Week 6 – Exploring FocusEd Resources with the Experts

For this week’s seminars I chose Live It Earth and Exploring Digital Classrooms K-7. I really enjoyed both sessions, and they were great opportunities to learn about the amazing resources that are available to teachers.

Exploring Digital Classrooms K-7

This was a great resource that was very dense and had a lot of information. I found the session quite engaging, and Lisa did a great job showing us what there was to be explored. It was hard because there are so many resources on this platform and we didn’t get a chance to dive into them all. I like the Indigenous resources that were included, as it seems like there was a lot of care and time put into them to create an accurate, engaging, and meaningful lesson. It is incredible that there are so many language options for these resources as well. I could see this being very helpful for students that don’t speak English or are less comfortable. What a fantastic way to include everyone in the lesson. I could see this being a fun activity to explore the resources together with your class and see which one the students are interested in. I really like that you can curate a ‘classroom’ list of resources and then let your students move through them at their own pace and interest. It helps create that autonomy and choice students need while still being supervised appropriately.

Live It Earth

I absolutely loved this resource. Blue, who was explaining it to us, did not have enough positive things to say. He loves it, and so do his kids. I think its encouraging when you hear from someone who has actually used these things in real life and they believe its a useful tool. They layout of each lesson is very user friendly, and I love the checklist feature each one has to keep you on track. I love how the teacher has choice of how much or how little to use from the pre-existing lesson, or if they just want to use it as a guideline. There are so many valuable pieces included in these packages, and the fact that they are offered in both French and English makes it very accessible. I will absolutely try to use some in my practicum, and see how they go. I like that Live It Earth really wants teachers and future educators to use their resources, and encourage everyone to download, save, and make it their own. I love the career spotlight portion as well, because it opens up that conversation with students of what is possible in the future. Kids can be inspired by each and every one of these lessons. It seems like such a great way to have a meaningful connection to the local environment through a really engaging and informative lesson. The activities seem realistic and fun as well.

As a whole, the day was a great opportunity to learn about some of the technology and resources that are available to use as future educators. I was hesitant to use too much technology in my classroom because children usually have a high amount of screen time already, but I can see how these would be a welcome addition to any lesson. It makes me excited to use and try out. It is also a bit less intimidating because I can focus on delivering the lesson effectively instead of creating something from scratch.