Congratulations to all those that made it onto the short listed nominations and apologies to all those whose site or nominated sites don’t make it – it’s always a very tough decision!

But what I’d like to talk about, and thank, are all the unsung heroes of what we do!

Because behind each and every one of us that works hard at doing what we do and supporting others there are husbands, wives, children, students and administrators who are extremely patient and understanding.

So here’s my thanks!

For all those times:

• I’ve destroyed dinner (almost set fire to the kitchen)
• Been distracted while you’re talking (and focusing on something else)
• I’ve suddenly vanished (to suddenly be located on my computer)
• Worked through the night (while trying hard to not let any one notice)
• For the weird places I’ve been tweeting/IMing from (when I REALLY shouldn’t have)
• and all the other things I’ve probably done and left out

— thanks to my husband and children for being understanding.

And for each and everyone that supports what we all do — thanks!

None of us could do it with out your support!

Hopefully this also inspires each and everyone of us to make time to thank those that support us….

PS don’t tell my husband I stayed up too late writing this post

She is a true pioneer in educational blogging and building global connections.

Sue, maybe better recognized by her display name of Miss W or @tasteach on twitter, is well known by thousands of students and educators from around the globe that participate in her twice yearly Student Blogging Challenges.

She works ridiculously hard organizing tasks, managing helpers, and reading and leaving comments on student blogs. She does this all as a volunteer, because she loves helping students and teachers from all over.

Right now, Sue isn’t at all enjoying the comforts of home which is in Tasmania, Australia. She is in the middle of a whirlwind trip around North America that most can only dream of!

But instead of relaxing and going quietly on her great trip alone, there are two unique things about this trip:

1. Sue will be visiting tons of classrooms, bloggers, and chat friends she’s gotten to know over the years
2. She brought along a Tasmanian friend, Mr. ‘Davo’ Devil as a mascot and travelling companion

You can follow the entire journey on Mr. Davo’s blog – complete with tons of updates and photos!

This is a true case where connections made virtually are turning into amazing experiences for all involved.

About the trip

• Left Australia in mid-September and will continue into November
• Covering more than 6,000 miles (~10,000 kms)
• All in a rental car – driving on the wrong (ie. right) side of the road that Miss W. isn’t used to!

We asked Sue a few questions about her trip, which is currently a couple of weeks in progress.

Why this trip?

Where are you staying?

How is it visiting other schools?

So far have visited four classrooms and have plans to visit at least 7 more. Teachers looked at my rough map and said, “You are coming near us – can you visit our class?” If it wasn’t too far off the route, I diverted slightly to visit them.

What else are you getting to see?

The cool things are visiting the classrooms and meeting the teachers and students, blogging about the trip, going to places I have never been before on previous trips and re-visiting Grand Canyon to see the glass walkway. I’ve always wanted to see Banff and Calgary, look at whaling on the east coast of USA, Mount Rushmore, and visit Kansas and Oklahoma to see how “country”  they are.

How do people find your accent?

Some people have noticed the accent but they often ask questions about language usage like lift/elevator, trunk/boot and so on. The students want to know more about the animals of Australia.

Getting students involved

There is a place on Mr. Davo Devil’s blog to leave questions about Australia, the US, and Canada – Mr. Davo will get around to answering any questions that are left.

Students are already asking things such as types of fruit, kinds of animals, and customs of each country.

Or even cooler is this fantastic question left on the Kids in the Mid blog of Miss W’s home town:

What do you think about Sue’s trip? 

I, for one, sure am jealous!

It’s time to announce the winners of ” The Edublogger’s Share Your Blogging Experience“.  A big thanks to everyone who entered.

And the winners are:

Art ‘n’ Articles (Grade 6 student)

I’m not even going to attempt to summarise Rebecca’s post.  She’s a better writer than I’ll ever be!

Check out how passionately she expresses her feelings for writing.

My Blog! (Grade 9 student)

Dominique explains that blogging is a great way to broaden your view of the World and other cultures.  She has interacted with people from so many countries and cultures since she first started blogging in 2009.

Leawood Middle School Blogs

Mrs R. asked her students to provide feedback on what they think of blogging, how it has helped you learn and have you liked learning this way.

From their 60 comments she created a “MUST READ” post on the Top 10 ways blogging has made a difference in your life at school.

Super 7  Scoopers@St Clair

The Scooper’s explain how their class blog has changed considerably over the year;  from teacher driven tool for modeling shared reading and writing sessions and sharing in learning activities with families to students driven tool where the students decide what is blogged and which web 2 tools they use to publish.

