January 8, 2014
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Top 10 Classroom Hacks for 2015
 

Start 2015 with one (or more) of these 10 fresh new ideas for your classroom. If you find them useful, !

  1. Do research with ISearch  Interested Students
  2. Teach research skills 
  3. Keep up with education trends 
  4. Prep for AP/SAT/ACT tests 
  5. Earn professional development credit for free 
  6. Find lesson planning ideas 
  7. Practice tech skills for online testing 
  8. Find free eBooks 
  9. Strengthen early literacy 
  10. Differentiate with videos
     

Doresearch 

Do research with ISearch
ISearch makes it easy for your students (and you too) to find magazine and journal articles, encyclopedia articles, primary sources, educational videos, eBooks, and many other research resources with just one search. Gone are the days of trying to guess which academic database to search first or searching each database one by one to find what you need. ISearch finds it all and returns the results split into Basic or Advanced resources, which makes differentiating for your students easy.


Listen to our 3-minute instructional video to learn more, or try it yourself right now at isearch.infohio.org.
 

INFOhio website search terms: isearch
 

Teachresearchskills 

Teach research skills

Research skills are front and center in Ohio's New Learning Standards, but, honestly, how many of us took Research Instruction 101 in ed school? That's OK because GO! Ask, Act, Achieve (recommended for 5th-10th graders) and Research 4 Success (recommended for 11th and 12th graders) provide step-by-step instruction on every phase of research, from choosing a topic to presenting findings to evaluating the results. Students can use GO! on their own or with a teacher's help. R4S works best when students use it to work through a research project with a teacher's guidance. It can be used from the INFOhio website or embedded into your learning management system.
 

Learn more now with the GO! Teacher's Guide and R4S's Getting Started for Teachers.
 

INFOhio website search terms: go!; r4s; research 4 success; ask, act, achieve
 

Keepupwitheducationtrends 

Keep up with education trends

Close reading? Text Complexity? Marshalling Arguments? Ohio's New Learning Standards are full of new terminology. Where do you start? With INFOhio's Curriculum Toolboxes, which are collections of articles and websites to help you keep up with education trends. In fact, spend a couple of hours with one of the curriculum toolboxes, and you'll be your school's expert on the topic.
 

See the complete list of curriculum Toolbox topics at http://www.infohio.org/educators/eptools/curriculum-toolbox.
 

INFOhio website search terms: curriculum toolboxes, toolbox, toolboxes
 

Prepforapsatacttests 

Prep for AP/SAT/ACT tests
Test prep courses and eBooks can cost hundreds of dollars, dollars most of your students just don't have. They can get the same kind of tutorials and eBooks--even full practice tests for the ACT, SAT, and eight of the most popular AP exams--for free with LearningExpress Library through INFOhio. Help students manage their preparation schedule with our online ACT/SAT/AP Test Prep Calendar. Working backwards from the exam dates throughout the year, the calendar prompts students when to begin preparing and contains direct links to the tutorials, eBooks, and practice exams to help them.
 

Learn more about using LearningExpress Library for test prep in our 5-minute instructional video or start using LearningExpress Library now at http://www.infohio.org/students/er/item/learningexpress-library.
 

INFOhio website search terms: LearningExpress, ACT, SAT, AP, test prep
 

Earnprofessionaldevelopmentcreditforfree 

Earn professional development credit for free
On top of everything else you do, you need to document professional development. That's easy with the Learn With INFOhio webinar series. Every two weeks, we present an hour-long webinar on topics ranging from online testing to instructional shifts to the latest digital tools to help students. Join us live or watch the recording at a time that's convenient for you. Either way, you can earn a Certificate of Completion, which most districts accept for CEUs.


See what's coming soon or browse our recorded webinars to get started now.
 

INFOhio website search terms: webinars, learn with infohio
 

FindLessonPlanningIdeas 

Find lesson planning ideas
On those days you want to try something different with your class--or maybe you're taking an emergency absence and need to prepare the sub--lesson planning is in the bag with our Back to School Bags, Blizzard Bags, and Beach Bags. The Beach Bags were originally designed for parents to use with their children over the summer, but there are plenty of activities and ideas for the classroom. The Back to School Bags and new Blizzard Bags contain direct links to the standards covered, differentiation tips, cross curricular options, recommendations for assessments, and websites for further activities.
 

Start using them now at http://www.scoop.it/t/infohio-bags-blizzard-back-to-school-beach.
 

INFOhio website search terms: bags, blizzard, back to school, beach
 

TeachTechSkillsforonlinetesting 

Practice tech skills for online testing
Your students may be taking online tests for the first time starting in February. Not only will they need to understand the material tested, but they'll also need the technical skills to navigate the test. INFOhio has put together a collection of resources in a Pearltree to help. You'll find links to INFOhio resources and websites that help kids practice everything from simply selecting text, to keyboarding, to using an online protractor. In addition, you'll find background information on the tests and sample tests for practice that you can use or share with parents.
 

Start preparing now at INFOhio's Tech Skills for Online Testing Pearltree.
 

INFOhio website search terms: tech skills, online testing 


Findfreeebooks 

Find free eBooks

If you're a PreK-3 teacher, start with BookFlix, which provides online copies of popular picture books that all of your students can access at one time or that you can project from a SMART board for group study.
 

Are you a 4th grade teacher? Then try Ohio's 4th Grade eBook Collection available through Storia. You have to get an access code for your class to use it, but once you do, your students have access to a collection of eBooks that support 4th grade standards in ELA, math, social studies, and science. And you'll have access to assessments and data to improve their reading comprehension. Find out more now on the Storia Information Page.
 

Do you teach middle and high school students who need access to classic books that support the standards? Try searching INFOhio's eBook Collection through ISearch. You can download the books in multiple formats or read them online. All of your students can access the same title at one time and they never expire.
 

Try BookFlix or Storia now. Or see the full list of eBook titles available for older students by Title or by Author.
 

INFOhio website search terms: ebook, Storia, BookFlix
 

strengthenearlyliteracy 

Strengthen early literacy
You know about BookFlix, Early World of Learning, and Searchasaurus, three digital tools for early elementary that help beginning readers master literacy skills and even begin learning research skills. But do you know tricks for using them in the classroom to improve your students' phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, and other key literacy skills?
 

Find out how by downloading the INFOhio Beginning Readers flyer now.
 

INFOhio website search terms: beginning reader, early literacy, phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency
 

Differentiatewithvideos 

Differentiate with videos
INFOhio's Digital Video Collection (DVC) includes hundreds of videos specially chosen to support Ohio's New Learning Standards. Video is a great way to differentiate content for your students. Even better, many of the videos are closed captioned, which helps beginning readers, struggling readers, and ESOL students match spoken with written language.
 

To find closed captioned titles, look for the black CC box in the DVC Title List or click the CC push button when searching the DVC. Learn other tips for using the DVC in this 2-minute video tutorial.
 

INFOhio website search terms: digital video collection, dvc, closed captioning 

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