Thought I would start my Winter Break with a tour of the 2009 Edublog Awards. At first glance, it looks a bit like a “round up of the usual suspects,” with awards going to many folks I’ve been following for sometime – and whose contributions to the edublogosphere continue to inform and inspire my teaching practice and toolkit.
But thanks to the awards, I’ve added three new blogs to my Google Reader:
- Happy Rainbow – Mr. Halpern’s byline of “Journey of a Male Kindergarten Teacher” kind of says it all. I’m glad to have to this window into the kindergarten world (pretty much an unknown territory for me).
- Billings Beta – In so many school districts, those school-to-home connections start to get a little fuzzy at the middle school level. I doubt if this is the case at Billings Middle School, with Jac de Haan, the school’s Technology Integration Coordinator, posting about relevant topics, such as Facebook updates and digital identities.
- Ms. Yollis’s Classroom Blog – I really value having tips from primary teachers on how post comments to a blog. Visuals such as the chart below help make the art of digital composing visible – and help move students beyond “me too” and “that’s cool” kinds of comments:
http://yollisclassblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/how-to-comment-on-our-blog.html
Congratulations to all the 2009 Edublog Award winners!
Dear Gail,
Thank you for mentioning my blog in your post and for including our comment visual! 🙂
I thoroughly enjoy the process of blogging with my third graders and they love it, too. As you mentioned, trying to get students to leave meaningful comments is a real challenge. Teaching directed lessons really helps move them beyond the…This is cool!!!!!!!!!! type message.
Thanks again for your support!
Linda Yollis
California
You are very welcome, Linda. Besides sharing your comment visual with other teachers, I’ll also be sharing your your How to Comment post and encouraging students to aim for “2-Pointers”!