It’s time for the 10th Edublog Awards and many wonderful blog sites could be listed for several categories so it was hard to pick just one for some of them.
The purpose of the Edublog Awards is promote and demonstrate the educational values of blogging and social media. It’s tough to decide who to nominate because you can only nominate one blog for each category and there are many, many super blogs to choose from worldwide and many could fit in multiple categories we felt. A Room with a View and Mrs. Monaghan (England) could go under several categories, Mrs. Yollis’s Class (California, USA) class could also go under many and Ms. Crowther and Upper Plenty (Australia ) fit under more than one category . All three of these teachers and classes demonstrate to others ways to incorporate social media with students. It was hard to decide where each fit the best! We edited them over and over and finally decided on our nominations for most categories. Then we had both Mr. Ross Mannell and Mr. Larry Ferlazzo we felt could have gone under either category. They both inspire teachers and students with their informative information. We constantly learn new things from both of them.
Our nominations are……….
- Best individual blog http://rossmannellcomments.edublogs.org/
- Best new blog http://upps45p.global2.vic.edu.au/
- Best class blog http://upps56jc.global2.vic.edu.au/
- Best student’s blogs- https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/sh/BurravoePrimarySchool
- Best ed tech / resource sharing blog http://www.edutopia.org/
- Best library / librarian blog http://bellbulldogreaders.edublogs.org/
- Best individual tweeter @YollisClass
- https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?screen_name=YollisClass&original_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fyollisclassblog.blogspot.com%2F&profile_id=182935624&tw_p=embeddedtimeline&tw_w=244887449644437504
- Best free web tool http://animoto.com/
- Best educational use of audio / video / visual / podcast http://www.mathmovienetwork.com/
- Best educational use of a social network http://aroomwithaview.edublogs.org/
- Lifetime achievement— http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/
How can you make your blog site more appealing?
What makes a good blog site?
What is the best social media to use?
Dear Mrs Todd and Students,
Thank you so much for our nomination – WOW! We are honoured, and it is lovely of you to recognise us in this way. We enjoy working with our blog, and have especially enjoyed beginning to use Twitter this year, setting up our own account as a class and embarking on tweet projects with poet Craig Bradley, and Mrs Yollis’ class in California via our #vocabaz project. Hopefully we will find a way to use it with Roadrunners, too!
Mrs Monaghan
Hello Mrs Todd and Rocky River,
How exciting to read that you have nominated us for an Edublog Award! Thank you!!
We love using blogging to learn and of course, making many friends along the way. It has certainly opened our eyes and we’ve discovered things about other countries we never thought possible. Thank you for your comments on our blog and teaching us about America through them.
We like all your other nominations too!
Miss Crowther & 5/6JC
Australia
Dear Mrs. Todd and Rocky River,
Thank you so much for the kind words in the introduction and for the nomination. I appreciate it!
Although I have been using a Twitter class account for a few years, this is the first school year I have branched out, followed others, and been more interested in using it for meaningful projects. The #vocabAZ we are doing with the fabulous Mrs. Monaghan is a great example of leveraging social media for real classroom learning. You should get your class joining us on the #vocabAZ! We only halfway through the alphabet!
Thank you again for thinking of us!
Your friend,
Mrs. Y♥llis
We will consider you offer. We only have one more day this week before Thanksgiving break. Then we are back for about 3 weeks in December before our winter break. I think that starts on the 21st our last day with students.
Hello
Thank you for your nomination. We were so happy to find that we had been nominated for best new blog. We love blogging and meeting new people. It helps us find out about new things from all around the world, first hand!
Thank you again!
From 4/5P Victoria, Australia
It’s good to see you enjoying communicating and learning with others throughout the world. What do you think has been your best post? Will you have new children after the end of this year or will yours stay with you?
We are on a few days break now for Thanksgiving. Today is a workday and then tomorrow will be Thanksgiving. The first Thanksgiving began in 1621 when the Pilgrims (who had come over on the Mayflower) and the Indians/Native Americans (who lived here) joined together for a feast. It’s a time to get together and be thankful for what you have and many people have a big turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, green beans, and of course pumpkin pie. Some watch big parades on TV from New York and others go to home town parades. For many the day after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday and they go shopping. I don’t get out in the crowds. Some watch football games (American football). Some decorate for Christmas over the weekend.
Hello Mrs Todd and Roadrunners
We hope you are having a fantastic Thanksgiving holiday. Why is the next day called Black Friday? Mrs Placek wants to know if there’s good sales that day!
It reminds us of the day after Christmas here that is called Boxing Day. It is a day for good sales and the start of the Boxing Day test (cricket).
We are not sure about our grades next year but we will find out before we go on Christmas holidays!
We are having some newly renovated buildings and also at the moment builders are working outside our classroom to make a passive playing area. Earlier this year we drew a plan showing what we wanted. We raised money to build this area.
We are looking forward to Christmas. Some people have put their Christmas trees up already but most are waiting for December.
We have had so many posts it’s hard to choose our best but some of our favourites are Guinea Pigs, Camp, Bushwahzee, Mystery Excursion and Island Maps. Island Maps had the most comments.
Do you have a break at Christmas?
What is your favourite holiday?
From 4/5P
Dear Students,
Tell your teacher yes there are good sales and everybody trying to get shoppers out buying for Christmas. Is she a shopper? What are some popular items for kids Christmas presents there? Some of us have decorated and some will this weekend. I haven’t put up a tree yet but do have a village (little houses, stores, people that is on a table) already setting out and my North Pole for the grandsons. I’ll try to get a picture and send it later.
What are some traditional things you do at Christmas time? We learned that when you have Christmas it’s summer which seems strange to us as many years it’s cold and we need coats. Sometimes we get a really surprising Christmas and it’s like a spring or fall day.
We will get two weeks off at Christmas starting on Dec. 21st. We got back after New Years but to the same grade unlike you. We don’t switch grades/teachers until June when school ends. We find out our new teacher/class when we go back in August.
What is a passive playing area?
I’ll ask the kids about their favorite holiday when we return although I think I know already.
Mrs. Todd
Yes, our teacher does love shopping! Boxing Day sales are a bit busy though so she avoids the shops at that time – too crowded!
At Christmas time we usually have lunch or dinner with our families (or sometimes both!) We have a Christmas tree and unwrap presents in the morning. Some of us have real pine trees and others have plastic ones. Sometimes we leave biscuits out for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. We would love to see a picture of your Christmas village and North Pole.
At school we are doing a Kris Kringle. Do you know what that is? We pull a name out of a hat and buy that person a present – but we don’t tell them who bought it for them! At our class party at the end of the year we will unwrap the KK presents and try and guess who bought it for us. We did it last year as well and it’s really fun.
Yes it is summer at our Christmas time, although a couple of years ago we had a huge hailstorm. Lots of cars got damaged because the hail was so big. Hopefully we have nice weather this year because some people have barbeques outside.
Popular Christmas presents are computer games, movies and figurines, like Skylanders. We get lots of different things too, like books, games, scooters and sometimes vouchers for different shops. What are some popular Christmas presents there?