Shortly after the results were announced on some SecondLife island, a writer with The Guardian, Steve O’Hear, e-mailed all the winners (presumably) with the questions:

1. Why did you start blogging?
2. What does the award mean to you?

My answers, as well as the reasons why I’ve carpet-bombed this blog with “for your consideration” ads, have very little to do with egotism or self-validation. Since it’s as good a statement of purpose as anything I’ve written, here is my response:

I blog to make the long road shorter for new teachers. My four years teaching have been marked by a lot of failure and, only recently, some success. By writing about successful classroom management, lesson design, and general practice I hope others will find success sooner. Perhaps I’m trying to redeem my early failures in the process.

But these pieces I write are rather useless if no one reads them. Some find the award process and its politicking and lobbying irritating but for me it all serves one end – I can help more people if more people read. I care little for egotism and self-validation. I care about gathering a readership and building a richer conversation.

Thanks again.

TMAO is the Alfred Hitchcock of the Edublog Awards. Whatever your take on his pedagogy or policy, dude’s undeniably the best writer on the edubloc. ¶ His post, The Ledge, surfaced the merit pay issue (as someone must every two or three months) and now he’s written Rules for the Voyage: Merit Pay to contend with criticism. ¶ Pull quote: “In education circles, especially those composed of teachers, we routinely murder the Good in the name of the Perfect. Whether in terms of classroom practices, school structure and function, or large scale systematic improvements and alterations, if an idea or proposal fails to repel any hypothetical hurled its way, said proposal is immediately dismissed and chests are thumped accordingly.” ¶ TMAO, man, I’m taking your book on vacation. Gonna see if you do to the Florida punk scene what your blog does to inner-city education. Respect.

My boy Peter Thomsen, an ace photographer and graphic designer, needs an iPhone. He submitted a video (shot and edited by your humble narrator) to Pantone’s Color Kill Contest. Have a look if you’re in need of a show-and-tell-ish mid-day diversion and then give it a star rating to get Peter his iPhone. ¶ It feels good to help people out, right?

1. vote dy/dan for:
   • best new edublog
   • best individual blog
2. get a hundred of your friends to do the same
3. then vote Teaching in the 408 for best teacher blog. (a few reasons why the dude deserves the eyeballs.)

Thanks, team. And if you’re looking for some extracurricular reading, check out the top vote-getters. Hadn’t heard of a few and a few are pretty good.

Off to Saint Cloud, MN, for turkey, cranberries, lutefisk, etc., with Gram-Gram, Pop-Pop, my twin sister, and maybe a coupla cousins.

In case any of y’all need a side of dy/dan with your Thanksgiving dinner (or in case any of y’all live outside the States and the fourth Thursday in November ain’t anything to interrupt life over) I’m setting six entries to auto-post over the next few days.

Those six represent some of my strongest lesson planning this year, a fun, challenging, satisfying set spinning around my obsession numero uno: information design.

Hope you enjoy ’em, try ’em out, and criticize often.

Stay safe out there.