INFOhio ICoach

It wasn't on the Teach & Learn flyer, but I like the Book Nook for several reasons:

1) The book trailers can be put in a MARC record so students could view them.

2) There are directions on how students can make their own book trailers, which would be especially helpful for teachers, especially 6-8 grade.

3) There are some great trailers already made, and students would enjoy looking at them. I would like to find out if we could stream some of the best ones and play it on a look in the media center to get students interested in reading new (to them) books.

Explora for grades 9-12 is an amazing tool to use with my students and curriculum.  This source has an unlimited amout of information for students and that information is avaliable as full text magazine articles, newspapers and videos.  I would like to also mention that there are pictures avaliable for students to search which keeps our scholars safe from venturing out on the internet for information.

Hi LaTonya,

INFOhio considers Explora a resource. We license it for Ohio schools. We build our tools. They include Book Nook, R4S, and IWonder. Have you used any of these?

IWonder is a valuable research tool that is used to help scholars research and create presentations.  Scholars benefit fom using IWonder because it is accompanied with a Genius Hour Student Worksheet worksheet to guide learning. 

After reviewing the flyer, I think the Science Online tool would work well with my students. I have my students do a presentation on a STEM career, and part of that is including a well-known person in that field. I would have students explore "Featured People" tool at the bottom of the homepage to find a well-known scientist or mathematician in the field that they are researching. When students select the individual they are researching, they will be provided with many different articles to read and help them in their research. Even though students may not be able to find everything they need in one place with this tool, it would provide a great starting place for students to gather information.

Hi Payton,

Science Online is a premium resource we license on behalf of Ohio schools and families. It is a great resource! Our web tools include BookNook, R4S, Go! Ask, Act, Achieve, and IWonder. Which of these have you used or shared with others?

Research for Success is a life-saver! It walks students step by step through the intimidating process of creating an academic research paper. I've shared this with so many of my teachers who have been frustrated with the quality of student products in the research area. Thank you!

I haven't used this resource yet, but Gale in Context: Elementary is one I would like to check more into.  I think this would be great for students to use with SS and Science.

I think IWonder would work well with my students.  I like that it provides a little bit of structure when students are researching topics that interest them.  They still have a lot of freedom to ask questions and guide their own learning without being exposed to information that is not useful for them or not age appropriate.  

I really like Book Nook as a peer to peer resource reviewing books.  It is embeded in the online catalog so students can watch video book talks about books they are thinking of checking out.  I would like to learn more about how they are made so that I could encourage our students to become the stars of their own book reviews.

I think iWonder will work well with my students because they are often given a task to choose their own research topic and find information about it. iWonder gives them a pathway to find information about a variety of topics without having to use a search engine. I like how it enables students to ask questions about what they would like to know and find information in a natural way, without overwhelming them with the millions of results that they might get from Google.

BookFlix works the best with our curriculum because our curriculum is mostly nonfiction and this gives the option to have both. It is student-friendly and is easy to navigate so the students will be able to access their materials quickly and effeciently. 

I am interested to explore Go! Ask, Act, Achieve, because we are an International Baccalureate School and inquiry plays a large role in our approach to learning in all subjects. This tool is meant to explore that exact process.

I will definitely be using ISearch to look for information with my staff and students.  It's like a one stop shopping for information and books.  Everyone is concerned about time and this is like one stop shopping for accurate reliable information. This helps everyone find and access information and helps prevent search frustration.  

The current Teach and Learn flyer does NOT list any web tools, but I believe the Research 4 Success would be a great way to prepare students for the research and writitng process that our newly adopted Reading program.

Since students do regular book projects,  I think BookNook would be a good web tool.

Since teachers in grades 6-12 allow students to choose a book of their preference and provide time for sustained reading, BookNook would be a tool that could be incorporated into our curriculum. It would definitely promote reading and continue to build our school's reading culture.

I believe that Explora for Grades 9-12 will help our students find different types resorces, when reserching. that they would not otherwise easily find.

I believe the ISearch will work well with my students because my seniors have a research paper that they need to do in order to graduate. The ISearch tool will be helpful to my students to get the required information for their topic chosen. This could also help them choose a topic to begin with. ISearch has already been used in our curriculum and has proven to be a great resource. Learning more about this tool would be extremely beneficial so that we are able to get more refined searches and topics for our students. 

One tool I think would work well for students at my school would be the World Almanac for Kids. I’ve found this resource to be perfect for research as it compiles information on a wide range of topics. I especially enjoy that this resource encourages students to learn something new and makes the process of learning enjoyable! I look forward to using this resource with students as it provides reliable information but it also fosters exploration and encourages students to learn beyond the classroom. 

The tool that I am most excited about is the Points of View Reference Center.   I think it wil be a very valuable resource as a social studies teacher.  The layout when conducting a seach is easy and when a topic is selected I received an overview and then links to point and counterpoint articles, as well as other teaching and learning resources.  This resource has so much potential, not only in my classroom, but others as well.  Our debate coach could very easily use this with students! 

There are several that I think will work well with my students and curriculums, but I am most excited about BookFlix. The paired fiction and nonfiction texts and engaging learning activities are great to use both as a whole group activity as well as individually.

Hi Kristen! 

BookFlix is one of INFOhio's licensed digital resources and is not considered a web tool. Have you tried out any of INFOhio's created web tools like Book Nook, R4S, Go! Ask, Act, Achieve, or IWonder? 

However, the good news is, you can link directly to a BookFlix title by doing a simple site search on the INFOhio homepage. For example, I searched for the BookFlix title And Then It's Spring. In my search results, you can see the title appears.

After clicking the title in my search results, I see a page like what you see below. The top arrow is pointing to the URL. This is the URL that an educator would use to directly link to this title. Then when shared with students they would need to click the green Open button for the story to open in BookFlix. The other arrow in the image is pointing to the link to the nonfiction title that is paired with this story. If you click that, it will take you to a similar page as this one, but it will be linked to the nonfiction companion, How Do You Know It's Spring?

Does your school district use Google Classroom? Another method to link directly to BookFlix pairs is within the Educator Tools and Resources within the  BookFlix resource. They have a Google Classroom button for each pair. 

Starting on the BookFlix homepage, you click on the apple/book icon in the top right corner. 

A pop-up window will appear, click Resources and Tools. 

Then you will see a list of all of the BookFlix paired titles. Each pair has a Google Classroom button that will link directly to each fiction and nonfiction pair. 

I hope this is helpful. Please let us know if you have further questions about linking to BookFlix pairs and titles.

Thanks,
Sarah Mowery

Hi Sarah! Thank you. I think I was looking at the wrong flier when doing this assignment. I have not used the web tools yet but I'm interested in the iWonder tool. I think it would be a great resource for some of my teachers who do a genius hour with students. 
Your information on sharing the links is super helpful as well! We use Google Classroom with 3rd and 4th grades, but our K-2 teachers use Seesaw. The first option to share the direct link to the book will be very helpful! 

One tool that I think would work well with my students from the Teach & Learn flyer would be BookFlix. I teach intervention, so my students would benefit greatly from reading both fiction and nonfiction paired texts. We could practice so many ELA skills using these passages. Also BookFlix could be great fluency practice for my students where they could choose a topic that interests them. 

The one tool that I gravitated towards was the IWonder site. I teach special ed and this site was simple yet attractive, and it helped guide the students by asking questions and allowing them to select the topics. They simply selected a visual link for a question which went to another page that allowed them to select another option, and this continued until they reached the last page that provided a more refined answer to their topic of interest.