Blog

Parents, educators, politicians and community members are looking for ideas to get NWT children on the right track for their education. One of the most-often asked questions I get from parents and early childhood educators is how to give children a solid foundation for lifelong learning. Since parents are their children’s first teachers, I usually suggest activities that they can easily do… Read more.

We are celebrating NWT Indigenous Languages Month during the month of March. To help support NWT Indigenous languages, we launched a social media campaign called #MyLanguageMatters. We hope to engage and challenge people across the NWT to speak their Indigenous language. You can take part by uploading your video on social media. Here’s how it works: Introduce yourself using your Indigenous… Read more.

Happy International Women’s Day on March 8! For me, International Women’s Day is a day to celebrate the opportunities I have available to me — I can attend university, I can vote, I can buy a house, and I can do all these things wearing pants (if I want to) — and to celebrate the women that helped make these things possible. But it’s also a day to ask questions. Questions such as: Why do women,… Read more.

Dear Stuart, I don’t think for a minute you will remember me. But I remember you. Like many other Canadians, I followed your documentaries on Sunday Morning. I laughed at the ailing cricket adventure on Morningside. (“That cricket is not well, Stuart.”) And, of course, I loved The Vinyl Café. Letters were an important part of that program, so I decided to write this one to you. I work for the… Read more.

We held our very first Granny and Grampa Talking Bags workshop in Yellowknife in January. The purpose of the workshop was to help elders effectively use the Granny and Grampa Talking Bags in their communities and regions so that their knowledge becomes more accessible to families and programming. The Granny and Grampa Talking Bags are an intergenerational resource designed to help involve elders… Read more.

When you think of February 14, do you imagine cards, chocolates, hearts and roses? Many people think of it as the day of love, while others consider Valentine’s Day a commercial holiday, pushed on us by greeting card companies. At the NWT Literacy Council, we celebrate February 14 by marking International Book Giving Day. Each year we deliver books to groups around Yellowknife for their… Read more.

Essential skills are the foundational skills people need to participate effectively in all areas of their lives – home, community, learning, and work. They are the building blocks, or the foundation, that let people learn new skills.People benefit when they have essential skills Essential skills help people to:   •  learn new things   •  achieve greater independence   •  develop and improve their… Read more.

This year marks Canada’s 18th year of celebrating National Family Literacy Day each January 27. Family Literacy Day reminds us to take time to learn together and receive the huge benefits for both adults and children. Family Literacy Day raises awareness of the importance of family literacy.  It helps us spread the word that learning can take place through a variety of different activities —… Read more.

When e-readers first started becoming popular, I was in the camp of people who rejected them. I would go on extended (and likely quite boring) monologues about how they were going to destroy the publishing industry and wreak havoc on local book stores. I maintained that I would never get an e-reader because I liked the physical presence of a book, liked the heft of it and the feeling of the… Read more.

Do you want to read more during 2017? Reading is relaxing, informative and usually a better use of your time than binge-watching Netflix or checking social media. Many people make it a New Year’s resolution to read more books. It’s such a popular goal, there’s an app for that. In fact, there are several apps! Apps like Bookout, and Bookling can keep you motivated by tracking your progress and… Read more.