: Trainers across the nation submit practical training tips that are beneficial to activities before, during, and after the training session.

Thinkfinity Flash Tour: A comprehensive overview of Thinkfinity.

Assessments (2–5 minutes)

Return to the Digital Learning Commons website. Click on the Training Evaluation link, which appears at bottom of every page on the site.