INFOhio ICoach

I completed the BLUECloud Learning Pathway - ISearch for Librarians.  I would like to know more about what is working well in BLUECloud and what features might still be a challenge for librarians to navigate. 

I feel that the ISearch Mobile App is a game changer!  Our students live in a technological world and will always be with their phones in the foreseeable future.  Giving them access to books at any moment when they are sparked to reserve that next thriller read.  As an educator I love the ability to have the ISearch widget on my computer in my classrom.  When we have down time students have access to look up books and search for what is available before entering the library.  As a parent, I am thrilled that my child has options for accessing books.  These tools support the initiative for student learning by giving them access to options in their ever changing world/schedule.

I would explain/show the time saving capacity of including the ISearch widget on their classroom computer.  So many times, our "library time" is rushed or shortened.  Establishing the widget within the classroom would get more students reading....that would be any teacher's dream!

Jennifer - I love that you dug into ISearch for this training! There are so many great options with this tool to help students and other teachers.

I chose the Reading on the Screen class because I think too often we just believe it's better/easier for our students to read digitally and I wanted to learn more. (Personally, I do not prefer it ... I can do it, but I prefer reading paper books).

I enjoyed reading the facts and research about how often our students, regardless of age, prefer print over digital. I also believe we need to explicitly teach strategies and methods as to how to combine the digital and print work to work best for our students, and ourselves. Much of our curriculuar material is in digital format requiring our students to use digital text.

If a co-worker asked me for help, I'd definitely refer them to INFOhio and all of their resources - and if they were feeling nerdy like me, to complete this Reading on the Screen course. It provides a lot of good thinking and resources for teachers to better guide their creation of activities. Anything we can do to support our students to improve their reading skills - both print and digitally - is well worth our time.

I chose the Educator Tools class because before I knew about this tool- I was clicking on "site search" when I was looking for resources to support my teaching. NOW my mind is blown by this great resource to help me find lessons to support my teaching. Some features that are appealing to me are all the filters that can be applied to search topics. 

"Check out Educator Tools and just type in the topic you are about to teach. You will find an abundance of lessons, videos and games that are curated for Ohio teachers"

This is great to hear, Tara! I'm so glad that you found a better way to search for the instructional materials that you are looking for -- and that you are finding them! You can also search Educator Tools by using keywords from curriculum standards or even putting part of the standard language in quotation marks for even more focused results. And don't forget about the "favorite" feature. Once you find some lessons, activities, or other instructional materials make sure to "favorite" them and then you can email your favorites list to yourself or other colleagues as well. 

I chose "What is Inquiry?" initative from the 6-12. I have used R4S several times in teaching the dreaded "research paper". I thought it would be a good review as well as deepen my understanding of the tools. I had never used t Go Ask Apply Acheive before. There are so many good resources to get things started! I loved the Crash Course video on Wkipedia! I will definitely be using that one. Students would like the blended learning aspects of R4S. Also the many google docs available to track thinking and breakdown tasks. 
 

(Collegue wanting to to some project based learning): You should definitely check out infohios Go Ask Apply Acheive! It has great already created resources to guide students through the process from coming up with ideas to different tools to present with. There are links to videos and websites too! 

1. I completed the iWonder (web tool) for the 6-12 pathway because of my work within those grade bands and I was curious about the Genius Hour. 

2. I think its appealing to students because of the "search by question" feature and the genius hour (if explored). Educators have a ot of supportive resources and ability to explore more creatie outlets in class. I think it would be good for parents to be aware of this resource becasue its reliable, searchable information while helping students navigate for answers (also has homework help). This could be a great tool to implement more creative outlets in class, reinforce critical thinking and intiative based learning. 

3. I would direct them to this resource as an additon to their content. It would allow them to provide more open ended quesitoning to their students and allow them to explore for responses rather than just worksheet and search, but learn through exploraiton with iWonder. 

