Sunday, November 21, 2010

Mrs. Yollis' Edublog Award Nominations!

The nominations for the  2010 Edublog Awards are now open! The purpose of the Edublog Awards is to promote and celebrate the achievements and educational value of social media in the classroom.


It was an honor to win First Runner-up for Best Class Blog last year. That acknowledgment brought great pride to our class, and we got to make many new friends throughout the world through the process.

It is very difficult to make choices. As you look through our blogroll, there are so many quality educational bloggers out there making a difference in the classroom. The dedication and innovation demonstrated by the teachers and students is remarkable!


After much deliberation, I nominate:

Best individual blog: Langwitches Blog by Silvia Tolisano
Outstanding blog filled with ideas and resources for teachers. Not only is Silvia Tolisano innovative and creative, she is generous with her work. She regularly publishes links to posters, worksheets, and lesson plans to help teachers meaningfully integrate technology in the classroom.  

Best individual tweeter:  Shannon Miller 
Shannon Miller is the Teacher Librarian and Technology Specialist in Van Meter, Iowa. She tweets/shares about a wide variety of useful teaching resources. A real role model for Teacher Librarians everywhere.

Best group blog:  Challenge Yourself to Blog 
The Student Blogging Challenge is coordinated by Sue Wyatt, Sue Waters and Ronnie Burt. It is a fabulous way to learn and master the skills of blogging with your class. Weekly lessons about creating avatars or using Creative Commons are musts for every educational blogger. Sue Wyatt regularly features quality Student Blogging Challenge posts mid-week so students and teachers get a chance to see model work. Volunteer teachers and students help with weekly challenges and visit the individual blogs and leave comments. 

Best new blog:  Teaching Literacy in the Early Years by Kelly Jordan
Kelly Jordan provides a wealth of lessons targeting literacy in the elementary grades. She includes links to resources, has detailed lesson plans, and includes  worksheets to download for use in the classroom. 


Best class blog:  Mr. Salsich’s Class
Jonah Salsich is a third grade teacher in Connecticut, United States. He regularly shares quality learning posts from his class that integrate technology in meaningful ways. He is a master at tapping into the potential of oral and visual presentation via VoiceThread. 

Best student blog:  BB’s Awesome Blog
Bianca is an excellent student blogger from Kathleen McGeady's grade 2 class in Australia. This young blogger has really developed as a writer, uses Creative Commons attribution with her images,  and has a wonderful way of commenting back to her readers!  
(My students have just started the process of posting and maintaining their own blogs and will eligible for possible nomination next year!)

Best resource sharing blog:  iLearn Technology by Kelly Tenkely
Kelly Tenkely's site offers a gold mine of  quality resources for  teachers. Each educational link answers the questions:  What is it? How to Integrate? Tips?  There are links/resources for every possible educational purpose!

Best teacher blog:  Integrating Technology in the Primary Classroom by Kathleen McGeady
Kathleen McGeady is an elementary school teacher in Victoria, Australia. Her weekly blog shares quality resources and practical ideas for classroom teachers. In addition, she publishes thoughtful posts addressing issues facing teachers/administrators today. How Has Teaching Changed?  is a great example of this type of post.

Best educational tech support blog:  The Edublogger by Sue Waters
Sue Waters is a tireless champion of educational blogging! Her Edublogger site offers so much practical advice and helpful tutorials about setting up and maintaining quality educational blogs. Not only are the posts relevant, but she is a wonderful facilitator of the comment section of her blog.

Best educational podcast:  Bit by Bit by Bob Sprankle 
Bob Sprankle is an Elementary Technology Integrator in Maine, USA. His blog and Seedlings podcasts provide access to educators and their ideas for all of us. I've enjoyed listening to his podcasts that cover conferences I was unable to attend. 

Best educational webinar series:  Global Educational Conference 2010 by Steve Hargadon and Lucy Gray
This was a wonderful series for educators around the world to share about the projects and programs that globally connect us all.  Their online conference had incredible participation: 15,028 unique logins; 8,372 hours attended; 32,681 website visits this week.

Lifetime achievement:  Sue Waters
Sue Waters is an amazing individual! She is committed to helping teachers and administrators all over the world be successful with integrating technology in the classroom. Sue regularly jumps in and helps people via her Edublogger site, on Twitter, or her own personal blog. Sue Waters has been so helpful to me on my path to become an educational blogger and I know many people share my feelings.

Good luck to all! 


Have you made your nominations?

Important Dates: 
Nominations: Close Friday 3 December!
Voting: Ends Tuesday 14 December!
Award Ceremony: Wednesday 15 December!


Although it is difficult to make choices, how does everyone win through this process?









12 comments:

  1. Dear Mrs Yollis,

    Wow! Thank you for the nomination! I'm honoured!

