never stop

Joanne Kaattari from Community Literacy Ontario sent me this link and I thought I would share it with you too.

I think it is good for those days when everything seems a bit overwhelming and we need a little pep talk (from Morgan Freeman!) about how great we are, how much the world needs our brains and how very possible everything is.

merry merry y'all

I hope you all get some of that Christmasy feeling ... a little music, something nice to eat and, best of all, time with friends and family.

december!

Well here it is December already and still no sign of the café blogger. Sheesh. I was laughing the other day because I could not muster up the 5 clicks it would take me to sign in and post a little message here.

I have lots of ideas but I am not sure about any of them. Perhaps I am suffering from brain crack. (Warning: NSFW - Swearing starts at 1:44.)

Or perhaps it is a case of monkey brain.

Unfortunately, I like my monkey brain.

I think it is a bit of monkey brain and a bit of feeling slightly adrift in the literacy field right now. I am working and I am enjoying the work I am doing but I do not feel grounded in practice with literacy learners. Could it be that I am blogless because I am currently part jumpy monkey and part drifting jelly fish? Well, monkeys can learn to collect a perfectly ripe coconut (3:15 - 6:45) ...

and ocean drifters are luminescent ...

so stay tuned!

see you in september

Hey there café readers,

I hope your summer is going swimmingly. Mine is cranking along. There is some family stuff that I have been attending to and lots of relatives have come to town so I have not found time to blog. I think I am going to take a break until September... before the 21st night for sure ... see you around Literacy Day.

using our literacy skills for good

Last week we reported about the release of the United Nations Millenium Goals Report. The report shows that not enough progress is being made to meet the targets in time.

The G8 summit was also last week. They started, as we all should, with a nice breakfast:
"The official cook of the Italian national soccer team, Claudio Silvestri, was in charge of breakfast and served a staple from Italians' breakfast tables for nearly 65 years -- Nutella. The roasted hazelnut spread was offered in the form of a balanced breakfast -- on bread accompanied by milk and fruit. Fortified by this nutritious breakfast, the world's leaders were then ready to tackle the globe's pressing issues through the rest of the day."

One of the pressing issues they took on was maternal and child health last week. Here is how the Guardian reported the attempt:
"...perhaps believers of the Make Poverty History generation should not give up hope just yet. While the G8 failed to increase their aid for maternal and child health (which currently represents a miniscule 3% of total aid) they were persuaded to commission a new assessment of the finance that is needed to reach the millennium development goals (MDGs). Reportedly this line in the statement was hastily agreed as the meeting was breaking up and a number of leaders were impatient to leave for an earthquake tour."

And so it goes.

Anotonia Zerbisias posted a copy of this ad which exhorts these world "leaders" to use the literacy skills, learned from their mothers, to ensure global health and well-being.

Your mother taught you how to write your name, now she'd expect you to sign it.

Every single minute a mother dies in pregnancy or childbirth. 80% of those deaths are preventable. At this week's G8 Summit in Italy, you are the 8 people who can prevent them -- it's as simple as that. Reduce maternal mortality and make every mother proud of you.

Mothers everywhere are watching and hoping.

Just because some of us can read and write and do a little math,
that doesn't mean we deserve to conquer the universe.
~ kurt vonnegut ~
in hocus pocus, 1990

But it could mean that we do all we can to help make the universe a humane and beautiful place for all of inhabitants. Hazelnuts and chocolate for all!

last night ...

all over canada...

life in canada

All about us...



Happy Canada Day tout la gang!

Video from the Grievous Angels One Job Town CD, released in 1990. Band includes: Michelle Rumball (vocals), Charlie Angus (guitar) -- yes, that Charlie Angus!, Tim Hadley (bass), Peter Duffin (drums), Kersti MacLeod (back up vocals), Lynne Symmons (back up vocals), John Switzer (producer filling in on fake piano).

condors among us

I am...the Great Supersonic Condor. I chose the walking staff as my 'weapon'. Really I think the big stick is something to lean on when the going gets tough...

celebrate

Teachers' Domain: Poetry Everywhere Collection
"Explore the power of language, look at the world with a fresh sense of wonder, and build reading and writing skills. These video segments, drawn from the PBS Poetry Everywhere series and produced in partnership with the Poetry Foundation, capture some of the voices of poetry, past and present."

faithful

The reading and research I have done this week has left me feeling a little out of sorts. I just wrote a post about how everything is changing and nothing is changing but I now do not want to publish it. Maybe some other time.

So instead I am going to re-publish something I wrote for the The National Institute for Literacy (NIFL - US) Technology List discussion about integrating technology. (You can sign up here.)

