The 12/12/12 Edublog Awards!

December 12, 2012, also known as 12/12/12, was a wonderful day in room 12! 

After the second graders read The Big Bushy Mustache

by Gary Soto, we all made mustache disguises just like the boy in the story. Do you recognize any of these bloggers hiding behind their mighty mustaches? Beverly, is that you? 

Photo by Mrs. Testa

At exactly 12/12/12 at 12:12:12 we stopped and looked at the magnificent number 

and at that magnificent handlebar mustache!

Photo by Mrs. Testa

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Just when we thought the day couldn't get any better, we attended the online Edublog Awards!

According to their website:  The Edublog Awards was set up in response to community concerns relating to how schools, districts and educational institutions were blocking access of learner and teacher sites for educational purposes.  The purpose of the Edublog awards is to promote and demonstrate the educational values of these social media.

I'd like to give a special thank you to Sue Waters, Ronnie Burt, and Steve Hargadon who were the perfect hosts of the event! Their dedication and commitment to meaningful integration of technology is appreciated!

 

 Here is a list of the nominations and the winners.  It's a fabulous list of global resources for educators. 

We were thrilled to win for Best Class Blog! 
In addition, our good friends, 4KM and 4KJ, were finalists out of the 34 shortlisted class blogs!

I am exceedingly proud of the Most Influential Posts. One of my former students, Jaden won with a terrific post about the 10 Things He's Learned From Blogging. My November is Family Blogging Month became a finalist as well. Bringing family into the classroom through blogging has proven to be a successful way to strengthen the home-school connection and make learning meaningful. The post generated nearly 150 comments from grandparents, parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, family, and friends. Having Family Blogging Month is a great way to a build a learning community.

    

Other Highlights of the Edublog Awards:

• Mrs. Morris, from Australia, was a finalist for Best Teacher Blog.

• Mrs Hembree and her students were a finalist in the  Best Librarian/Library category.

• Mr Avery and his class were finalists in the category Best Use of Media/Video.

• Ross Mannell, a retired teacher from Australia was a finalist in the Best Individual Tweeter category. We learn so much from his incredible comments!

 

• Former students Miriam and Sarah were shortlisted for Best Student Blog.

Abbey made this beautiful congratulations sign for us!

Thank you for supporting our blog!




Did you attend the ceremony? If so, what did you enjoy about the virtual room?

What do you like about blogging? 

Thank You for the Edublog Awards!

Yesterday, Mrs. Yollis' Classroom Blog won an Edublog Award for
Best Class Blog!
We want to thank all the people who nominated us and for the people who helped us win! We appreciate your support!

We were thrilled to see that our special blogging buddies Mr. Salsich’s Class Blog earned fourth place and 2KM and 2KJ (Australia) came in fifth! Go blogging buddies!

We were equally happy to learn that Mrs. Yollis' Learn How to Comment won for Most Influential Post! Mrs. Yollis is passionate about teaching students how to compose quality comments, so this award was very dear to her ♥.

 Two former students, Miriam and Jaden, were shortlisted in the top five for Best Student Blog.   Everyone was happy for Jaden! Plus, our good friend  Jarrod from 2KM and 2KJ won third!

 Our World, Our Stories was awarded Best Group Blog! The blog demonstrates the power and excitement of global collaboration. The teachers and their students each took a week to lead.  Weekly themes included:  local environment, food, recess activities, traditional songs, and stories.

One of the culminating activities for this blog was a group song.  Here is the final video of the group members joining together in song!

While learning how to patch videos together in iMovie, Mrs. Yollis tried different advanced tools. She experimented with inserting a screen and created a fun music video with her class.

This special day seems like an appropriate time to publish the song. It is called Make New Friends, which is something we love to do. The video demonstrates how Mrs. Yollis and her students have fun learning and creating together.

We hope you like our song!

Were were also very excited for some other special friends!

Mr. Avery (Massachusetts) and his class placed third in the category called 

Best Use of Audio/Video/Podcast. 

Mrs. Hembree (Seattle) and her students placed second in the category Best Librarian/Library.

What do you like about blogging?

Have you ever left a quality comment?

What commenting tips do you have for new bloggers?