Digital Dynamite: Our Nominations for the 2010 EduBlog Awards

Nominations for the 2010 Edublog Awards honor the connectivity of the Web: you make them by posting in your blog. Here's my list. As you will realize, there are many, many other worthy nominees — please take these as a sample of all the good that's out there. This list, of course, not only serves as a nominating tool but a great collection of resources worthy of exploration by MiddleWeb fans.
— John Norton, Editor.

Best individual blog
Teacher in a Strange Land - 30-year veteran Nancy Flanagan's polished, insightful prose blends education blogging, literary sensibility and a huge understanding of teaching and learning.
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teacher_in_a_strange_land/

Best individual tweeter
Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach - she's figured out to turn Twitter into a powerful professional development tool.
http://twitter.com/snbeach

Best group blog
Cooperative Catalyst - They came out of nowhere and assaulted Wonk World.
http://coopcatalyst.wordpress.com/

Best new blog
InterACT - Smart, important writing by accomplished California teachers.
http://accomplishedcaliforniateachers.wordpress.com/

Best resource sharing blog
Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day - Ferlazzo is the nuclear resource guy. Why does he continue to be the runner-up? Let's get it right this time!
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/

Most influential blog post
Dan Brown - Get in the Fracas - "When the Lights Come Up on Waiting for Superman, Here's What Teachers Need" - Brown speaks eloquently about the controversial documentary, from the perspective of a teacher in a charter school touted by filmmaker Davis Guggenheim.
http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/get_in_the_fracas/2010/09/waitingforsuperman.html

Best teacher blog
The Timmons Times - The reflection and level of detail offered by Dayle Timmons, a former FL teacher of the year, lights up the learning life of Chets Creek Elementary for all to see.
http://timmonstimes.blogspot.com/

Best school administrator blog
Connected Principals - The most complimentary thing one can say about this group effort is that the connected principals sound a lot like passionate teachers.
http://www.connectedprincipals.com/

Best educational tech support blog
Free Technology for Teachers - sets the standard others will be hard-pressed to meet.
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/

Best elearning / corporate education blog
The Stenhouse Blog – Yes, they sponsor MiddleWeb and that's one reason they're great. But judge for yourself: I think it's the most helpful and informative blog in the ed publishing industry, while still managing to sell some books.
http://blog.stenhouse.com/

Best educational use of video
"Love Letter to Albuquerque Public Schools" – Kids educating adults. Our friend @jmholland says of this powerful performance by four high school students, shaming the broken school reform movement: "There is a rising tide. Some day education will not be the same as it is today. It will be better."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4A6e8Rk8Oo

Best educational wiki
Digitally Speaking – If there's a better wiki for middle grades teachers than this one, please point it out. Bill Ferriter's generous gift to his global colleagues deserves recognition.
http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/

Best educational use of a social network
The English Companion NING – Hands down. No competition. The best in the world.
http://englishcompanion.ning.com/

Best use of a PLN
Bill Ferriter – It's a bit challenging to provide detailed evidence of one's use of a Personal Learning Network, but you can definitely see The Tempered Radical using his every day in his popular blog. Just read the posts and comments - this is a guy talking with the world, not just to it.
http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical/

Lifetime achievement
Heather Wolpert-Gawron – The TweenTeacher has her own blog, a blog at Edutopia and now at Huffington Post. She writes for Teacher Magazine and her first book, from Eye on Education, will appear this spring. She teaches eighth grade five days a week, works part time as a virtual teacher community moderator, and will soon bring another Wolpert-Gawron into the world. What's left to achieve? :)
http://tweenteacher.com/

Comments

[Larry Ferlazzo]

John,

Thank you for the kind nomination. I'm okay with being "number two." We "twos" try harder :)

Larry