I selected Using Technology with Early Learners as part of the Ages 3-5 Digital Content Learning Pathway. In my role as support staff for STEAM integration, I work with Preschool-8 teachers and students. For me, the early learners and instructional practices for early learners and educators supporting these learners are where I need to develop my professional growth plan. Having been an educator for many years at the middle school level, building a more comprehensive foundational base of best practices at the early childhood level is important.

Features important to the students in this pathway I believe to be important for students in all pathways, adults included: play-based learning with technological methodologies integrated to ensure success. I define play as explorative, creative, and collaborative not to mention fun! This initiative is important because, as sound research has proven time and time again, the early years are the most formative and future successes in a school career rely heavily on the foundation of the tools that have been provided and the opportunities to practice literacy from the very start. Literacy is more than reading, it is being responsible with media and proficient in media tools and practices.

I would love for partner teachers at our preschool and PreK level to expand their PD with this initiative. If approached by one of such teachers (although, I will be approaching them!) I would point out that embracing technology throughout the curriculum in purposeful and enriching ways will permit young learners to develop more enhanced and transdisciplinary readiness skills, Indeed, communication can be more enhanced as we continue to push our learners to be articulate in reading, writing, and speaking and infusing technology into fostering these domains will deepen this learning with even more readiness skills.

I chose the Educator Tools class. As a school librarian I should have known this tool existed...now I do. This is a wonderful resource for teachers and it is easy to use. Using the search limiters, teachers can narrow their search to find the perfect “quality, curated, standards-aligned instructional materials.” I look forward to sharing this tool with the teachers at my school.

I chose the Educator Tools training for a couple of reasons.  First, this tool interested me as I assumed it would simplify the task of searching INFOhio for instructional materials.  Second, I know the teachers I mentor want to know how to find things and I want to provide this information to encourage greater acceptance of using INFOhio.

This tools provides filters to ease the process of narrowing down information to what the user is really hoping to find.  As materials of interest are found, the teacher can save those to the favorite list.   When research is complete, the materials can be emailed to the user as well as others that may be interested.

As part of sharing INFOhio with my staff, I look forward to moving back the curtain on INFOhio's wealth of instructional material with teachers.

I chose the Reading on the Screen class.  I am more of a paper resource reader--I lose interest and do not retain information when I read it from a screen.  I liked learning more about what the different studies have found about reading from paper vs. reading from a screen.  I plan on a teaching a lesson on this topic during Media time this year.  If students are aware that there is a difference and are given tools to adjust how they read from a screen, I can only seeing it help them.  Afterall, most of the testing they are expected to take is on some type of a device.  

I completed the iSearch for Librarians class.  I am a media paraprofessional so I wanted to know how to use iSearch more effectively.

I love that my students have access to iSearch so they can see what we actually have in the library.  I have been encouraging students to use iSearch before their library time so they don't have to feel rushed after I have read a story or done an activity.  I believe the students' use of iSearch gives them a lot more time to make thoughtful choices or explore interesting books we hold in our libraries since they can do it from any device at any time.  They also get much more privacy since they can always email me in advance or walk up to me and tell me exactly what they want with minimal interference from others.

iSearch gives our students and parents the chance to see what our library holds if they want to read together.  Teachers can look for specific books or books about certain topics so they can easily request them.  This is especially helpful for teachers since I'm only in the building part time but they can email me requests at any time.  iSearch is also great because it does not just show our physical holdings but gives students, parents, and educators access to our no-cost quality digital resources from any device that is connected to the internet.

1. I completed the iSeach for Teachers class. I chose to complete this one so that I Had a better understanding of the iSearch tool, and could explain to my teachers how they could use it in their classroom and with their students.

2. I think what would be most appealing to students is the abiltiy to search our school library print books, and the online resources that we have availabe, all at the same time. They can limit the results by lexile level and use other limiters to narrow the search. This saves them from having to go to multiple places to do reearch. I think teachers would find the ability to use permalinks and share to Google Classroom very useful. Teachers could find an article and then share it to their students to read. I think parents would find the abiltiy to search our online resources helpful. This would allow them to support their student in researching, without having to travel to a library or be uncertain about where to find good information online.

