As educators, we crave high-quality professional development opportunities. We want personalized professional training that we can work on at our own pace and at no cost. That’s a tall order, but INFOhio has you covered. Today we will look at just a few professional learning eBooks available from INFOhio that nurture creativity in your teaching practice and classroom. With INFOhio eBooks, you have simultaneous and unlimited use—there is no limit to how many people can use the resource at one time. These eBooks are also freely available; INFOhio has taken care of the costs and there is no purchase required to use them.

Let’s delve into the pursuit of our intellectual passions fueling our creativity and inspiring our students.

The Cardboard Classroom: A Design-Thinking Guide for Elementary Teachers

In this eBook, the authors offer practical guidance and sample projects developed from authentic classroom experiences to help design-minded elementary teachers find space for flexible, creative, and collaborative learning—with a healthy mix of critical thinking, trial and error, failure, and success. The eBook includes real-world examples, plus reproducible tools and templates to enhance understanding of the material.

It is critical that students learn to think creatively and divergently. Creativity, problem solving, and innovation are in the top 10 most desired skills for the future. (Beachboard, 2023) Consider using The Cardboard Classroom as a staff-wide professional development opportunity. Or, use this resource as an opportunity to personalize your professional learning for you or a small study group of teachers. After digging into design-minded thinking in the first few chapters of this book the authors provide specific examples of projects you can try with your students. With step-by-step guidance, explore projects on wind-powered cars, trebuchets, cardboard arcades, stop-motion movies, cardboard cities, Rube Goldberg machines, and marionettes. These project lessons are great stepping stones toward learning how to create your own project ideas.

If you would like to learn more about this eBook join INFOhio for a 30-minute Lunch & Learn: Professional Learning Book Talks featuring The Cardboard Classroom: A Design-Thinking Guide for Elementary Teachers. Munch on an overview of the book and feast your eyes on supporting instructional materials from INFOhio that you can take back and begin using right away in your classroom or school. Join the INFOhio team on Thursday, March 28 at noon to learn about professional learning titles that support a variety of grade levels and content areas.

In-Class Flip: A Student-Centered Approach to Differentiated Learning

This book offers a fresh, research-based approach to the popular flipped learning model, with practical strategies for both experienced practitioners and teachers new to flipped learning. The In-Class-Flip as defined by the author is: A set of adaptable in-class configurations where individual and group spaces coexist, allowing flipped learning to take place within the educational setting. The authors demonstrate how it differs from traditional flipped learning and walks teachers through the many possibilities of this new approach, with details on how to implement it successfully from scratch.

If you are looking for ways to innovate and improve your teaching, take some time to view the In-Class Flip professional learning eBook. Explore new ideas and strategies to invigorate your teaching practice and your students. This book, full of practical information, defines the in-class flip, gives ideas for station work and alternatives to station work, and tips for lesson planning. There are specific benefits from the in-class flip that support more creative thinking and working. Student-centered classes, autonomy, recognizing individuality, and student choice are all elements covered that support growth and nurture creativity in the classroom.

Moviemaking in the Classroom: Lifting Student Voices Through Digital Storytelling

This eBook shows how moviemaking helps students showcase their learning, process life events, and connect with others in a meaningful way, enabling them to become future-ready, confident creators of original content. It also offers project ideas for teachers already implementing digital storytelling in their classes and shows how to streamline workflow and improve their professional practice.

If you are interested in learning more about the brain science behind storytelling and how it impacts learning, give this eBook a try. This eBook also provides helpful information on lesson design, integration, potential barriers, assessments, templates, and rubrics. Are you ready to take storytelling to the next level? The creative process of moviemaking involves learning about film angles, push-and-pull animation tools, storytelling, set design, editing, and more. This is a natural fit for injecting the creative process and tools into teaching and learning.

Project Based Learning: Real Questions. Real Answers. How to Unpack PBL and Inquiry

This eBook addresses the most common—and most complex—questions educators ask about project-based learning (PBL) and inquiry. These include how to structure a PBL experience, how to incorporate direct instruction, and how to manage chaos.

If you already teach PBL or are just starting and need inspiration and practical information, check this eBook out. You will find information on structuring, grades, inquiry, and culture. Written by two highly experienced educators, find something to take back to your classroom to inspire and engage. Creative endeavors naturally lend themselves to more complex projects. This eBook helps teachers to work smarter, not harder, allowing students to co-create their learning experiences and become part of the planning process. Teachers can tackle several academic standards at the same time in an authentic context, as opposed to lesson plans that typically address one or two standards at a time in isolation. The authors have also provided a link to find templates, premade projects, discussion questions, graphics, illustrations, posters, quotes, and a list of eBooks to get you started!

Educate the Heart: Screen-Free Activities for Grades PreK-6 to Inspire Authentic Learning

This eBook provides more than 100 screen-free ideas and activities to help teachers of students in PreK- 6 inspire authentic learning in their classroom. There are lesson plans that cover a variety of subjects and skills, such as reading, writing, language arts, mathematical discourse, movement, and cooking. Find ways to engage students in collaborative work, critical thinking skills, and find out how to encourage innovative ways to solve problems through creativity with STEM challenges and meaningful art projects.

Give your students a break from devices and use this eBook to jumpstart creativity in your classroom—No fancy or expensive equipment required. These activities are meant to engage, motivate, encourage happiness, and promote a growth mindset. This eBook is full of discussion questions and lesson plans and a great chapter on building community within and outside of your classroom, all centered on creative and engaging activities to get students moving and thinking!

Creativity can be interpreted in so many ways as evident from this sample of professional learning eBooks. Creativity belongs everywhere, involves all the senses, and creates new knowledge that didn’t exist before. (DuPriest, 2017) Take what you are already doing in the classroom to the next level and increase the enjoyment of your students and your enjoyment as an educator.

More professional learning eBooks on a variety of other topics can be found in Educator Tools. We encourage you to browse this resource to see other useful and inspirational eBooks to enhance your teaching practice.