Getting your district or school ready for the 2021-2022 school year begins by looking closely at the materials you use in your classrooms. Every Ohio student deserves the opportunity to learn from high-quality, standards-aligned instructional materials to become a resilient, lifelong learner who contributes to society (Each Child, Our Future). 

Studies have shown that using high-quality, coherent curriculums and instructional materials lead to student growth in learning and achievement. For over 20 years, INFOhio has been providing Ohio schools and districts with quality supplemental resources available at no cost. INFOhio’s resources provide educators and students with premium, vetted content such as eBooks, videos, lesson plans, instructional web tools, and training and support materials which can be used for teaching and learning. Highlights Library from INFOhio offers Ohio parents, educators, and students access to the quality content from the Highlights publications in digital eBook and video format.

There's no doubt about it: when parents are involved, students do better. According to the Family Engagement Collaborative of the Miami Valley, family engagement in schools leads to higher student achievement and graduation rates, fewer behavioral problems, better self-esteem, and stronger performance by students from diverse backgrounds. 

There will always be barriers to family engagement, but framing it as an "opportunity for all" can help schools move beyond the barriers. The Framework Institute advises that promoting family engagement as an equity issue and policy matter focuses the initiative on inclusivity and opportunities for achievement for all children and will help schools look at how current practices may exclude some students and families. Introduce the high-quality instructional materials available at no cost from INFOhio to families to help remove barriers and provide opportunities for all.

Recordings are now available for each session from INFOhio's no-cost professional development conference, Instructional Materials Matter. 

Five sessions are available beginning with a Keynote session from the Ohio Department of Education and four additional sessions on quality INFOhio resources, web tools, and professional development. 

So you’re comfortable in finding and integrating Open Educational Resources (OER) into your curriculum and want to take the next step? Are you ready to create new resources to share with others? This blog is for you!

Have you ever found something from the internet that could be a perfect resource (image, video, quiz, etc.) for your class, and you spent hours trying to figure out the copyright issues with that resource? You couldn’t find any Terms of Use, and there was no author information, so you didn’t know who to contact to get permission to use it? Wouldn’t it have been nice if that resource somehow said “I’m free to use, no strings attached, you don’t need to ask for my permission because it is already granted”? Open Educational Resources, or OER for short, are an answer to this problem.

INFOhio provides a variety of options for educators dedicated to discovering new, effective ways to teach. Whether using online classes, or building a reading list, INFOhio's professional development has something for everyone. Read more about how to use INFOhio's professional development for high-quality, self-directed summer learning.

New instructional materials have been added to Open Space. These social studies and science activities and videos are provided by the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. 

Let INFOhio, Ohio's PreK-12 digital library, be your school district's partner as you accelerate and extend student learning. INFOhio offers a variety of PreK-12 digital learning resources at no cost to Ohio's students, educators, and parents that can support the Simple View of Reading and the Simple View of Writing's framework that includes foundational transcription skills, self-regulation and executive function skills, and the development of text generation or translation skills. Writing skills are supported across the Language and Literacy Development Continuum. 

COSI, Center of Science and Industry, and INFOhio have teamed up to share a summer learning STEM BINGO challenge. Share this with students and families for fun, engaging, STEM challenges and learning activities. 

Monday Mini Lessons Model Remote Teaching Best Practices

April's Monday Mini Lesson is all about designing learning experiences using tools, resources, and platforms available through INFOhio. To support educators integrating digital content into instruction and remote teaching, INFOhio is featuring a series of videos that showcase best practices for remote teaching using INFOhio's high-quality, digital content. This mini lesson is for all teachers wanting to design, build, or supplement lesson or an entire curriculum at little to no cost and with minimal modifications.

Let INFOhio, Ohio's PreK-12 digital library, be your school district's partner as you accelerate and extend student learning. INFOhio offers a variety of PreK-12 digital learning resources at no cost to Ohio's students, educators, and parents that can support the Simple View of Reading's foundational literacy skills of vocabulary acquisition across the Language and Literacy Development Continuum. 

Learn how to use the Simple View of Reading as a guide to extend and accelerate learning for your students with INFOhio authentic texts. Webinar recording now available. 

Let INFOhio, Ohio's PreK-12 digital library, be your school district's partner as you accelerate and extend student learning. INFOhio offers a variety of PreK-12 digital learning resources at no cost to Ohio's students, educators, and parents that can support the Simple View of Reading's foundational literacy skills of building background knowledge across the Language and Literacy Development Continuum. 

Let INFOhio, Ohio's PreK-12 digital library, be your school district's partner as you accelerate and extend student learning. INFOhio offers a variety of PreK-12 digital learning resources at no cost to Ohio's students, educators, and parents that can support the Simple View of Reading's foundational literacy skills of fluency and automaticity across the Language and Literacy Development Continuum. 

School districts across the state of Ohio are designing and creating Extended Learning Plans to elevate student success and accelerate learning by designing and creating various opportunities like lengthening the current school year, adding time to instructional days, offering more tutoring opportunities, or creating summer learning activities and experiences.

Part of this plan requires districts to share the resources and partnerships that will be included in their plan. Let INFOhio, Ohio's PreK-12 digital library, be your school district's partner as you accelerate student learning. INFOhio offers a variety of PreK-12 digital learning resources at no cost to Ohio's students, educators, and parents that can support literacy skills including foundational skills of alphabet knowledge and writing letters across the Language and Literacy Development Continuum.