Thinkfinity News
2009 AAAS/Subaru Essay Writing Competition Open for Submissions
Science NetLinks is pleased to announce that its sixth annual AAAS/Subaru Essay Writing Competition for K-12 Educators is now open for submissions.
The competition, which is open to teachers from the United States and Canada, offers teachers the opportunity to share their knowledge on designing science lesson plans and integrating technology into the classroom in a short essay. The deadline is Dec. 8. Winners will have an opportunity to attend the AAAS Conference in Chicago in February and be recognized at the conference.
For more information, including links to a downloadable flyer and submission instructions, go to http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/essays
Thinkfinity Trainer News
On July 28, 2008, Thinkfinity launched a brand new information management system that replaced the old Rusticello database. For those Field Trainers and Certified Trainers who have not yet been trained on this new system, we highly encourage you to sign up for one of our “How to Manage Your Training Data” training sessions.
These hour-long interactive webinars cover, among other things, how to register multi-day sessions, how to invite other trainers to co-present with you, and how to print out training certificates for attendees
To attend one of these sessions, please click on the following link:
http://tims.thinkfinity.org/CourseSessions/AttendeeSignIn.aspx?CourseID=82
Smithsonian's History Explorer
On Monday, September 15, the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, in partnership with Verizon's Thinkfinity.org, launched “Smithsonian's History Explorer.” The museum's new education Web site offers free, standards-based, innovative resources for teaching and learning American history.
Resources available to teachers, parents, students and others include lessons, activities and interactive games that can be searched by grade level, keyword and historical era. Learning activities feature objects selected from the more than 3 million artifacts in the museum's collections and draw on the expertise of the museum's renowned curatorial staff making “Smithsonian's History Explorer” a unique educational experience.
Students can sharpen their critical thinking skills by exploring objects such as a Native American buffalo hide painting, taking electronic behind-the-scenes field trips with museum curators to learn how exhibitions are produced, or playing online matching games where they can discover the seven roles of the President or how to build a sod house.
Teachers will find a wealth of standards-based classroom activities, interactives, media clips and museum objects that can easily be integrated into any K-12 curriculum, as well as professional development opportunities that will help them bring history to life for their students.
“Smithsonian's History Explorer” was developed under the guidance of a teacher advisory group and made possible by a grant from the Verizon Foundation. The site is accessible at http://historyexplorer.americanhistory.si.edu or via http://www.thinkfinity.org.
Lesson plan state alignment
Currently, state standards-aligned lesson plans are identified by a star in the search results. A search by standard function will be added in late Fall when the search engine is optimized and the standards database has been modified and after the 2-phase alignment is completely launched.
Texas Thinkfinity Trainer Network
108 new Field Trainers have been trained in the last three months. Based on records shared by the Verizon Foundation, Texas is leading the pack! Congratulations to all educators that have taken on the initiative and the goal to become Thinkfinity Field Trainers and train educators across the state.
Texas Thinkfinity Trainer Network logo
A logo has been designed for the Texas Thinkfinity Trainer Network. This logo is for the use of Texas Thinkfinity trainers to represent themselves with the intent to promote the Texas Thinkfinity Trainer Network program. For logo files, please email Monica Martinez at mmartinez@tcea.org.
My Thinkfinity
Thinkfinity is pleased to launch phase one of the new "MY Thinkfinity" space for users. By logging in to http://www.thinkfinity.org/MyThinkfinity.aspx, you will be able to view training sessions you have attended and update your personal information, including your e-mail address and organization.
Trainers can also access the Trainer Toolbox, view training sessions they have conducted, and register new training sessions after logging in.
State Education Partners have additional tools specific to their Thinkfinity program available through MY Thinkfinity.
In the future, MY Thinkfinity will be expanded to include additional features and functionality, such as the ability to save searches, bookmark and tag resources, share resources with fellow users and create your own content. These tools will be designed to give you a Web 2.0 experience, with more control over the site and how you use it.
MY Thinkfinity is your ticket to personalizing this site and making it work for you.
Please select "Login Now" and login with your Login ID (usually your e-mail address) and password and begin exploring what MY Thinkfinity has to offer. The Verizon Foundation redesigned the Thinkfinity website as well as the Thinkfinity management system.
Have an Awesome Idea on How to Train? Send Us Your Training Tips
Trainers across the nation can submit practical training tips that are beneficial to activities before, during and after the training session. Please submit your own training tip. (http://www.thinkfinity.org/pd/submit_tip.aspx?page_name=/pd/ft_tips.aspx)
Thinkfinity Certified Trainer Candidates Can Now Track Progress
Are you on a certification track and want to know where you are in the process? Trainers seeking certification can now keep track of their own progress through their login. The new Thinkfinity Informational Management System will recognize if you are on a certification track through your user login and password and will provide you with a checklist of items.
Content Partner News
-Smithsonian History Explorer launches on Sept. 15, 2008
-Three content partners: Science Netlinks, Read/Write/Think and Expeditions are redeveloping content
-Read/Write/Think has developed a blog: See what’s happened? http://sciencenetlinks.blogspot.com
-The Verizon Foundation has asked all of their content partners to add more parent and after school content.
Coming Soon
A sharing space for trainers to post comments, ask questions and receive feedback is being developed and will be available through the Thinkfinity website.
Training on the new Thinkfinity Informational Management System will be provided to past and new trainers that were working off the Rusticello system and are now in TIMS. Training will be available soon. An email with details of the training will be sent out in the fall.
Texas Thinkfinity Trainer’s of the Month
TCEA and Thinkfinity are proud to recognize Karen Horn and Denise Smesny who demonstrated outstanding effort in training sessions and outreach.
Read more >>