    As you know I ♥ blogging and I'm so glad you enjoy reading my blog. You've been a great contributor.

    Like you, I just ♥ sharing things with other teachers.

    Thank you for nominating my student Bianca too! I know how much that will mean to her and her family.

    Your blogging buddy,
    Miss McGeady

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear Mrs Yollis,

    Thankyou for your wonderful nomintation in picking Miss McGeady and Miss Jordon.(such true words)
    You too are a truly a wonderful example of what you can achieve with blogging so my hat goes of to you.(you are truly amazing!)

    Also on another level I was so moved to read that you had nominated Bianca. I thankyou for your wonderful nomination and all the encouragement, support you have given her it really does mean a lot to me as a mother and as a blogging buddy.

    Bianca has not seem the post as yet and I can ensure you she will like to thankyou in her own way.

    You really and Miss McGeady have made the world of blogging such wonderful experience one that I hope it will contuine for a very long time.

    From your very grateful blogging buddy down under AA.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mrs. Yollis,
    Thank you so much for the nomination! I am honored to be included in your list of amazing blogs and educators!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dear wonderful Mrs Yollis,
    Thank you for nominating me!.
    I really appreciate you nominating me.

    You and Miss McGeady, Miss Jordan and Mrs Lynch and Mr Salsich are my nominations for these awards.

    You and Miss McGeady have always Supported me.

    I am very grateful.

    From your friend BB Bianca.

    ReplyDelete
  5. @ Miss McGeady,

    It was with great pleasure that I nominated you! I love how much you give of yourself to teachers...not only on your class website, but also with your teacher blog and newsletter. I hope you win!

    @ AA,

    Thanks for your kind words! I was happy to nominate Bianca. She is developing into a great writer, and I love the way she writes back to her readers in a quality way. She puts a lot of effort into her blog and it shows!

    @ Mrs. Tenkely,

    You are most welcome for the nomination! Your iLearn site is a tremendous resource for all of us!

    @ Bianca,

    You are a super blogger who puts so much effort into making quality posts. But as I've said before, I really love how you connect with your readers. All of your comments are thoughtful. Some students are so focused on how many comments they can get and sometimes don't take the time to compose a thoughtful reply. You also show you care through your writing.

    Go girl!

    Sincerely,
    Mrs. Y♥llis

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    Thank you so much for the nomination! I am very excited for the Edublog Awards, and it is a great honor to be nominated this year.

    Last year your blog was runner-up for best class blog, and I think you should have won. This year your blog should definitely win - you always have such good learning conversations on your posts and comments.

    However, I think everyone wins during the Edublog Awards because we get to learn about other blogs and meet new bloggers. Last year I learned about a lot of great blogs that I hadn't read before.

    Gratefully,
    Mr. Salsich

    ReplyDelete
  7. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    I am honored to have been nominated by you. It means a lot to me, since I admire you as a blogger and refer many times to your work to push me in my learning.
    Thank you!
    Silvia

    ReplyDelete
  8. @ Mr. Salsich,

    You are very welcome for the nomination! I always enjoy working with you on projects and visiting your blog to learn.

    I agree with you about everyone winning. It is a nice feeling to get nominated because it shows that your peers think you are doing good work in education. Like you said, we all get to see model blog and projects through the process!

    @ Silvia,

    I certainly feel the same way about you! Your Langwitches blog is loaded with practical ideas for all of us, but the fact that you so freely share the posters...the worksheets...We are all so grateful! Maybe someday we can Skype!

    Sincerely,
    Mrs. Y♥llis

    ReplyDelete
  9. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    I think that you made wonderful nominations. If I vote it will be hard to pick best indivitual tweeter because I don't have a twitter acount. Why didn't you vote for the Ugandan Global Project? How do you nominate?

    Sincerely,
    Jaden

    ReplyDelete
  10. @ Jaden,

    Thanks for your comment and interest in the process.

    There are many categories within the Edublog Awards. I didn't nominate in all categories, only the ones that I know about. When the voting opens, anyone can vote and you don't have to cast a vote in every category.

    One of the rules is: You cannot nominate yourself. I was a member of the Ugandan Global Project, so cannot nominate it.

    Nomination can come from anyone. There are two steps in the process. If you want to see the steps, click on the "Have you made your nominations?" link at the bottom of the page. There you will find the steps to nominate.

    Your pal,
    Mrs. Y♥llis

    ReplyDelete
  11. Linda,
    Thanks so very much for the nomination of the Student Blogging Challenge blog. It is certainly a group blog with everything involved in the posts and commenting.

    I have just made my nominations and have included your class blog in my list.

    Sue Wyatt
    tasteach or Miss W.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Dear Mrs. Yollis,

    I think that your votes are fabulous and reasonable.

    I also have a question. Who do you think will win?

    From,
    Aaron★

    ReplyDelete

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