I do not feel like this today but I did on Thursday and I will again soon I am sure. I face the weekend with hope.

Some people have talked about how integrating technology changes the role of the teacher.

In some ways, I think that integrating technology allows teachers to do some of the things they have long wanted to do but found challenging.

One thing I have been thinking about lately is the role of the canon — that “dead white guys canon” we deride but that still gives us currency we use daily.

We used to talk a lot about how to bring the canon to literacy – how to balance giving literacy learners access to the canon that lets us be part of the Western Judeo-Christian discourse with creating an alternative canon that includes a more diverse range of contributors. We valued the alternative canon and wanted to promote a more democratic, post-colonial canon but we knew this canon is not valued in some of the places literacy learners want to go.

Literacy students come to programs to change the access they have. I remember an occasion when we read Robert Frost’s Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening and the next day, Pierre Trudeau’s (former prime minister of Canada) son paraphrased the poem at his father’s funeral. The students knew the reference which made the quote more meaningful to them and also made them feel they were part of a conversation – not onlookers or outsiders. I think that is an important role for literacy education.

The challenge in finding the balance was always access to resources and the ways in which resources were organized. We used libraries and indexes that were developed by experts. They were useful but we had no ownership and no way to contribute. Most of what students saw was stuff we brought. Most of what students thought was valuable was the stuff we brought. They trusted us to know the index and to choose wisely.

I think that the internet and publishing tools help us find a better balance – or a better way of creating balance. It allows us (compels us?), teachers and students alike, to create our own resource lists and index them in ways that are useful to us. It allows us to index items from the revered canon with items from our own personal canons side-by-side. It allows us to publish our own work and see it beside, linked to, and with reference to any other work we choose. It allows us to join a discourse and create a discourse. And it means that each teacher and each student can create their own balance.

And the great thing for those of us working in literacy, those lists and canons and conversations can be less print-based and people who are not primarily reader-learners can participate in them more easily.

it is all about me!

Hey there tout la gang,

I have not posted for a week now. I have lots to say but haven't managed to type it up here. I think all you bloggers know the syndrome.

There is a website called cardsofchange. Here is what it is all about:

Our mission is to collect as many business cards and stories of positive change of people who have recently been laid off and connect them with new opportunities from potential employers, business partners and people who make the effort to look on the bright side of life.

I am not quite ready to upload my card because things have not quite gelled into something I could call "change" yet. Unless rolling up my loose change for grocery money counts :P

I am kidding of course. The cupboard is far from bare. So no big changes yet but I have been gardening and that is new for me.

In case you have been missing my blah blah blah, I am podcast #6 in the AlphaPlus Tech Podcasts series. I hope that you have been following this series. There are some great interviews and thanks to Alpha (and most especially Maria Moriarty) for documenting some craaaazy wisdom.

Have a great weekend.

wonderful world

Well it has been a busy week running around trying to move ideas and things. In these stalled times, it can be hard to keep hope alive. When I feel as though the technocrats are crushing all the fun and talent out of everything, I watch this video to remind myself that the default setting for most people is to wish, bring, share and embody love.

On November 16, 2006, MadV posted a video on YouTube called One World. In the video, MadV was holding a hand up to the camera, on which was written 'One World'. This text accompanied the video:
"This is an invitation, to make a stand, to make a statement, to make a difference. Join in. Be part of something. Post your response now."

This is a compilation of the responses:

What a nice place it can be...

the beauty that you are

faster than a speeding rainbow,
more powerful than the wind, the rain and the sunset,
and able to leap a slough of despond (or the *Slough of Despond) in a single bound.

I'll be your mirror
Reflect what you are, in case you don't know
I'll be the wind, the rain and the sunset
The light on your door to show that you're home

When you think the night has seen your mind
That inside you're twisted and unkind
Let me stand to show that you are blind
Please put down your hands
'Cause I see you

I find it hard to believe you don't know
The beauty that you are
But if you don't let me be your eyes
A hand in your darkness, so you won't be afraid

When you think the night has seen your mind
That inside you're twisted and unkind
Let me stand to show that you are blind
Please put down your hands
'Cause I see you

I'll be your mirror

*about the Slough of Despond, Bruce Trail, Ontario

lonesome no more

Here's my super literacy hero, courageous walking wizard...

Henrietta

Henrietta is a Twitter friend.

faster than a speeding book cart,
more powerful than Imperial Leather,
and able to leap a proscenium arch in a single bound.

and she is definitely not scared of the dark...

a groove that is NEVER out of fashion

The Strange Avenger is ready to join the Community of Heroes in the Literacies blog! (I assume I got the strange label because I was minimalist and chose no weapon).