Blogging has changed their classroom practises and outcomes of students’ writing.

Check out the Scooper’s excellent video on what a difference blogging makes!

4/5 S

Sam reports that it’s impressive how many students continue to edit and publish work from home after school.  Many of these students do not submit regular homework, but will work in their own time on our blog.

41 Weeks With 5/6C

5/6 C says that their blogging experience has allowed them to look at literacy in a new more modern way. “What is so rewarding about this new literacy approach is that suddenly our class’s reading and writing activities became more purposeful and authentic!”.

Ms. Bush’s Blogging Bunch

Ms. Bush explains that through blogging her students are able to connect wtih each other from outside the classrom, in their comfort of their own homes, while challenging each other of heavy literacy weights like Toni Morrison and William Shakespeare.

Coleman’s blog (Grade 6 student)

Coleman says that the most important things he learned from blogging aren’t about technology; the most important things are about other cultures, good ethics, and how to connect to other people.

Jessica’s Fantastic Blog

Jessica’s reports that it wasn’t until she had her own blog that she realised how amawing and fun it is to blog.  She says blogging has improved her writing making her feel more confident and sure about what she is writing about.

Shirley’s 6th Grade – Alexandra’s post (Grade 6 student)

Alexandra wrote an incredibly detailed post on six tasks she would include if she was in charge of the Student Blogging Challenge.

The Digiridoos (Grade 4 students)

I can’t choose between the Digiridoo students

And their great approach to what they would include if they were in charge of the Student Blogging Challenge inspired my Befunky, Photopeach, and Sketchfu – it’s what students want to do! post.

So I’ve decided the only fair thing to do is give the Digiridoos five Edublogs Pro subscriptions and their teacher can decide how their used

Thanks Anna, Bree, Danielle,  Ella,  Ethan, Evan, Finn, Flynn, Grace, Ia, Jack , Jakob, Laura, Millar, Reif, Sumayah, Tyler, Zara!

Your own choice of topic winners

The students really came into their own in their own choice of topic.

This is where many of the students demonstrated:

1. Their incredible writing skills
2. Ability to reflect on their thoughts
3. That blogging really can give student’s a voice where they can share their opinions on socially important issues.

I attempted to summarise their work and failed badly   — it really didn’t do justice to their amazing work.

Instead I encourage you to check out their winning posts:

• Addie’s Unnoticed post is a deep reflective post on what we do and don’t notice in life (Grade 5 student)
• Vaishnavi’s Best Friends Forever post shares the story of her best friend (Grade 6 student)
• Joseph’s The Original Social Network post discusses why he thinks ant colonies are the original social network (Grade 6 student)
• Rohan’s Does Patriotism still matter? post highlights his thoughts on patriotism (Grade 6 student)
• Rishika’s An experience of a lifetime post reminding us that life is what you make it (Grade 6 student)
• Grace’s In our post on forgotten people and we can make a difference (Grade 7 student)
• Dani’s win win win! yeah boy! post on cyberbullying (Grade 8 student)
• Suman’s Meeting Other little People post reminds us all that we all like to met others like ourselves

Winners Badge

Congratulations to all winners!

Here’s a badge if you would like to add to your sidebar.

Please send an email to tell me if you want to use the free 12 months Edublogs Pro subscription on your own blog or to give away to a reader.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Thanks to everyone who entered!

Choosing the winners was incredibly hard due to so many excellent entries.

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We now have 136 class blogs and over 900 student blogs registered from 17 countries of the world

It’s time to celebrate while using it as an opportunity to collect examples of student work!

So we’ve decided give away thirty Edublogs Pro 12 month subscriptions which you can use on your own blog or give away to a reader.

How to Enter

Any class or student blogger can enter, including bloggers not currently participating in the September 2010 Student Blogging Challenge!

Just write a post based on any of the topics themes listed below:

1. Your story of how blogging has helped you connect to a global audience? What this connection has meant to you?   e.g.  the friends you have made, what you have learnt about other cultures, how you are able to share your passions with others, how you are able to use blogging to share your views on topics
2. What difference has blogging made to your life at school and home? e.g. how has it changed how you learn, the challenges of blogging and how teachers might make the process easier
3. What was the best weekly challenge task you completed in the September 2010 Student Blogging Challenge e.g.  what did it involve, what did you learn and why did you enjoy it the most?
4. If you were in charge of the Student Blogging Challenge — what are some of the weekly challenge tasks you would include and why?
5. Your own choice of topic.  Here’s the chance to demonstrate how creative you can be!

