Today our class was held at the district learning commons created within school district 57. My initial takeaway is wow… what a fantastic resource for teachers to have at their fingertips in this district. A major complaint in the field of teaching that I have heard is just the amount of personal money teachers have to spend on their classrooms, and while I am sure that is still done on a daily. The District Learning Commons is a place for teachers to go to check out for free bins with different resources, books, videos, tools, etc. Its like the modern day Blockbuster but for teacher resources. Having an option to get these bins and different tools delivered to your classroom for your curriculum seems incredibly beneficial while planning your lessons or units. Even if you are facing a bit of a slump when it comes to formulating ideas for lessons this is such a great go to spot to spark those ideas and get them flowing again. Today I learned that the DCL goes beyond just supplying the bins, it also has an abundance of online resources that the district pays for, that are copyright friendly. Which I learned further about today, and its importance of making sure things are copyright friendly that we are distributing in our classes and throughout schools in general. I found myself prior to being privy to the wonderful online resources, I was going down the deepest wholes on the internet trying to find curriculum appropriate resources, and since learning about the DLC site so many wheels have been turned in my brain. This importantly is a time saver, as time is so sparse as a teacher, and I some areas you are provided age appropriateness’ whether it is for the primary vs intermediate, or if it gets more specific as to digging into grade, which is super valuable in narrowing things down. I really look forward to utilizing all that the DLC has to offer for teachers, I am really curious if other school districts offer something similar to this concept. I am wondering if a lot of the teachers in school district 57 do use this resource, it seems like it, but again its something you always want to know if people in the field are actually using. I am confident I will be once I am in the classrooms, and I am excited to get to use it for my practicums coming up as well.
