Blog

We're celebrating NWT Literacy Week September 25 through to October 1. Each year we choose a theme that explores the connection that literacy and essential skills have to many aspects of our lives. This year, the theme is Tied to Tech. Technology has so many benefits, like helping us connect to the world, or learn a new language, but it also can be addictive, or lead to bullying and strained… Read more.

Have you ever considered the connection between violence at home and how a student acts and participates in the classroom? Often we don’t see what students, friends or colleagues face at home, and bring with them to work, the classroom or social gatherings. Without knowing what takes place at home, we may misjudge someone’s actions or decisions. This is Family Violence Awareness Week across the… Read more.

International Literacy Day 2016 celebrates 50 years of local, national and international work and progress to increase literacy rates and boost literacy in the future.  The goal of promoting literacy as an instrument to empower individuals, communities and societies hasn’t really changed in the past five decades. Of course our ideas about literacy have evolved.  People today need to be able to… Read more.

Where would you cash your paycheque if you didn’t have a bank in your community or a bank account to electronically deposit your earnings? In many remote, northern communities access to bank services are few, far, in between, and non-existent. How could this be? Keep reading and you’ll find out. A couple years ago Katie Randall wrote about her experience delivering financial literacy across the… Read more.

Here in the NWT we may look forward more than anywhere else in Canada to National Aboriginal Day on June 21.  That’s because this is the only place in Canada where it’s a statutory holiday. Aboriginal Day is more than just a chance to enjoy the summer solstice.  I hope you will get out and participate in the wonderful community activities planned across the NWT.  Take advantage of the… Read more.

Take a walk down Franklin Avenue and you will quickly see that the small capital city of Yellowknife is hugely multicultural!  We wonder, “How did they end up here?” Or more importantly, “How are they surviving in Yellowknife?”  The first question is their story to tell, but the second one is our concern. One of the first and most important considerations for survival in any new country is… Read more.

Community Building. Community Enterprise. Workforce Development. These were the themes at the heart of Econous 2016, the national Community Economic Development Conference, which I attended in Montreal in May.   You may be wondering about the place of community economic development in literacy work. In the NWT where many communities lack jobs for young people, we can’t separate economic… Read more.

May is Speech and Hearing Month.  Speech, language, and hearing are all linked to literacy. Children who have smaller vocabularies as preschoolers are more likely to struggle with learning to read.   Children who have trouble pronouncing sounds can have difficulty learning to spell and sound out words.  Children with undiagnosed hearing loss are at risk for reading and other academic delays. … Read more.

The NWT Centennial Library in Hay River was very lucky to have a visit from the acclaimed French Canadian illustrator, Geneviève Després, during the 2016 TD Canada Children's Book Week. She gave a workshop on the process of illustration, using one of her books. Participants’ reactions to the presentation stood out for me. People listened with great interest and watched with enthusiasm as the… Read more.

Last week Sandhya Koirala, the assistant librarian at the Inuvik Public Library and I were lucky enough to attend the Training Institute 2016, held by the Centre for Family Literacy in Edmonton. It was a great week filled with learning, fun, and getting to meet others in the family literacy field. Our training started off with a two-day Introduction to Family Literacy. Our instructors, Donna and… Read more.