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BlogDay (Belated): Celebrating our own new voices
September 2, 2007

I discovered that Friday (August 31) was the 3rd annual BlogDay.  But due to technical blogging circumstances beyond my control, I could not post my own little celebration till today.

What is BlogDay?

BlogDay was created with the belief that bloggers should have one day dedicated to getting to know other bloggers from other countries and areas of interest. On that day Bloggers will recommend other blogs to their blog visitors.

With the goal in mind, on this day every blogger will post a recommendation of 5 new blogs. This way, all blog readers will find themselves leaping around and discovering new, previously unknown blogs.

How fitting!  Before I even knew of this august (literally) occasion, I was about to call your attention to some of the bloggers I've discovered in the past few months.  But forgive me if I cheat a bit on the specific spirit of BlogDay.  I’d like to celebrate new voices in our own field and include one more than five.

These are voices you may not yet read in the national journals.  While my own humble thoughts enjoy the fabulous and obvious (over)exposure of this SLJ forum, other voices cry to be discovered. I've discovered them through conferences like NECC and Alan November’s BLC, through TeacherLibrarian and other Nings, through Women of the Web, Twitter, and through comments on my own blogs.  Their voices present wonderful, new visions of what we might be thinking, doing, asking, and dreaming as teacher-librarians. They absolutely deserve a good listen and perhaps an RSS subscription.

Cathy Nelson maintains the TechnoTuesday Blog  and participates in SCASL Blogs! (a shared blog for the South Carolina Association of School Librarians). My guess is that another blog will emerge from Cathy as she begins in a new middle school this year.  Cathy eloquently speaks for so many of us, reflecting on her real-life experiences with collection analysis, the challenges of weeding, strategies for assessment, Web 2.0 applications, information literacy and effective teaching.

Carolyn Foote (aka Technolibrary), a high school librarian in suburban Austin, TX, loves 2.0 apps as much (perhaps more) than I do.   Her NotSoDistantFuture blog “is a forum for discussing web 2.0 tools, teaching strategies, and library research tools for educators.” Her thought-provoking reflections and questions should get us all thinking.  Recent posts explored student research as a collaborative practice, innovation and risk-taking, using 2.0 tools with parents, improving student search habits, and a tribute to a special student.

Diane Cordell’s Journeys: Exploring Life and Learning blog inspires us with quotes, poetry, and beautiful photographs as it philosophically explores such ideas as play in education and the lessons of rock and roll lyrics.  Diane is a K12 media specialist in New York State, as well as an online facilitator and research consultant.

Jeri Hurd, recently moved from the English classroom to the library, and from Pittsburg, PA to a new library job in Connecticut. Her Bib 2.0 blog explore the integration of technology into the library and the classroom.  Recently, Jeri documented her experiences (and her resources) as she created documentary films with her learners.

Mary Johnson’s Primary Source Librarian blog “is a friendly professional space for educators to find information, advice, and support for teaching with primary sources.”  Mary is a middle school librarian, an author, and a former American Memory Fellow who shares news on digitization efforts, as well as excellent resources and solid ideas for incorporating primary sources into curriculum and learning.

I discovered Judy O’Connell’s Hey Jude blog when it was nominated for, and deservedly won, this year’s EduBlogs Award in the Library/Librarian category.  Judy, who works with 55 primary and 22 secondary schools in the Western region of Sydney, Australia, continues to amaze me by discovering all the new 2.0 tools eons before I do.  She not only finds them, she helps us figure out how they make sense in learning. I count on Judy to keep me informed, and to challenge my thinking.
  
I’ve made so many blogger discoveries in the past year that I hope to make new voices a regular feature of this blog.  Please forgive me for not including them all in this first go-round. Please email me your suggestions or leave them as comments!

Posted by Joyce Valenza on September 2, 2007 | Comments (2)