Once you have written your post:

1. Leave a comment on this post letting us know you have entered, with a link to your post plus your grade/year level.
2. Explain in your post which topic you are writing about and link back to this post so that we receive a pingback advising us that you have written the post (read this to understand What’s A Pingback? And How To Write Links).

For example you might copy the following into the bottom of your post and just change the topic enclosed in the qutoation marks:

This post has been written on “my story of how blogging has connected me to a global audience” as part of The Edublogger’s Share Your Blogging Experience“

What you could win

The six best posts for each topic will win an Edublogs Pro 12 month subscription which you can use on your own blog or give away to a reader.

You can submit posts for as many topics you like!

And off course all winners will get a badge they can add to their blogs

Remember we’re looking for the best — so here is your chance to demonstrate your blogging, writing and creative skills!

You have until Friday Dec 3 to enter.

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider Subscribing For Free!

And I’m off to attend ISTE 2010 conference and network with people:

What does this mean?

I would love to catch up with anyone.  I’m always happy to chat and answer questions.

I’ll be in the following locations on these dates:

1. San Francisco from 12 – 16 June
2. New York from 16 – 25 June
3. Denver from 25 June – 2 July
4. Los Angeles from 2 – 7 July

If you would like to meet:

• Send me a tweet using twitter @suewaters
• Leave a comment on this post to coordinate a time
• Or, look for me at EduBloggerCon 2010 on Saturday June 26 and in the Blogger’s Cafe at  ISTE 2010

Final Thoughts

Thanks James for sending me!

Please feel free to share traveling advice, ISTE tips, ‘how not to get lost’ tips etc!

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But thought everyone might enjoy a bit of a chuckle? And a chance to see my funnier side.

Hopefully it helps those feeling frustrated with technology to see we all face the same challenges. 

But together we can get through it and help each other!

Enjoy watching my First Time using an iSight on a Mac

Video: First time using iSight on a Mac

Mobile Technology in TAFE

PS No Mac was harmed in the making of this film!  But my PC felt neglected.

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Let’s Celebrate Together

To continue last year’s tradition I’ve written this post so we can celebrate Christmas / holidays as part of a global community.

This year I’ve created a WallWisher.  Thanks to Lesley Edwards for suggesting we use WallWisher.

Just go to WallWisher Educhristmas09 or click on Post A Sticky to add your season’s greeting. Feel free to link to photos, videos, or audio!

Our Christmas /Holiday Photos

I’ll also be embedding a Flickr Slideshow again this year:

1. Just upload photos of how you celebrate Christmas /holiday in your part of the world to Flickr and tagged them educhristmas09
2. Please add a description, including your geographical location, to each photo.

Refer to this series of posts if you are new to using Flickr.

Have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Here’s your opportunity!

Nominations for the Edublog Awards 2009 are now open!

And best of all this year we have new categories including my favorite Best Student blog…

So students, teachers, class bloggers (and everyone) start nominating your favorite blogger(s) and web sites — we’re all looking forward to learning about great blogs!

About The Edublogs Awards

The Edublog Awards is an annual event that is now in its 6th year.

Each year the Edublogs Awards creates fabulous resources to share ideas on how social networking tools can be used in different educational contexts.

To be involved all you need to do is:

1.  Nominate

Choose the sites that you want to nominate in the following categories (you can nominate for as many, or as few, categories as you like):

Best individual blog
Best individual tweeter
Best group blog
Best new blog
Best class blog
Best student blog
Best resource sharing blog
Most influential blog post
Most influential tweet / series of tweets / tweet based discussion
Best teacher blog
Best librarian / library blog
Best educational tech support blog
Best elearning / corporate education blog
Best educational use of audio
Best educational use of video / visual
Best educational wiki
Best educational use of a social networking service
Best educational use of a virtual world
Lifetime achievement

Nominations close Tuesday 8 December!  And you MUST follow exactly the instructions explained below!

2.  Vote

Once the nomination process is complete voting will commence and you’ll be able to submit your votes for as many, or as few, categories as you like on the Edublog Awards website.

Voting ends Wednesday 16 December!

3.  Award Ceremony

Winners are announced at the Award Ceremony on Friday 18 December!

How To Nominate!

You must follow these two simple steps to nominate or your nominations won’t be counted!

Step 1: Write a post on your blog linking to:

1. The Edublog Awards Homepage
2. The blogs & sites that you want to nominate (you must include a link to each site you nominate!)

You can nominate for as many categories as you like, but only one nomination per category, and not yourself

You can nominate a blog (or site) for more than one category)

Check out these nomination posts to see how it can be done!

