The next EFL/ESL/ELL Blog Carnival will be posted on January 1st and David Deubelbeiss from EFL Classroom 2.0 will be the host. This is how David describes the theme:

The theme for this blog carnival is FUN. Submit any blog post, past or present, that really exhibits the power and potential of FUN in the classroom.

He’s got some interesting plans for the Carnival, and you can read about them here.

You can contribute a post to it by using this easy submission form. If the form does not work for some reason, you can send the link to me via my Contact Form. You can also communicate directly with David.

Berni Wall published the 25th Edition of EFL/ESL/ELL Blog Carnival! She asked for teachers to contribute the most popular posts from their blogs and, boy, did she get them. It’s filled with gems!

The March 1st edition will be hosted by Adam Simpson. You can read about his plans for it at his post, No, don’t stop the carnival.

Dani Lyra will be hosting the May 1st edition.

Let me know if you might be interested in hosting future editions.

You can see all the previous editions of the ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival here.

How Can Teachers Create A Supportive Environment For Each Other? is the new question of the week at my Education Week Teacher advice column.

Check it out and share your thoughts….

Today, I realized yet another consequence of writing late night posts — I had forgotten to include one more nominee in my nomination post for this year’s Edublog Awards.

I was a subscriber to John Norton’s Middleweb email newsletter long before he turned it into a blog which is now regularly filled with great resources. It’s getting better and better all the time, and I’m nominating it for “Best Ed Tech/Resource Sharing Blog.”

I’ll also add it to my original nominations post.

Nominations for this year’s Edublog Awards are now open. I think the whole process is a great way to learn about exceptional resources that are out there, so I’m an enthusiastic supporter!

I’m only going to offer nominations for a few categories this year, but I’m making up for that by nominating more than one in some areas:

Best Individual Blog

I’m listing two blogs — The Shanker Blog and This Week In Education. Matthew Di Carlo at The Albert Shanker Institute provides the most accessible, even-handed, and savvy analysis of education research around — he makes that blog a “must-read.” And Alexander Russo’s scouring of mainstream and social media for the most informative news and analysis of today’s education policy issues (plus the thoughtful pieces from John Thompson, his regular contributor) ensure that he’s on the top of my RSS Reader everyday.

Best Group Blog

I have to nominate three blogs for this category: Transform Ed, Powerful Learning Practice, and InterAct. Transform Ed is comprised of posts from many educators connected to the Center For Teaching Quality (I’m a member of the Center’s Teacher Leaders Network, but don’t blog at Transform Ed). Many talented educators also blog at Powerful Learning Practice, led by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and Will Richardson. InterAct is the blog of Accomplished California Teachers, though its posts have national significance. David B. Cohen, Martha Infante, and Kelly Kovacic are the primary three bloggers there (I’m a member of ACT, but don’t post at its blog).

Most Influential Blog Post

The Relationship Status of Teachers and Educational Technology: It’s Complicated by Roxanna Elden is hands-down the wittiest, and certainly one of the most insightful, pieces I’ve read about the use of ed tech.

Best Teacher Blog

David Deubelbeiss’ blog, EFL 2.0 – Teacher Talk is my nominee in this category. David gives and gives and gives, and then gives some more.

Best School Administrator Blog

The Wejr Board by Chris Wejr consistently posts thoughtful commentary on issues like parent engagement and rewards, awards and incentives.

Best Free Web Tool

I’m going to nominate the top two web tools on my The Best Web 2.0 Applications For Education In 2011 list:

GeoTrio lets you create a virtual tour of just about anyplace on a map. You type in addresses or locations and easily create multiple “stops” that show the Google Street View snapshots of the area. You can also upload your own images. But that’s not all. What really makes GeoTrio stand out is the ability to easily make an audio recording for each stop on the map.

Corkboard Me is sort of a  Wallwisher-clone that is even simpler to use but has fewer features. You just paste virtual sticky-notes on a virtual bulletin board. One nice feature it has is by pasting the url address of an image link, the image will show up on the sticky note. No registration is necessary.

Best Educational Use Of A Social Network

EFL Classroom 2.0 provides a huge service to ESL/EFL/ELL teachers around the world. It’s a treasure trove of resources and relationships.

Lifetime Achievement

I would be shocked if there is anyone who has helped more educators in the social media world than Sue Waters. I nominate her for this category every year, and every year she is not considered because she’s an employee of Edublogs. “Conflict of interest” or not, she deserves the award!

Best Ed Tech/Resource Sharing Blog

I was a subscriber to John Norton’s Middleweb email newsletter long before he turned it into a blog which is now regularly filled with great resources. It’s getting better and better all the time!

Good luck to my nominees, and to everyone else who gets nominated. I can’t wait to see the entire list and spend a lot of time exploring and learning from them!

