Category Archives: Awards

Awards

Surprise! Edublogs Awards nomination

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I am surprised, honoured, ashamed and excited about my blog making the Edublogs 2011 nominations in the Best Teacher Blog category. Thank you to Judith Way, a constant support and person who has inspired me and many others, for the nomination. First time I made it to the shortlist for which I am grateful. So, to explain the shame, I haven’t made time to nominate anybody this year which is a great pity because I would have liked to.

The Edublogs Awards are a fantastic way to discover new blogs and bloggers in all the categories. Each year my RSS reader bulges with new subscriptions after these discoveries. It’s a good thing the holidays are coming up – a chance to spend the time browsing and collecting.

There are so many exemplary people nominated, and many of those outside Australia, but there has been a growing Australian and New Zealand cohort too, and if I had (sigh) managed to vote, I would have voted for some of these –

Best individual blog Slightly addicted to fiction

Best Teacher blog What Ed Said

Best librarian / library blog Lucacept and Heyjude and Library Currants

Best new blog The Way Forward

Best class blog LRC Blog (because the library is a big classroom)

Most influential blog post – Chris Betcher: Tiny bursts of learning

Best educational use of audio / video / visual / podcast EdTechCrew

Best open PD / unConference / webinar series Australia e-Series and  Tech Talk Tuesdays

Lifetime achievement Anne Mirtschin

And that’s definitely not everyone. I’m sure I’ve missed brilliant people. Thank you, if you’ve been reading my blog. Please come in for a chat as often as you like. I might be writing for self expression but I’m really writing for you.

animation, Awards

The end of the year is nigh

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Nigh? What kind of language do I think I’m speaking? I blame end of year debilitating virus for that.

Anyway….

…it’s a strange time of the year when you jump off the spinning School Wheel and onto the Christmas Shopping and Everything Else Wheel.

I love this time of year in Edublogland when the Edublog Award winners are announced in all the delectably diverse categories. It’s a time to revere winners, to rejoice with friends, to expand the old Google Reader with more blogs, to bookmark best podcasts, virtual worlds, social networks and PLNs. It’s a time when you wish you had more time to explore, and a magical way of keeping up with everything.

I’m proud that our Australian educators have made the Edublogs honours list: @brightideasblog @edtechcrew @mrrobbo. Congratulations!

The end of the school year, I think some would agree, is a bitter-sweet time of letting go and refocusing on the multi-faceted holiday period.

I try to balance the stresses of everyday life with things of beauty. I need things of beauty; I think we all do. Sometimes music, sometimes art, sometimes literature. Today I’m sharing a beautiful Russian animation, The Seasons, by Yuri Norstein. Despite all his awards for animation, he was fired from Soyuzmultfilm in 1985 for working too slowly on his latest film, a  feature-length adaptation of Gogol‘s Overcoat.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnvuw29Tc28]

I was interested in reading about the technique which enables him to evoke such ‘magical’ landscapes:

Norshteyn uses a special technique in his animation, involving multiple glass planes to give his animation a three-dimensional look. The camera is placed at the top looking down on a series of glass planes about a meter deep (one every 25–30 cm). The individual glass planes can move horizontally as well as toward and away from the camera (to give the effect of a character moving closer or further away). (from Wikipedia)

Best wishes to everyone for the holiday period; stay healthy and productive, focus on what’s essential, and I’ll save my Christmas wishes closer to the date.

Awards, Uncategorized

My nominations for Edublogs Awards 2010

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In the nick of time, my nominations for the Edublogs Awards 2010 are:

Best individual blog – Jenny Luca – Lucacept.

Jenny Luca has been posting regularly through rain, sleet and snow. Her enormous following can be sure that she finds the latest information and news and opens up discussion for pertinent and controversial educational issues. Jenny shares what she’s reading, thinking and doing in a very personal way. The blog reflects her warmth and support to others. Jenny’s blog fits into many categories, but I’ve put it into the personal category because the blog is all Jenny.

Best individual tweeter – @ggrosseck (Gabriela Grosseck)

First person I check out when I open Twitter. Gabriela has the knack of finding the best links, and not always just the ones everyone else finds.

Best resource sharing blog – Judy O’Connell – Heyjude

I can be very lazy and just fish Judy’s blog for resources if I want to. Judy does all the work and I’m grateful. Of course, this is no dry, resource-only blog; Judy’s blog keeps you up to date with the latest in education and latest technology for learning, teaching and networking. Also, having just bought an iPad, Judy has everything I need to work out what to do with it in her blog, on Facebook and Twitter.

Best teacher blog – On an e-journey with generation y (Anne Mirtschin)

Anne is my hero when it comes to setting an example for teachers who create engaging, relevant, real-life learning situations. Anne’s students’ classroom is the world. I’m jealous. And Anne doesn’t just talk about it – she does it.
Best librarian / library blog – Bright Ideas (Judith Way)

Bright Ideas is the absolute best teacher librarian/library blog. Judith sources best resources for teacher librarians/librarians to support learning and teaching, and networks madly with educators who share what they do. It’s a window into what’s happening in school libraries and a great place to connect to new people.

I wish I’d had the time and energy to think about the rest of the categories, and there are so many people I’d really like to nominate. My Google Reader is bursting at the seams and is testament to how many people I rely on for my own learning.

And every year I learn about new, amazing people who are making learning and teaching such an exciting business. Thanks to all and thanks to Jenny Luca who has made my jaw drop to the floor with her nomination of my blog.

Although I’ve left this quite late, you might still have time to squeeze in some nominations here.