Well, this feels a little awkward, but I'm always telling my staff that they should blog about things that will help further our thinking and the conversation, so here goes. I noticed last night that The Fischbowl has been nominated for Best Group Blog. No, really, I'm not making this up, head over to this The Edublog Awards post. This post describes the idea, and you can view the nominations in all the categories on the blog's main page.
At first I was feeling pretty good about this. Okay, so I'm still feeling pretty good about it, but not quite as good after I checked out the other nominations in my category. Ummm, I don't want to influence the voters or anything, but the other nominees seem to be at a slightly different level than we are. As in, a higher level. Don't get me wrong, I'm very proud of what we're doing at my school - and through this blog - but the other four blogs nominated are pretty amazing. The sad thing - or maybe it's a great thing (more on that in a minute) - is that I don't think I've ever visited three of these blogs before. I've been to Teachers Teaching Teachers quite a few times, but how could I have missed these other great blogs? The great part is now I know about them and will add them to my learning network. Of course, I can't get through my Bloglines reading as it is, so maybe it's not so great . . .
Anyway, I would highly encourage anyone reading this to check out the other blogs, as well as the blogs nominated in other categories (I haven't even tried looking at all of those yet).
Digital Chalkie - "The purpose of Digital Chalkie is to provide a hub for Australian educators using ICT to engage and facilitate the best educational outcomes for their students. The domain name uses the word ‘chalkie’ as an affectionately defunct Australian term for teachers. The goal is to establish a hub/magazine/think-tank for teachers to support each other and to collaborate in the use of ICT."
Infinite Thinking Machine - "The Infinite Thinking Machine (ITM) is designed to help teachers and students thrive in the 21st century. Through an active blog, an Internet TV show, and other media resources, the ITM shares a "bazillion practical ideas" for turning the infinite universe of information into knowledge. We showcase examples of innovative instructional methods, talk with leading experts, and share real stories from the classroom to improve how we think, learn, teach, and live. And we try to have a little fun along the way."
Polar Science 2006 - "It is with great pleasure that we welcome the Yes I Can! Science family and participating schools to join us on our Antarctic expedition. We are all very excited to have you along as we try to answer the question how do the skeletal muscles of seals develop to work during diving even when the animal is not breathing. We believe the answers to this question may have tremendous implications for human medicine. By understanding how another mammal has successfully overcome the debilitating effects of working under low oxygen conditions, we may be able to learn new therapeutic approaches to assist humans with heart or lung disease."
Teachers Teaching Teachers - "Paul Allison, Lee Babar, Susan Ettenheim, and Thomas Locke are mainly responsible for this blog and podcast. Toward the beginning of 2006, a few of us began to meet via Skype. In the spring of 2006 we began webcasting with the help of Jeff Lebow and Dave Cormier of WorldBridges. Every Wednesday evening at 9:00 EST (Americas) we get together and talk about our teaching. These conversations are archived as a podcast on this blog. Together we are searching for the most effective practices in technology, studying research, and improving our knowledge of new media by using it oursleves. We have two purposes: developing teacher knowledge and leadership in our own schools and districts and putting this knowledge and leadership to work to improve student achievement through the use of technology."
Vote early and vote often in all the categories. Oh, and thanks to all the folks that nominated The Fischbowl, whomever you are.
Karl, I visited today just to see if nominated blogs were a part of my bloglines. Yeah! I had four of the five in your category. Congrats and keep up the good work.
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