Literacy skills are foundational skills for all learning and our team at SCIDES ensures that early literacy skills in our elementary program (K-7) are developed and strong. One of the frameworks our teachers are trained in is Joyful Literacy. This framework includes games our primary teachers use with their students via Zoom, and also send to the student families so they can continue to play at home. Even before the pandemic, our team used Zoom to connect with learners across British Columbia, and we will continue to do so. It's a great technology that allows us to engage with students in a fun way.

We're excited to share the next Educator of the Month with you - Liz Moore. Here's how she answered our questions (hint: we love her wit and spirit!)

Mrs. Moore, we're thrilled to have you as our Educator of the Month for February. We look forward to finding out more about you! Please introduce yourself.

My name is Liz Moore, and I have lived in Merritt for nearly twenty years. Before that, I lived in the Eastern and Midwest United States, where I attended high school and university. However, my childhood was spent in BC, and this is where I dreamed of returning. A teaching job brought me back, and I am very glad it did. 

Happy New Year! We hope that 2017 will bring you happiness, health, and inspiration. For this month’s blog post, we want to help you kick start your inspiration, with 31 journaling prompts. Write your heart out, then come back to read through it, and get inspired to take action.

Set a timer for 10 minutes, pick a prompt, and start writing unfiltered. Whatever comes to mind, write it down. Don’t’ worry about grammar or editing (yes, we said that), just get your thoughts onto paper. You’re only writing this for yourself, not for marking! 

If you get into a habit of journaling, you’re in good company. Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, and Mark Twain regularly wrote in their journals. And journaling is not a thing of the past, people like Lady Gaga and Jennifer Aniston are avid note takers.

It’s the last month of 2016, and we’re celebrating Language Month at SCIDES. Did you know there are over 6,900 languages in the world? There are 6,909 to be exact, as documented by the Linguistic Society in 2009. That’s close to seven billion people in the world, speaking over 6,900 languages – wow! Some languages are only spoken by a handful of people, while the most-spoken language in the world (by population) is Chinese, with over 1.2 billion native speakers.