According to the Edublog Awards website:
The Edublog Awards started in 2004 in response to community concerns relating to how schools, districts and educational institutions were blocking access of learner and teacher blog sites for educational purposes. The purpose of the Edublog awards is promote and demonstrate the educational values of these social media.
After much thought and deliberation, here are my nominations:
Best individual blog -- Extended Comments For Students (by Ross Mannell) Mr. Mannell is an incredibly dedicated retired teacher from New South Wales, Australia. He connects with classes all over the world and is the definition of a global teacher.
Best new blog -- Salsich Team 5 (Jonah Salsich's Class Blog) This year, my friend Mr. Salsich moved from third grade up to fifth grade. His new blog is an outstanding example of why I loved being blogging buddies with him. The passion and creativity he brings to the classroom makes learning engaging and fun.
Best class blog -- Open the Door to B4 (Judy McKenzie's Class Blog) This grade 1/2/3 New Zealand class blog run by Mrs. McKenzie is delightful. Although they are a rural community, the B4 blog is open for learning and sharing with the world.
Best student blog -- Heather's Perfect Posts This is one of the most difficult choices for a teacher to make. While I had several fabulous student bloggers in mind, I nominate Heather. This third grader consistently writes quality posts that include original images and thoughtful text. Heather makes an effort to comment back to readers who leave her a comment. Furthermore, Heather goes out into the blogophere and leaves thoughtful comments for other bloggers. She is a real giver!
Best ed tech / resource sharing blog --Langwitches (Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano) I learn so much for Silvia! She is a deep thinker and a generous educator. Langwitches is the model of a connected, collaborative learner.
Best teacher blog -- wwwatanabe by Tracy Watanabe Tracy is another powerful educational blogger who is passionate about integrating meaningful technology in the classroom. Her posts are rich in content and always provide links for further learning.
Best library / librarian blog -- Bulldog Reader's Blog (Julie Hembree) Every school should be lucky enough to have a librarian like Julie Hembree. She demonstrates what a 21st century library should be.
Best individual tweeter -- Krista Moroder @edtechcoaching Krista is an incredibly helpful person and was awarded ISTE Outstanding Young Educator last year. Her tweets are so useful, and one of them even connected me to a free trip to ISTE!
Best twitter hashtag -- #comments4kids (Thanks William Chamberlain!) This hashtag is so valuable for promoting student blogging. With one tweet, my students have an audience for their writing. What a great way to connect bloggers!
Best educational use of audio / video / visual / podcast -- Room 5 @ Melville Intermediate School (by Myles Webb) The middle school blog is rich with video documenting learning at this wonderful New Zealand school.
Best group blog -- Books to Africa Project This Seattle service project blog, organized by Julie Hembree, helped bring needed books to partner schools in South Africa. Great group effort!
Best group blog -- Books to Africa Project This Seattle service project blog, organized by Julie Hembree, helped bring needed books to partner schools in South Africa. Great group effort!
Best open PD / unconference / webinar series -- Classroom 2.0 LIVE! A wonderful resource for learning! Not only are the webinars incredibly useful, but the links to resources are extensive.
Best educational use of a social network -- Student Blogging Challenge A great program for classroom blogs and individual student blogs. Each week, Sue Wyatt publishes a menu of weekly challenges to help build blogging skills and connect classes worldwide.
Best mobile app -- Popplet I love this app for creating word webs, story planning, and creating time lines. We take screenshots, as the lite version doesn't allow saving.
Lifetime achievement -- Sue Wyatt (Creator of the Student Blogging Challenge) Sue Wyatt works tirelessly to promote student blogging. Her Student Blogging Challenge run twice and year, and the knowledge and connections she helps really help to promoting blogging in the classroom.
Good luck, everyone!
Thank so so much for the nomination for our classroom. On behalf of our students we are thrilled with the nomination for such a special award and to have it nominated by someone whose work we hold in such special regard is very special. Thank you so much.
ReplyDeleteMr Webb and Room Five, Melville Intermediate School, Hamilton, Waikato, New Zealand.
melvilleroom8.blogspot.com
Dear Mrs. Yollis,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for the nomination! I'm honored! I still remember one of my first posts in the Teacher Blogging Challenge and both you and Sue Wyatt left me comments that helped me understand what blogging was about -- the connections! You both helped me get started, and if you were to tell me back then that I'd end up on this post, I would never have believed you! Thank you for all that you do! As Angela Maiers says, you matter.
Warm regards,
Tracy
Dear Mrs Yollis
ReplyDeleteI'd like to say how much I appreciate the nomination. Thank you! We're just ending our fourth year of sharing our learning through Open the Door to B4 and value all the wonderful connections our blog has brought us.
warmest regards
Judy McKenzie
Thanks for all you have done to promote student blogging and (of course) commenting. How amazing has this ride been?
ReplyDeleteWilliam
Dear Mrs. Yollis and class,
ReplyDeleteI am extremely proud of myself, and if someone else was nominated by you. I am also happy to see that Mr. Mannell was picked by you too. To be honest, I enjoy reading Mr. Mannell's post a manifold because he always has lots of information, comments back to the people who comment to him, and also doesn't copy information from other websites. To me, he is so grand that I can't even explain how he is like.
I got nominated, and I like being nominated. I have to say, Chloe or Peter's blog are pretty nice too. If you want to check them out, here they are:
Peter's Plentiful Posting
Chloe's Creative Corner
Class, who do you think should be nominated?
Sincerely,
Heather