Inside the TJRC: Celebrating Earth Month through sustainability and classroom resources
April 17, 2023
The Terry James Resource Centre (TJRC) is the Upper Grand District School Board’s one-stop-shop for materials and resources for UGDSB staff. From the media centre and resource centre to 3D printing, virtual reality and online resources, the TJRC has everything staff need to succeed and pass that success on to UGDSB students. “Inside the TJRC” is an on-going series that will feature some of the amazing resources that the TJRC has to offer.
GUELPH, ON – April is Earth Month, which is a great time to share some of the earthly resources that the Terry James Resource Centre has to offer.
Promoting the nature of Earth Month, the TJRC offers many sustainable resources to students and staff through its eBooks, the Sora platform, digital videos and many digital resources. The Sora platform also features many books by Indigenous authors that share stories of the Earth.
Just a few of the titles available on Sora
The TJRC also provides staff with the option to send in their requests to the Media Centre digitally through Google Forms, which eliminates the use of paper for these requests and makes it so that folks outside of the Guelph Board Office do not need to drive to the building to make these requests.
Furthermore, technology is used now for virtual teacher librarian meetings and other collaborative partnerships to avoid the use of transportation.
The TJRC also recycles old storage containers to transport new novel sets and maker kits instead of purchasing more.
If you’re more of a physical book reader or are wanting to share an Earth Month related book with your class, the TJRC has several physical Earth Month themed books on display that staff can check out for classroom use.
If you’re wondering what happens to books when they become ‘deselected and discarded,’ don’t worry, they are recycled and do not end up in landfills. Books that cannot be repurposed are recycled through proper channels. For the books that can be repurposed, they are very often used for student artwork or ‘black out poetry’, or in many cases these books are used for training purposes with staff.
If staff are looking for a more hands-on teaching experience with students, the TJRC offers several activity kits for staff to check out and use. Many of these activity kits make an excellent addition to school outdoor classrooms. Kits include, Stick-lets for outdoor building fun, climate action kits, rubbing plates and fossil molds and Wheelie Painters to get dirty and paint outside with mud.
UGDSB schools are encouraged to explore all the wonderful things TJRC has to offer this Earth Month and send us your pictures by tagging @ugdsb and @TerryJamesRC using the hashtags #Sustainibility and #InsideTJRC
Categories: Board News for Elementary • Board News for Secondary • News Tags: Sustainability • UGLearnGreen