One of the reasons we love being early childhood educators in the 21st century is how easy it is to learn more about our work from some of the best leaders in our field. With only a few keystrokes and an Internet connection, we can learn just about anything we need to know in early childhood. We can also broadcast what I learn to thousands of others in our field with little more than a click. And, there is so much to share! That’s why we’re nominating a few of the best resources for Edublog Awards this year. Unfortunately, there are only a few more days in the competition, but it’s never too late! Voting ends December 2, 2011! HURRY!

Since 2005, Edublogs has been hosting blogs and providing custom blogging platforms to teachers, school districts and  students, and the folks that operate the platform have a yearly competition to recognize the best resources as nominated by users. The awards are presented the resources that receive the most votes. Early education is underrepresented, mostly because our field has taken a bit more time to embrace social media and the Internet as sources for professional development. I think we’ve arrived now, so it’s time for us to collectively nominate and vote for the resources we think are most valuable. We’re going to have to do a lot of voting, because we, collectively, are a fraction of the overall field of education.

You’ll be surprised to see many more categories than just simple blogs. Here are the 2011 Edublog Award Categories:

* Best individual blog       * Best individual tweeter

* Best group blog               * Best new blog

* Best class blog                 * Best student blog

*Best ed tech / resource sharing blog

* Most influential blog post

* Best twitter hashtag       * Best teacher blog

* Best librarian / library blog

* Best School Administrator blog

* Best free web tool

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

* Best educational wiki

* Best open PD / unconference / webinar series

* Best educational use of a social network

* Lifetime achievement

Early Childhood Investigations Webinars Edublog Award choices:

* Best twitter hashtag : #earlyed

* Best individual Tweeter: @KarenNemethEDM

* Best group blog: Early Ed Watch by New America Foundation:
http://earlyed.newamerica.net/blogmain

* Best educational use of a social network: Child Care Aware Parent Network: http://www.CCAParentNetwork.org

* Best teacher blog: http://www.teachpreschool.org/

* Best educational use of audio / video / visual / podcast: Bam! Radio Network

* Lifetime achievement: Ellen Galinsky

Ellen is blogging everywhere and has been for a long time. Check her out:

On Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ellen-galinsky
On Mind in The Making: http://mindinthemaking.org/
On MomsRising: http://www.momsrising.org/blog/author/Ellen-Galinsky/
On HBR Blog Network: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/05/learning_to_taking_on_challeng.html
On Families and Work Institute http://familiesandwork.org/blog/

And, so many other blogs… to many to mention! You go, Ellen!

Make your choices! It’s easy to nominate… Just follow the directions on the Edublog Awards page!