Focused Education Resources (formerly ERAC, the Educational Resource Acquisition Consortium), is, “A consortium of BC public school districts and independent schools that work together cooperatively. The goal is to ensure that BC K-12 schools have access to appropriate learning resources at the best possible price. Focused Education Resources also provides the training and support required to maximize the benefits of the membership.”
Focused Education Resources provides professional learning support for the BC Digital Classroom as well as other evaluated and licensed products. These resources are available to schools in British Columbia; therefore, HCOS has access to them. Through Focused Education Resources, we also have access to the K-12 Resource Collection, a huge list of books which has been evaluated by teachers and the Ministry for BC students’ use.
A Quick Introduction (4 minute video)
Go to BC Digital Classroom Access.
Scroll down to choose from the icons available, with the option to filter for grades. Once you have selected the icon for your Subscription, you will be asked to log in using the username and password found in the Search Portal.
Note: Once you have logged in, you can move from one resource on this page to another without logging in repeatedly.
Go to K-12 Evaluated Resource Collection. No login is required.
Log in to the BCDC site. Select “Education” from the menu bar and “Resource Evaluation” from the drop-down menu. From there you can select the “K-12 Evaluated Resource Collection.”
You can search this site by keyword or by choosing the filters by the search boxes, as shown below:
This page will give you a very brief description of the books that teachers have assessed for Ministry use. Teachers can set up an account and log in to access more detailed information. E.g. “Speaking Our Truth: a Journey of Reconciliation” shows this assessment, below and if teachers sign up for an account, they will get a complete, lengthy review.
Information is also available on Coding and Early Learning.
Parents and teachers should be able to access the information on this page without needing to log in to the Focused Education Resources site. To access the complete Ministry assessment of book reviews, teachers would need to set up a free account, using their @onlineschool.ca email.
Principles
First Peoples Principles of Learning This is a poster to illustrate how the First Peoples view learning.
From the Ministry of Education, we find the Indigenous Education in British Columbia
For First Peoples classroom resources visit: First Nations Education Steering Committee
K-12 Evaluated Resource Collection
Go to K-12 Evaluated Resource Collection.
Log in to the BCDC site. Select “Education” from the menu bar and “Resource Evaluation” from the drop-down menu. From there you can select the “K-12 Evaluated Resource Collection.”
Type in ‘authentic aboriginal’, ‘indigenous’ or ‘aboriginal’ in the keyword section, to find a great variety of books available. (You can also search in OverDrive in the Learning Commons digital library for resources).
Curriculum Supports
FOCUSED Education offers full unit studies integrating Aboriginal Resources for Grade 3, Grade 6, Grade 8, and Grade 10. These units cover Big Ideas, Competencies and Content to meet the BC Ed requirements. Using the search bar (as shown above) you can specifically find Indigenous resources for any grade range.
Integrating Aboriginal Education
“Taking Your Seat at the Fire”, a 32-minute video embedded below, continues the conversation around culturally responsive resources. Leona Prince, Professional Learning Team Member, shares with us ways in which we embed Aboriginal perspectives into all parts of the curriculum in a meaningful and authentic manner. Here is a quick tour of Focused Education Resources that can be used to support Aboriginal perspectives. This video in segments can be found at: Bridging Worldviews: Creating Entry Points into Aboriginal Education
Here is the presentation on Aboriginal Education from the IT4K12 conference in 2018 by Leona Prince:
Bridging Worldviews: Creating Entry Points into Aboriginal Education – Leona Prince from ERAC on Vimeo.
Under “Education & Curriculum”, scroll down to “Curriculum Supports” to find integrated units on Air, Earth, Fire and Water.
To access the National Geographic Kids site, please go to the BC Digital Classroom.
Scroll down to choose “National Geographic Kids”, which will open up a login page:
Historical BC Newspapers from ProQuest include more than 365 million pages of world-class collections, 325 years of historical periodical content, and 350 years of global, national, and regional newspapers. ProQuest delivers in-the-moment insights historically chronicled from multiple perspectives.
ProQuest has launched access to more than 125 years of the historic archives of The Province (1894-2010), the Vancouver Sun (1912-2010), and the Times-Colonist (1884 -2010). In-depth insights into how stories and perspectives evolved over the decades. Search and browse cover-to-cover local and regional views, events, and people.
Historical newspaper content is among researchers’ most sought-after primary source material.
Access Historical BC Newspapers through the BC Digital Classroom in the Search Portal. Do not log in at the top of the page. Scroll down to the ProQuest tab and select it.
Enter the username and password found in the Search Portal and accept all cookies.