• Silvia Tolisano has made her nomination post really EASY to grab her links to use in the voting process
• Liz B. Davis’s nomination post has done an excellent job of explaining her choices

Step 2: Email the link to your nomination post as follows:

1. Go to The Edublog Awards nomination
2. Scroll to the contact form at the bottom of the page (The Edublog Awards nomination)
3. Complete the contact form and click send
   • You MUST include a genuine email address (spam free, just in case we need to confirm identity)
   • You MUST include the link to your nominations post

Your complete contact form should look similar to this example below!

You can’t submit your nominations without writing a blog post — please note class blogs can submit multiple posts by different authors!

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Here’s the winners with a brief summary of why they won:

Gail Desler has extensive experience in both student blogging and supporting others educators in the use of blogs with their students.  She submitted three posts for the competition that all are ‘must read’ posts packed full of advice on blogging with students which is why I’ve decided all three posts are winning posts:

1. Five Tips for Teachers New to Blogging
2. Five Tips for Helping Students Become Better Bloggers
3. Five Borrowed Tips for Helping Students Become Better Bloggers

Lauren and Abbey are two truly amazing student bloggers who consistently astound me with the posts they write.  Joining them with an incredible post is Dominique, another student blogger.

The posts they submitted are so ‘must read’ that it would be an honor if they guest posted their posts here on The Edublogger

Considering their ages and the fact I’ve never approached anyone ever to guest post on The Edublogger gives you an indication of how incredible the posts by these student bloggers are:

1. Starting Out Blogging (Abbey’s post)
2. Edublogs Advice (Lauren’s post)
3. Le blogging défi de Sue Waters…. (Dominique’s post)

Carla Arena is a Brazilian EFL teacher who supports other educators learning how to blog through programs like “Blogging For Educators“.  Her Blogging with Students in 5 Tips post highlights the importance of connecting your student bloggers to a global multicultural audience.

Dave Mendall’s 5 Important Tips for Blogging with Students post provides  a timely reminder of need to keep it simple, remain focused, lower your expectations, embrace the unexpected and don’t give up!

Danielle Maley wrote a clever poem explaining early childhood educators can use blogs with their students while providing student blogging tips.  And Mrs Harvey shows us how she explains to her different classes what they can post on their blogs.

While Sheri Edwards and Peter Vogel both shared the challenges, and what worked, with student blogging:

1. Blogging in Writing Class post (Sheri’s post)
2. Blogging in ICT Class (Peter’s post)

Gregory Stringer has helped us by providing a few of his “secrets” for blogging and joining social networking sites.

Sarah Korlaki and Karen Barnstable challenge us by asking their ’5 most important questions they would like to answered by experienced bloggers.’  I love these types of questions (and the answers) because they give you lots of post ideas.

Check out their posts and share your thoughts:

1. What I really want to know about blogging (Sarah’s post)
2. Five Questions I would like to ask Experienced Bloggers (Karen’s post)

And most importantly Jess tells us why as a student she loves blogging!

Winners Badge

Congratulations to all winners!

Here’s a badge if you would like to add to your sidebar.

All you need to do is add a text widget to your sidebar and write a link to the image here on this blog using HTML code.

Here is an example of how you need to write the code:

Please send an email to tell me if you want to use the free 12 months Edublogs supporters subscription on your own blog or to give away to a reader.

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider Subscribing For Free!

Ingrid’s a journalist at Rattler Magazine (published by Armedia).

We don’t often get the chance to get our message across to educators and parents using traditional news media.

But why limit to my thoughts when collectively responses from our global community are more powerful!

So here’s your opportunity!  Teachers, Students, Everyone!

Please share your thoughts on any or all of the following questions:

1. How are blogs, web 2.0 and social networking being used by teachers in primary schools and/or early childhood environments?
2. Can you give examples of good use of blogs in the early childhood environments?
3. Are social networking sites being blocked or embraced?  What’s your thoughts on this?
4. How do people balance their personal use of the technology versus their professional?
5. Is there a lot of misunderstanding about the use of electronic technology? I imagine there are a lot of ‘knee-jerk’ bans in many workplaces/educational institutions?
6. Is there any guidance for teachers on responsible use?  Can you provide examples?
7. How can social networking websites and blogs be used to support teaching practice and/or boost staff morale?
8. What tips would you give early childhood teachers about using this technology?
9. Given child protection and the very nature of childcare provision, is it a good idea for services to perhaps avoid Facebook/Blogs altogether? Does it open Pandora’s Box?

Alone — I’m a small voice!  Collectively we’re a powerful voice!

Help me demonstrate our collective power by leaving a comment!

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