This is the discussion that should be happening everywhere AND governments should be putting the onus on #BigTech rather than #surveillance of kids and other users. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/digital-literacy-cell-phone-nwt-9.7169039

#socialMedia #internet #NWT #Canada #digitalLiteracy #literacy

It's been a while! Literacy, Podcasts & Fame...Maybe is my new post #writer #literacy #podcast

https://somedayandnever.wordpress.com/2026/04/18/literacy-podcasts-and-fame-maybe/

Literacy, Podcasts And Fame…Maybe…

Friday 17 April 2026

I haven’t really mentioned overtly on my blog that I’m in education. I like to keep the ‘Danielle work persona’ and the ‘Danielle writer persona’ separate. My day job has no bearing on my writing, and frankly, with some of the stuff that I write, I really don’t want that link up of  ‘teacher writes this sort of stuff’. Too many questions. Too many sticky situations I could get into because of what I write. But today, I’m going to talk about the work side of my life.

There are 2 main points to this post. The first is that my co-teacher, De, and I have put in some extensive work to improve the literacy outcomes for all of our classes over the last 4, going on 5, years. As part of the extensive work, our school has been working with Cue Learning on improving literacy across the school. Every teacher has been mentored and had access to literacy legends, Sharon and Phil Callen. They’ve changed how we teach literacy, how we look at reading, writing and word work (spelling) and grammar, syntax and punctuation, vocabulary and how they work together to create fully rounded readers and writers. Certainly, our class results and achievements show how learning has changed for our students. So much so that De and I have been given the opportunity to record 5 podcasts with Sharon and Phil about how we approach teaching.

On The Teacher’s Tool Kit For Literacy, De and I discuss our Five Pillars of Effective Writing Instruction. Sharon and Phil challenged us to identify the 5 main principles or pillars behind how we teach writing to get the results we have over the last 5 years. I’m not just talking about academic results, but how we’ve changed our mindsets to allow us to challenge and change the mindsets of our students where writing is concerned. How we’ve pushed our students to invest in and engage with writing so that at the end of every writing unit, our class can produce/publish an anthology of their final writing tasks.

We have recorded the first episode, in which we discuss with Sharon and Phil the first of our pillars: Purposeful Planning. The podcast goes for a little over an hour, and our resources are available to both members and non-members of Teachific Literacy, a bank of great resources collected, collated and curated by Sharon and Phil. At the time of publication for this post, we still have 2 or 3 units to upload, but if you’re an educator who needs some literacy resources, hit up ours on Teachific.

Here’s the link for those of you who’d like to listen to the first podcast: The Teacher’s Tool Kit For Literacy: The 5 Pillars for Effective Writing Instruction. Read the short article Sharon has written to accompany the podcast and then scroll to the bottom of the page where you will find a clickable link.

Next week, we’ll be recording the second of our pillars of effective writing instruction podcast: Every Student Can Produce Quality Writing.

The second point of my post deviates from the podcast because I’m mixing work and personal.

If you’d asked me 5 years ago when our boss first put De and I together in a class, I’d probably have told you I was worried about sharing a class with someone else because I’m a ‘work alone’ kind of person. I would have probably told you that I was worried we wouldn’t get along. I’m not an easy person to have to put up with, especially not when I have those days where I just wake up with the blues, or stressing, or with anxiety, or just generally, y’know, wake up. And I had no real relationship with De to begin with. I mean, I knew of her – we work at the same place, after all. We were certainly civil and professional, and shared an occasional laugh in the staffroom, but that’s as far as things went. But circumstances changed 5 years ago, and our boss wanted us to share a class so the logistics of staffing could work for the year.

That year turned into a second and a third year. Then the dreaded fourth year came along and much to my disgust and mild distress, the boss separated us because, once again, staffing circumstances changed. That decision hit me harder than I’d ever thought it would. How could I go from working so closely with her to stepping back into the ‘just catching up with you in passing’ mode? I’ll admit, and I have said it to the boss, there may have been tears on my part when he made that decision. There were tears. At home. A lot of them. Because why? Why would you split us up when we work so well together? Holy guacamole, did I just think that? We work well together? Where had that ‘work alone’ person gone? Well, when it comes to working with De, that person disappeared.

Our separation didn’t last for long, and we were back sharing a class not long after the second term began. And I’m pleased to say that this year, there was no question about whether or not we’d be back together. We are.

Out of all the things that the last 4-going-on-5 years has brought me professionally, it is something entirely not professional that I am the most grateful for. Somewhere along the way I lost a colleague, a work buddy who I could depend on, who made my job easier. Because somewhere along the way, we became friends, and my work buddy is now one of my best mates. I can’t imagine sharing a class with anyone else, nor can I imagine what my life would be like without De in it. She is, without doubt, a brilliant teacher and I love watching lessons she’s teaching…in a non-creepy, buddy who is in awe of her teaching ability sort of way. But above that, she’s a brilliant human being in so many ways – an amazing mum to her kids, compassionate, empathetic, intelligent, honest, genuine and authentic, loyal, kind, emotionally intelligent, stronger than she thinks, wickedly funny, sarcastic (because you have to be to deal with me)…the list really does go on. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! *inside joke.

I’m of an age now where I don’t have the energy or inclination to have friends in my life who don’t have the qualities I admire and respect…and I guess, demand of myself as well as others. Actually, I think I’ve always been like this; it’s nothing to do with age, just me. My circle of friends is small but of exceptionally high quality and I trust them with everything that makes up who I am.

All of point 2, aside from being a way to brag about the brilliance of my friend, is to circle back to this: I am in an enviable position and I’m grateful that I am. I get to work with one of my best mates.

中文 Literacy Speedrun II: Character Cyclotron

https://blog.kevinzwu.com/character-cyclotron/

#HackerNews #中文 #Literacy #Speedrun #CharacterCyclotron #Speedrun #Learning

@ktdombomb #Mara emphasizes the importance of civic engagement, urging everyone to “register everybody to vote” and highlighting access to literacy through library cards. She envisions a world where collective action can lead to significant change. #Voting #Literacy

Mara’s message underscores the power of technology and collective efforts, drawing a parallel with how digital albums can be distrib... https://instagr.am/p/DXN9E16hln-/

> Back to books - Sweden's schools cutting back on digital learning https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly0vk77vdko

On one hand, concern for some falling literacy rates, blamed on excessive tech. On other hand, they just got an #RWNJ government, and we all know how regressive they can be, i.e. this is probably politically motivated.

#Sweden #tech #education #children #books #reading #literacy