Happy #DLweekTO

I can't believe it - I'm late! Usually my Monday Molly (Mali) Musings appears, as the name suggests, every Monday. This week, the time slipped away from me and the weekly thought didn't get published until Wednesday. Sorry about that! The ironic thing about the delay is that this week isn't as busy as the previous weeks were.

This week is Digital Literacy Week in Toronto. This is a joint project, involving the Toronto Public Library, the City of Toronto, the TDSB, the TCDSB, and many other groups. The Toronto Public Library site describing the events can be found at this link: https://www.toronto.ca/explore-enjoy/festivals-events/digital-literacy-week/

For some reason, the TDSB site isn't listed here, which is a shame because the web presence is absolutely top-notch. You can find it here: https://sites.google.com/tdsb.on.ca/digitalcitizenship/home

Even some events I had this week that were not necessarily planned to coincide with Digital Literacy Week did so in quite a timely fashion.

On Monday, May 27,2019 the TDSB Professional Library held its second TDSB Teachers Read event. They definitely used a lot of digital tools to promote literacy. Search Twitter for the hashtag #tdsbreads to see the tweets, find the Periscope recording of the panel promotions, and use the Google Form ballot to select your favourite title. It's a hard choice; I haven't voted yet. I participated on the panel last year and it was a wonderful opportunity. I'm so glad they continued the tradition.

That’s a wrap on TDSB Teachers Read 2018-19, but the conversation doesn’t end here!
Watch the recording here on our Twitter feed, or at: https://t.co/SmwDPWn1S2

Vote for the winning book at: https://t.co/Xy0DejANmV #tdsbReads pic.twitter.com/aPVe98A6nK

— TDSB Professional Library (@ProfLibraryTDSB) May 27, 2019

That same night, Denise Colby and I had a return engagement on the VoicEd radio show "Mediacy" with Stephen Hurley. It wasn't deliberately tied into digital literacy, but our discussion about gaming and identity dovetailed nicely with the themes of Digital Literacy Week. We LOVE talking with Stephen Hurley and I think we are planning on the possibility of a spin-off radio show focused on gaming of all sorts with some more student voice involvement!

Thank you @MzMollyTL and @Niecsa for a great second discussion of gaming and #medialiteracy on @voicEdcanada!
Especially compelling to consider issues of identity of gamers, hierarchies, etc.https://t.co/OwhQBKmNxW@A_M_L_ @Stephen_Hurley

— Neil Andersen (@mediasee) May 29, 2019

Today (Wednesday, May 29) was the "reunion" for the Media Literacy AQ participants from TDSB. Once again, this wasn't an official Digital Literacy Week event, but we had a great guest speaker from TorStar who gave us a behind-the-scenes description of what working with digital user experience is like.

Tomorrow (Thursday, May 30) will be the 3rd anniversary of the #tdsbEd chat. I haven't missed an anniversary celebration yet. I plan on bringing at least one, if not more, of my colleagues to meet face to face and engage in some professional learning.

On Friday, May 31, the seventh annual Red Maple Marketing Campaign will take place at the Malvern branch of the Toronto Public Library. It's an official "exploration classroom" for the TDSB. The description is below as part of the image.

I write about the Red Maple Marketing Campaign often (e.g. 2018's reflection can be found here) and this will be the first time that we will have other teachers come to visit to see what it's all about and talk about how we included digital literacy as part of the preparation. I have high hopes for the Agnes Macphail PS teams this year - I was a lot more hands-on and did more coaching and checking in than I did in previous years, and I think that helped both the learning and the quality of the projects. Maybe we can continue our winning streak, since two weeks ago, Agnes Macphail PS won the Silver Birch Quiz Bowl Non-Fiction competition. Check my Twitter feed or next week's blog to see samples of the campaign strategies.

Did you know it was Digital Literacy Week? How might you take note now or in the future? Even if you weren't aware it was happening, have a happy #DLweekTO anyway!