David Friedman has been teaching elementary and middle school for 12 years in his home city of Montreal, Quebec. These days, splits his time between teaching English Language Arts and math to his classroom of third and fourth grade students — but he’s worked with all sorts of student populations in his decade-plus-long career, and has found particular value in the EMC² Learning approach to instructional design when helping him create lessons and materials for the trauma-informed school where he now plies his trade.
"Like Banging Your Head Against A Wall"
I work in a low socio economic school where the students are often reluctant to be there. Traditionally, this results in various behavioral issues both inside and outside of the classroom. Engaging reluctant learners is a daily challenge for many teachers in schools like mine. And it really can feel like banging your head against a wall. Before I discovered EMC² Learning, I simply couldn’t understand how many students could play a video game, fail numerous times at one or more levels, but keep trying until they succeed. I wanted to capture that motivation and bring it into my classroom.
Reluctant writers? Hard time getting 3 sentences out of your students? I call it a win when I have my kiddos asking for more! Thanks again #EMC2learning for the great resource! We printed & built our story dice to get our creative juices flowing! pic.twitter.com/leBvHrKjHC
— Mr.Dave (@digdeepwithdave) March 28, 2023
Investing In Sustainable Change
I know it might sound cliche, but EMC² Learning genuinely flips education on its head. It changes the landscape of what we think is education. It engages students and teachers and makes education fun, which it should be, for all students, no matter what level.Â
I was teaching grade 5 when I used my first resource from EMC² Learning, and one of my students asked me if I was grading the work that they were doing. I responded, “yes, why wouldn’t I grade it?” She responded, “Because it’s fun!” The approach that EMC² Learning takes to instructional design legitimately makes learning fun, engages the students and gives them ownership over their learning.
"Specifically, in a trauma-informed school like the one where I teach, many of our students are reluctant learners. The EMC² approach to education allows for not only differentiation, but changes the culture of how many of our students experience school and education."
I think what I love the most about this site is how EMC² Learning actually engages. It engages the teacher, it engages the students. There are a plethora of resources, easily editable and easy to adjust to any grade level. One does not need to solely rely on tech (which may be lacking in some of our communities) in the classroom. The resources, blog posts, courses, books and people make EMC² Learning a resource that is continuing to change how we educate our students. I see the students having fun and learning. Imagine that: fun and learning? Who knew it was possible?!
Seriously, I am consistently blown away by the passion that John and Michael have for this profession. It is refreshing and motivates me to keep doing what I am doing! Keep it up — and thank you!
EMC² Learning is home to more than 600 fully editable resources for any course or content area. Engagement Engineers and members of the Creative Corps enjoy a full year of access to each of these resources on demand. We hope you’ll consider joining us to unlock a full year of site access. For complete details including our exclusive limited time offer for annual site membership, click here.