3. iSearch allows you and your students to search through our school library print sources, as well as numerous online resources from various magazines and journals, all at the same time. This provides actual resources for your students to use when learning about researching, instead of just typing a question into Google.

Which web tool/initiative class did you complete? What made you decide to complete this class? 

I chose iSearch for Inquiry as the topic for my web tool class.  The reason why I decided on this class is because it seemed like another good tool for helping teach students to ask questions, find resources, evaluate results, and reflect on the content.

What features of the web tool are most appealing to students? To educators? To parents?/How is the initiative important to supporting student learning?

For secondary students, I think they will really find the limiter tools useful, as well as the citation generator.  Even though it will still need to be checked for accuracy, it simplifies the process of citations.  For an educator, it seems that this resource will be useful when starting a unit, because you can go out and pull in a variety of sources and limit the information to what you specifically are looking for.  It will also be helpful in teaching students to evaluate sources.

One of your co-workers has approached you in the hall for help with a lesson. Write two to three sentences you would use to explain why they should use the INFOhio web tool or initiative to support student learning.

This is a great tool for helping students find information.  Not only can you browse a variety of content collections, but you can also help students learn about the most productive search strategies.  In addition, iSearch lends itself to helping teach students to synthesize information, and then develop accurate citations.

I completed the Reading on the Screen course because I'm interested in improving strategies for learning to acess, read, and comprehend digital information. 

It's important for teachers and students to know that we need to rethink how we teach literacy in an online world and know that just because students are tech savvy doesn't mean they necessarily have the skills to read digitially. In the same respect, just because students are good print readers doesn't mean that knowledge tranfers to digital reading. 

I highly recommend using the Best Practices document created by INFOhio to include new strategies on teaching students to read digital content as well as information to pass along to parents to practice as home. There are lesson plans that already exist for you to help improve these skills that align with Ohio standards! Use them!!!

1. I completed the Reading on the Screen class. I chose to complete it because I talk a lot about supporting the teachers in our building and building upon the lessons they are teaching in their classrooms. As the librarian though, the vast majority of the reading done in the library is with hard cover books, trying to build the love of reading with our students. I wanted to see ways in which I could continue to do that, but could also work to support our teachers by reinforcing and building these digital reading skills in our students.

2. The lesson planning templates and guided note taking examples were incredibly helpful and I can see how they will be a big help when I am having conversations with my teachers about ways to support our students in this digital landscape. I believe my students will like the guided note taking ideas, as well as using the digital options of bookflix and other digital reading options where they are choosing the reading materials. I love the idea of being able to teach these skills in ways where the students are engaged and active in their lessons - and providing them with their choices always helps with that engagement.

3. I know that it can be frustrating working with these students on digital texts, but it's important to remember that just because they are digital natives, doesn't mean they are used to learning in the digital landscape. While they may be able to handle reading on their own from the book in their book box, they may just need some scaffolding and support to be more successful with these digital texts. Why don't I help you with some resources for using digital text in lesson planning and supporting their reading with guided note taking and other suggestions from INFOhio. I'm sure they will be a big help.

I already shared how stoked I am about the Digital Reading Initiative.  This comes at a perfect moment for me, as our district's Strategic Plan incorporated helping students and parents be aware of and keep up with "switching gears" in order to maximize both differentiated experiences.  Jennifer Schwelik, a librarian's librarian, turned me on to Maryanne Wolf's PROUST AND THE SQUID and then followed up with the 2017 iteration of INFOhio's "Best Practices for Digital Reading." 

This initiative will be meaningful for students as, when the adults around them are more aware of the distinct challenges of switching from mode to mode, these guides on the side will assist the young readers in knowing what. how, and when to adjust their focus and rate as well as concomitant study skills like note taking.  Adults--both parents and students--will benefit from knowing more and being able to assist young readers when frustrations set in, and eventually be proactive with preparation guidance.  Generally, adults are frustrated by concerns like how much screen time but not equipped to respond productively. With knowledge about safeguards, like saving followingthe hyperlinks for a second reading, and advantages, like UDL's multiple means of representation, readers of all ages can prosper.