Nominations for this year’s Edublog Awards are now being accepted!

You can learn all about deadlines, the nominating process, and categories at Nominations Open – The 2011 Edublog Awards are on!

How Can You Tell The Difference Between Good And Bad Education Research? is the new “question of the week” at my Education Week column.

Feel free to check it out and leave a response.

Are you an English teacher and want to host a future edition of the ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival?

There have been twenty-five editions of the ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival. They’ve been published every other month, and you can see them all here.

David Deubelbeiss from EFL Classroom 2.0 is hosting the next one on January 1st.

The March 1st edition will be hosted by Adam Simpson. You can read about his plans for it at his post, No, don’t stop the carnival.

There’s not a whole lot of work involved in hosting it, and it certainly is a nice way to bring additional traffic to your blog. Leave a comment if you’re interested…

How Can We Teach Critical Thinking Skills? is the new “question of the week” at my Education Week Teacher column.

Please considering leaving your ideas in the comments there or on this post.

Response: Can Teachers Be Friends With Students Using Social Media? is my newest post Education Week Teacher. It’s the concluding installment of a three-part series I’ve published there wondering if teachers can be friends with students.

This particular post includes guest responses from Bud Hunt and Ernie Rambo.

Boy, my blog sure looks different. Ronnie Burt at Edublogs just used this blog as a guinea pig to try out Edublogs’ new “responsive themes.” They’re designed to look good on the web, tablets and on phones.

It has a lot cleaner look. I know that many people in the past have rightfully complained that the links were not highlighted clearly in the old look. That’s certainly not a problem here!

Let me know what you think.

Thanks, Ronnie!

Here’s an updated list of our class blogs:

I’ve used this same Theory of Knowledge blog for the past three years, adding and revising to it.

This is our new blog for Beginning and Intermediate English Language Learners. Since it’s new, it just includes what we’ve done up to this time of the school year.

This is last year’s blog for Intermediate English Language Learners.

This is our new United States History blog for Beginning and Intermediate English Language Learners. Since it’s new, it just includes what we’ve done up to this time of the school year.

This is our two-year old United States History class blog for Intermediate ELL’s.

This is last year’s ninth-grade English blog, which we’re also using this year.

Part Two — Can Teachers Be Friends With Students? is the title of the second in a three-part series I’m publishing in my column at Education Week Teacher.

In addition to several guest responses, including ones from Jose Vilson and Renee Moore, I discuss how community organizers view the difference between public and private relationships and how that can look in the classroom.

The next edition of the EFL/ESL/ELL Blog Carnival will be published on November 1st by Berni Wall

Here are the details:

The theme for this carnival is:
The Most Popular Posts on your Blog

So, go and search through your archives, dust off that post that got you the most visitors, comments, retweets and let us see what EFL/ESL/ELL blog readers are most looking for!

As teachers we don’t often get a chance to ‘show off’ or ‘brag’ about our achievements so here is your opportunity to take out your most celebrated piece of writing and showcase it again for us all to admire!

You can contribute a post by using this easy submission form. If the form does not work for some reason, you can send the link to me via my Contact Form. You can also communicate directly with Bernie.

David Deubelbeiss from EFL Classroom 2.0 will be hosting the January 1st edition.Let me know if you might be interested in hosting future Carnivals.

You can see all the previous editions of the ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival here.

The next edition of the EFL/ESL/ELL Blog Carnival will be published on November 1st by Berni Wall

She just announced the details:

The theme for this carnival is:
The Most Popular Posts on your Blog

So, go and search through your archives, dust off that post that got you the most visitors, comments, retweets and let us see what EFL/ESL/ELL blog readers are most looking for!

As teachers we don’t often get a chance to ‘show off’ or ‘brag’ about our achievements so here is your opportunity to take out your most celebrated piece of writing and showcase it again for us all to admire!

You can contribute a post by using this easy submission form. If the form does not work for some reason, you can send the link to me via my Contact Form. You can also communicate directly with Bernie.

David Deubelbeiss from EFL Classroom 2.0 will be hosting the January 1st edition.Let me know if you might be interested in hosting future Carnivals.

You can see all the previous editions of the ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival here.

I just sent out my free monthly email newsletter. You can see this month’s issue, and all previous issues, here.

You can subscribe to it here.

This week’s “question of the week” at my Education Week Teacher blog comes from Gail Kochon, who asks:

What social/political causes have contributed to the downgrading of respect for the teaching profession?

Please share your responses there…..

Jeez, What Was Ron Clark Thinking? is a new post at my other blog, Engaging Parents In School.

It’s about a recent ill-advised commentary on teachers and parents that acclaimed author and teacher Ron Clark wrote for CNN this past week.