Yes, it’s Edublogs awards time again, and I am very thankful to readers of this blog who have gone to the effort of nominating it for Best Teacher Blog and Best Librarian/Library Blog. It’s very humbling to be in the company of truly excellent educators who do a wonderful job of sharing their learning with others.
Just to be nominated is reward enough for me. Recognition from your peers is the best kind. There are some who want to win, and John T. Spencer has written a very honest and interesting post explaining why he does. I watched the Twitter stream when the awards were announced and noticed a bit of sniping amongst some who had a thing or two to say about the awards. I’m really not interested in getting involved in banter like that. As far as I am concerned, yes, it could be construed as a bit of back slapping in what is a not exactly huge edublogosphere, but why not? Why not give recognition to people who spend their ‘down time’ learning and being transparent about it? Why not give recognition to a profession that traditionally does not provide external rewards to people who go the extra mile? Why not give recognition so that others can discover the wonderful voices out there who do are doing so much to make our profession responsive to change?
Not everyone who is making a difference has been nominated. Someone once said to me it was a shame that the loudest voices are the ones that are always heard first. My advice is this; pay attention when you can to the voices out there, both large and small. They all matter, especially when it comes to making our education systems better for the students we teach.
Visit the Edublogs awards site and discover some new voices. Read them, leave comments, become part of the conversation. You never know, it may spark you on to start writing too.
Voting closes on December 14th. Congratulations to everyone and thank you to Edublogs for going to the effort of running the awards.
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