Nancy :)

faster than a speeding technocrat,
more powerful than a Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment,
and able to leap the corridors of power in a single bound.

I wake up every morning
I hear your feet on the stairs
You're in the next apartment
I hear you singing over there--

This groove is out of fashion
These beats are 20 years old
I saw you lend a hand to
The ones out standing in the cold--

Strange Overtones
In the music you are playing
I'll harmonize
It is strong and you are tough
But a heart is not enough-

Put on your socks and mittens
It's getting colder tonight
A snowball in my kitchen
I watched it melt before my eyes--

Your song still needs a chorus
I know you'll figure it out
The rising of the verses
A change of key will let you out--

Strange overtones
Though they're slightly out of fashion
I'll harmonize
I see the music in your face
That your words cannot explain

Strange Overtones
In the music you are playing
We're not alone
It is strong and you are tough
But a heart is not enough--

the literacy avengers

faster than a speeding social capitalist,
more powerful than a knowledge manager,
and able to leap the zone of proximal development in a single bound.




















Let everyone see your inner superhero at the Hero Factory.

You build your heroine/hero and the Factory folk name her/him. I think it is pretty apropos that the café hero is called the Thoughtful Philanthropist.

Send us your comic book cover or a link to it so we can see the Literacy Avengers Community of Practice.

places to learn - coming soon?

Hey Wendell. Hey Nancy. Hey Bonnie. Hey everybody. Places to learn!!!!

In 1998, when the UK Labour party was less than a year into it's current 12 year run of electoral success, David Blunkett, then the education secretary, wrote The Learning Age green paper.

As well as securing our economic future, learning has a wider contribution. It helps make ours a civilised society, develops the spiritual side of our lives and promotes active citizenship ... It helps us fulfil our potential, and opens doors to a love of music, art and literature. That is why we value learning for its own sake as well as for the equality of opportunity it brings.

It was a great paper, but nothing happened until last month when John Denham, the secretary of state for innovation, universities and skills, issued an adult learning white paper called The Learning Revolution.

The white paper announces £20m of new money. This "transformational fund" will invest in "innovative new approaches to reach and engage new learners".

People who want to organise their own groups and classes will be supported by a new national campaign for learning, Government announced today. Public and private buildings all over the country will throw open their doors to learners in the evening and weekends, from pubs, shops, cafes and churches to workplaces, libraries and galleries. The buildings will be identified by the new "Learning Revolution" logo and at least 7,000 rooms will be available, with the number expected to grow.

Learning in all its many forms improves our quality of life, happiness and personal wellbeing. While improving people’s skills is one of the most powerful things they can do to realise their career aspirations, we recognise the importance of learning for pleasure and the enormous contribution it makes to the well-being of individuals, neighbourhoods and wider society.

Over the past few years, there has been a quiet learning revolution, but the Government wants to ignite this, raising the profile and take-up of learning wherever it happens, so that all adults and communities can benefit from high-quality, innovative learning that is accessible to all.

It all seems a little more back-to-the-future than revolutionary, but who in these parts really wants a revolution anyway. I will gladly forgive them the hyperbole, plus all the sins of Skills for Life, if they make this work. Or better yet, just let this work.

Wouldn't it be nice to hear something similar from any of our governments? If anyone knows of anything along these lines happening anywhere in Canada, please let us know.

Thanks to Nancy Jackson for telling us about this exciting development.

Guardian Article >>
Wanted: a learning revolution

The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) response >>
Realising The Learning Revolution

wish

Tannis went to the Read Saskatoon 30 year celebrations in February. She had a great time there. Those are good people at Read Saskatoon. She brought back this outreach postcard for the Basic Education Program at The Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology (SIAST). It was designed by SIAST students and we think it is PERFECT.

hope

Sorry for not posting as promised last week. I got a little bogged down. We were making our last attempt to try to describe Literacies in terms that might get OLES to look at funding the journal again. We wrote and wrote and talked and talked but we could not get there. I hope everyone else got their proposals in without too much sweat and tears.

Speaking of sweat and tears, Carol Goar visited a literacy program in Brampton, Ontario and wrote about it in her column today.

It is one of Ontario's underfunded, undervalued schools of second chances. It doesn't look like a school. It's a warren of rooms in a suburban plaza. There are no lockers, no corridors, no principal's office.

It doesn't feel like a school either. There are few rules, routines or restrictions. The people who study here don't need discipline. They need hope.

Sometimes when I am in need of hope I watch this video. We have posted it here before but I think it is time to watch it again.

me and my sisters

Happy International Women's Day. Have a great celebration.
We'll be thinking of you and all that you do to build equality in your communities.
And remember...