In class last week, we had the opportunity to attend online professional day sessions connected to technology in education. The first one I went to was called “Digital classroom grade K-7.” This session covered the different resources that can be found on Focus Ed and how they can be utilized as a teacher in grades K-7. This session was useful and interesting; however, it did cover similar topics to what was covered in the previous class that introduced us to Focus Ed.

A few takeaways I got from the session is Focus Ed gives you access to a great online Indigenous Education source, 4 Canoes. 4 Canoes has lots of different ready-to-use activities and lesson plans, and was created by an Indigenous educator for Canadian schools. One thing I did note is that some of the specific topics or resources are not permanently on the website and change over time, so if something is of interest to you, you should check it out when it is there. Overall, it seems to have lots of good resources with introduction videos, lesson plans, and activities.

The second session I attended was “Live it Place-based Bilingual.” I really enjoyed this session; the presenter was very engaging and made me very intrigued to check out this resource myself. This website is set up for teachers or students to use and is full of different subject-based programs. I really like how it was set up in a way teacher can use it but not have an increased amount of screen time for the students. It provides lots of inquiry-based learning structures designed to get learners excited about learning. The presenter also pointed out that it can be great as a resource to get you, as the teacher, excited about teaching the subject, which I thought was a great way to look at it!