My #eddies11 Nominations

One of the comfortable traditions that I've gotten into over the last few years is spending time over the Thanksgiving break thinking about the people in my PLN who have changed who I am as a professional.

And no joke: I'm thankful for a TON of people.

 

Folks like Scott McLeod and Dean Shareski have been influencing my thinking about #allthingseducation and #allthingstech for years now.  They're literally my professional heroes -- guys who have had a profound impact on me.

Folks like Steven Anderson, Tom Whitby, Kyle Pace, and Nick Provenzano are my digital homeboys, pushing me to think differently about the tools and practices that I'm integrating into my instruction.

Folks like Russ Goerend, Matt Townsely and Paul Cancellieri push my #assessment buttons, folks like Eric Sheninger, Jeff Delp and Lyn Hilt push my #leadership buttons, and folks like Nancy Flanagan push my #edpolicy buttons.

The list is almost never-ending, y'all.  I learn from George Couros.  I learn from Justin Tarte.  I learn from Derek Hatcherelli.  I learn from Bo Adams. I learn from Renee Moore.  I learn from Ariel Sacks.

That's what makes nominating people for the annual Edublogs Awards so stinking difficult. 

I want to nominate EVERYONE!

Knowing that I've got to be home in an hour, though, I'm going to keep my list of nominees for this year's awards short and sweet. 

Here they are:

Best New Blog: The Learning Nation by Cale Birk 

I suppose the real challenge of choosing the "best new blog" is defining "new" -- and then figuring out exactly when someone started writing.  From the best I can tell, Cale Birk -- a high school principal in Western Canada -- has been writing for just over a year.

Regardless of how "new" Cale's blog is, it deserves a spot in your RSS reader.  Cale is constantly writing interesting bits about school leadership.  I think my favorite bit of late was this piece where Cale details the tinkering his building is doing with professional learning communities. 

You can follow Cale on Twitter here.

 

Most Influential Blog Post: The Death of the Awards Ceremony by Chris Wejr

So I'm probably cheating by nominating The Death of the Awards Ceremony here -- it was written in June of 2010 -- but I don't care.  It's literally the most influential post that I read this year. 

Who cares if I didn't find it in time for this year's Eddies.

In it, Chris Wejr -- another principal from Western Canada -- explains the reasons that Honors Assemblies make no sense in schools that care about every kid. 

As a guy who emcees a mean Honors Assembly, Chris's piece has challenged me to think differently about student recognition -- or the lack thereof.  It's a bit that sticks in my intellectual craw -- one I return to four times every year. #thatscool

You can follow Chris on Twitter here. 

 

Best Group Blog: Voices from the Learning Revolution

A confession: I'm WAY biased towards full-time practicing classroom teachers, y'all. 

After all, I'm still in the classroom full-time, so I understand better than most the sacrifices that we make when we choose to teach.  I also understand just how risky it can be to make our practice transparent in such a public way by choosing to blog.

That's why the Voices from the Learning Revolution blog -- a PLP Network project -- means so much to me.  It's chock-a-block FULL of real-live classroom teachers writing with great detail about their instructional practices -- and it changes what I do in my own classroom almost every time that I stop by.

 

Best Free Web Tool: Tripline

This is easily the hardest category to come up with ONE nomination for simply because there are SO many tools and services that have chosen to offer educators free accounts -- Diigo, Voicethread, Animoto etc -- and I honestly believe that we should be thankful for ALL of them.

I decided to nominate Tripline this year, though, because it is a startup that I think has huge potential. Designed to allow users to create interactive photo enhanced maps, Tripline is just plain cool.

I reviewed it recently here -- and I'd encourage everyone to give it a spin. ANY service that can make maps cool is all right in my book.

There you have it, y'all. My list of nominees for this year -- but more importantly, my nod to my PLN.

Whether I've listed you or not, I learn from you EVERY day -- and for that, I'm thankful.

#fortunateson

Comments

[Hatcherelli]

Wow...thanks Bill! I am extremely honoured to be part of such an esteemed group of fine educators.
You are the one who inspired me to embark on this whole PLN journey and for that I am eternally grateful.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Derek

[Johncroftnorton]

Thx, Bill, for bringing attn to the Voices from the Learning Revolution group blog. Frontline practitioners, restless to improve ... That's what it's all about!

John

[Tripline]

Thanks so much for the nomination and the wonderful review of our site! We will keep working hard to make it the best possible tool for our existing and future users.

Cheers,

The Team @Tripline

[Scott McLeod]

Thanks for the kind words, Bill. Keep up your own great work too!

[Dan Callahan]

I love that post by Chris, but I find it somewhat amusing/confusing that you've nominated a post about the negatives of awards assemblies in the digital equivalent of an awards assembly.

[Bill Ferriter]

Dan Wrote:

I love that post by Chris, but I find it somewhat
amusing/confusing that youve nominated a post about the negatives of
awards assemblies in the digital equivalent of an awards assembly.

Im with you, Dan -- and Chris thought my choice was more than a little ironic too -- but if you look at the stated goal of the Edublogs awards, its not really SUPPOSED to be an awards assembly at all.

The real purpose of the awards was to raise awareness around the value of social media spaces as learning tools for school principals and teachers. It was designed as a response to the heavy-handed blocking of social spaces and tools that was so common -- and still is in some places.

The thinking was that if we could spotlight some of the really valuable content that was being created, we could convince decision-makers to allow social spaces to become a part of the learning patterns of teachers and students.

To that end, Chriss post fits the bill, doesnt it?

I know that weve lost track of the original purpose of the Edublogs Awards and that in many cases people just see it as a popularity contest much like the Honors Assemblies that Chris rails against -- but that doesnt mean that the original purpose doesnt hold merit.

Any of this make sense?
Bill

[Bill Ferriter]

Thanks for stopping by, Scott -- and never underestimate the impact that youve had on people like me who are learning from you out here in the digital soup.

Youre important.

#thatscool

Rock right on,
Bill

[Janey Fadely]

Hi Bill,

Thank you for helping me learn to navigate the world of education blogging by providing a short-list-blog-google-map. Very helpful for candidate teachers like me who just started blogging and are loving it.

Do you think you will change the awards ceremony at your school?

Janey Fadely
Seattle, WA

[Bill Ferriter]

Janey wrote:
Do you think you will change the awards ceremony at your school?

To be perfectly honest, Janey, no.

Heres why: Parents are as hung up on awards ceremonies as some of my professional colleagues. Until we can change their perceptions about honor and recognition in schools, theres little chance of every changing honors assemblies.

Interesting, isnt it?

And just another example of how change in school is governed by the perceptions that parents have about what our schools should be like.

Bill