High-Quality Instructional Materials for Each Child

1) I really liked the final activity of finding and evaluating a lesson. Even though these resources are so easily accessible on INFOhio, teachers will still have to take intiative to find them. Once they are found, it's still important for teachers to evaluate and reflect on whether those resource will work in THEIR classrooms. 

2) I currently can't think of any modifications I would do to make this course better. It was rich with information, and I appreciated the way I was able to explore all the options for resources and tools at my own pace and discretion.

3) The Instructional Materials Rubric is a huge tool for me. This is a resource I could provide to teachers that is clear, explicit, and concise. It won't take much time to me to go through one of these with a teacher (or the teacher to do it on their own), and it will provide pertinent information to help them make decisions regarding materials they use in their classroom and how they use them. 

This course allowed me to have a better understanding of what HQIM is and why it is important. The most beneficial part of this course was having the opportunity to explore the resources and finding which would be most beneficial to share with teachers and districts. Again, because I am working with districts as they look to adopt new ELA curriculum I think the rubrics are going to be extremely helpful to me and the districts we serve. 

I think the most important aspect was the data about how few teachers use HQM in their lessons and instead rely on Google, TPT and other suspect sources. Infohio is absolutely the #1 jumping off point for teachers AND their students to find HQM based on the standards and grade-level. It's the best kep secret that shouldn't be one at all. 

The best part is definitely being able to proceed at your own pace through the modules. I did find the organization a bit confusing but that's probably common with just the wealth of materials that are available at each level. 

I really liked the abbreviated rubric to evaluate materials! It was painless to put something through the rubric for a quick identifier of whether it is worth continued exploration or use.

The most important thing I learned in this class is that there are actual review websites and tools that are available to evaluate instructional materials. This may seem obvious, but so many teachers, myself included, are not aware of this. Instead they rely on sharing lesson plans with colleagues, Teachers Pay Teachers, or finding other online sources for lessons. The tools provided in this class make it so easy for teachers to find standards-based, engaging, nonbiased materials that make teaching easier and ensure that students are meeting expectations.

The most important thing I learned from this class is that there are tons of different curriculum options that do not meet the standards of HQIMs, but there are also resources, like EdReports and Ohio Materials Matter Review, to help educators identify good curricula.

This is important to me because I know how many teachers are using materials from places like TPT, are spending their own money, and are not getting high quality material in return. 

Being a librarian, I am always finding and evaluating resources for students to use - but not necessarily taking it to the next step of directing teachers to the instructional materials.  They look at library resources as "my resources" and they bring students here to learn how to use them.  Incorporating the resources into the classroom is what will be most beneficial to students, and this class was very helpful in providing resources to do this (I actually think I will come back to this class again).  The most important things I learned in this class was how to promote these resources as supplemental resources for classroom curriculum and direct teachers to high quality instructional resources.  I think that the rubrics we learned about gave me that concrete list of things to look for to share with administrators and teachers to address their questions about why they would use a resource and why it is high quality.  I also LOVED the focus on curriculum literacy and the teachers' thoughts on textbooks.  I can't belive that teachers think that using the curriculum or the text book is looked at as a crutch!  Giving teachers the resources they need to acutally be a part of building the curriculum that they are teaching will give them a much needed voice in the process.  Overall, the lack of communication between departments is detrimental to the success of our students.  There are so many resources out there to align curricula and create engaging and differentiated lessons available to teachers that I'm very excited to start making some connections. 

I learned that there are resources that help to vet curriculum and in light of looking ahead, I can share this with those invested in Social Studies and they can do the reviewing to make informed suggestions to administration. 

I learned that to find Instructional Materials was easliy found right from infohio.  Once I show teachers where they can find them, I believe that it will be a tool that will be valuable to them, when it becomes time for them to reasearch new curriculums.

I really liked the Curriculum Literacy piece of this class. It helped me look at curriculum from a different perspective. I remember writing lots of lesson plans during my education classes, and I believe that is an important skill to have, but spending more time on examining instructional material and being part of the process of selecting high-quality materials for students should definitely be highlighted in a pre-service teacher's coursework. I'm a librarian so evaluating resources has always been a priority; however, I appreciate being introduced to Ed Reports and iSearch for Teachers and the other tools. Even librarians need a refresh course on all the new or overlooked resources that are now available. Thank you InfOhio for gathering these resources and pointing us in the right direction :)

High Quailty Instruction Material is essential in the learning process. Just printing out material without standards correlation doesn't meet the students needs. Making sure the time utilized in the resource room aligns with the goals of the district makes the HQIM important to me.

I now have a better understaning of what makes soemthing a high quality instructional material. Learning the ways that HGIM's affect student learning has been incredibly beneficial to me. Learning about the resources available to teachers to help them find quality curriculum will be a tremendous benefit in the future. I'm excited to use them this upcoming year. 

I found this course very informative and I learned quite a bit about what HQIM is. I enjoyed learning about the rubrics that are considered while assessing classroom materials/curriculum. This course will help me in the future because I will be helping provide materials to educators and want to make sure that they are of high quality. I enjoyed learning about the wide variety of resources provided through infohio that are HQIM. As our district moves forward with acquiring new curriculum, I will be able to provide them with additional resources to consider when researching.

This course allowed for a deeper dive into understanding HQIM and supplemental materials. It helped to understand resrouces available as well as accompanying resources to vet their overall quality. Looking into the indicators on sites like EdReports provides critical information that directly support curriculum understanding and adoption. The more informed one is with all of this, the better the chances are in providing HQIM and student engagement/achievement.

There was a great deal learned from this class. It's important that we are using HQIM with all students in all settings. After completing this course, I was given a wealth of knowledge and resources to help make sure this is happening in our district and allows me to point others in the right direction for their HQIM needs. 

The most important thing I learned was that Infohio provides many HQIM resources that teachers may or may not know about. It is easy to share with teachers how they can access the resources. I also learned how to evaluate resources that I might find that are open access to make sure they are High Quality and right for my students. As a librarian, it is important to me to be able to provide supplemental materials for students and staff. Staff especially will sometimes ask for materials from the library that I do not have in house, but can be found online.

The most important thing I learned from this class is the research about *not* using high quality instructional materials. It is really shocking how much time (and money) is spent on sites like Pinterest and TeachersPayTeachers to get supplemetal materials. That being said, the next question is, "Where can we get high quality materials?" This class has also guided me to sites like Read Write Think, Share My Lesson, iCivics, FishTank and others that I can share with others that have high quality materials. This class also showed me sites like EdSurge Product Index that compares educational technology products. These are important to me because there are so many products available, it is impossible to know which is appropriate and worth spending money on.