Technolandy

Day 137 (of 2024/25) taking a peek over the Rockies… #manitobaed

I like seeing what other jurisdictions are up to – and a duo of news sources nicely curated for me via Apple News got my interest – from Manitoba (Honourable Wab Kinew’s government is doing some neat things…!)

Universal literacy screening… https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/2025/04/11/manitoba-adopts-universal-literacy-screening – money targeting checking in and following up on reading… having done reading recovery and a variety of strategies and approaches to help with literacy (still a whole language devotee… cause it includes ‘everything… as needed by the learner – yep, phonics… yep yep yep). Though the screener is the relatively easy part – the more expensive part is the time and person(s) who can connect with individual needs to help accelerate reading (my ongoing bias – black line masters aren’t going to be as effective as Robert Munsch and Bone – though I’m also the librarian challenging if this reading fad is finally run it’s course… https://technolandy.com/2024/12/09/day-67-of-2024-25-maybe-this-reading-words-fad-has-run-its-course-to-read-or-not-to-read-op-ed-for-theatlantic-and-edutopia-to-consider/ ). Really good to see more than just words (pun intended) being targeted towards reading literacy…

PS I am a fan of what I have seen Microsoft Reading Accelerator do in terms of identifying what the reader is doing and providing ‘next steps’ – from decoding to interpreting through synthesis of what the writing/reading was all about.

But that wasn’t all…

Numeracy was also targeted! https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/2025/04/11/divisions-get-math-money-from-province another good one – as too often it is hoped that ‘a right textbook’ on its own will help unfold the beauty of mathematics… and yet the same educators would (should) balk at trying to find the ‘one textbook’ to use for reading/writing/anything… I’ll keep some of my more far-reaching math ideas (project based calculus) for another time, but the idea of building some math clubs and coaches to build confidence and enjoyment.

I’ve long complained that we need to do more of our math the way we’ve been doing our other subjects – not staring into a textbook, but more collaborating, communicating, synthesizing and having fun playing with numbers (and number concepts) and really reinforcing the chance for students to spend more time at their ‘independent math level’ while poking around ‘grade level math concepts’. It is doable… just not as easy as ‘odd questions today, even ones for homework… err tomorrow)

Looking forward to seeing how it goes and it anything comes up that should be considered as our own province goes through contract renegotiations! It remains a fun time to be in education!