DRC
The District Resource Centre was different than I thought it would be. There were so many resources for every subject and grade, and each resource comes with a teaching guide to help you teach using that tool. This tour helped me to feel much less overwhelmed about the idea of going into teaching without a solid foundation of what needs taught and how to teach it. The BC curriculum is helpful in telling what should be taught, but I feel as a first year teacher I will want more guidance than it offers and I think that the DRC is a great resource to be aware of as it will help to figure out how, what, when to teach certain things.
One thing that was especially cool to see in the DRC was the categories for different books that aligned with our literacy textbook. The concept of “high interest, low vocab” books was in our textbook as a method to hook students that traditionally are “striving readers.” It was great to see that there’s entire class sets of these types of books available, and as a teacher you can access these books for one student in particular or your whole class if they are low readers and help to get students hooked on reading.
Just knowing of one more resource available for obtaining books for students was really great to find out about and it’s a bonus that so many of the resources come with tools to help you teach that item.
Design Lab
This was my first trip to the actual design lab – as an EA I never visited because like Ryan said, the kiddos that usually need that extra help often do really well at the design lab, so I was usually placed somewhere else that would need help when a class would go to the design lab. It definitely shows that a different learning environment and learning methods can really benefit students. The design lab really showed how many ways there are to engage students and that it’s not just playing games – the things they do at the design lab are completely embedded in the curriculum. I think it’s important to keep in mind the different ways students can be successful – and it’s just as valid as learning in a classroom. The design lab is the direction I think education should be moving in as whole – especially as it engages most students and pulls from so many areas of the curriculum.
There were so many resources and types of tech available and that was also really cool to see and be aware of. I also really liked that there are “high tech,” “medium tech,” and “low tech.” Some students really struggle with getting off of screens so as a teacher, it’s nice to know you can still take your class to the design lab and request low tech or no screen tech for your class. I really appreciated that the Design Lab was fun but really emphasized (without really having to say it) the ways technology is a tool.
It was also nice to see the different types of tech and hear about what classes had done, to get a sense of what else you can do in the design lab.
