By John Norton

Here are our nominees for the 2012 EduBlog Awards. In keeping with the spirit of the awards program — which began as an effort to show decision-makers that blogs and wikis could be educational (really!) — we’re defining “best” as among the “especially interesting and attention-worthy.” It would be easy enough to choose 50 in every category.

Best individual blog

Teacher in a Strange Land, which appears at Education Week Teacher, is elegantly and powerfully written by middle grades educator Nancy Flanagan. The mix of policy and practice, and the ever-present insights into the lives of teachers, is unmatched in our estimation.

Best group blog

The Voices from the Learning Revolution group blog showcases the work of public and private K12 educators (including lots of middle grades teachers) who are creating classrooms and schools where curiosity and excitement drive student learning.

Best class blog

Reflections of a Techie – For the past year and more, Marsha Ratzel’s blog has been devoted to reports from her classroom about her efforts to shift from teacher-centered to student-driven learning. Last school year it was 6th grade science; this year it’s 8th grade math. Illuminating.

Best ed tech/resource sharing blog

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day – We really like last year’s winner, Richard Byrne, and his Free Technology for Teachers. This year it should be Ferlazzo, curator of one of the largest ed resource websites on the planet.

Best teacher blog

The Tempered Radical, written by sixth grade teacher Bill Ferriter, has been going strong for half-a-dozen years. As part of the Radical’s audience, we’ve watched him develop as a techy teacher, transparent learner, PLC leader, published author & public speaker, and persistent advocate for the teaching profession. Always lively, often provocative – and still bringing it straight from the classroom.

Best library / librarian blog

The Daring Librarian – generous, helpful, funny — this blog is a visual and mental delight, authored by one of the nation’s most innovative school librarians, Gwyneth Anne Jones.

Best administrator blog

Tony Baldasaro – Introspection and vision from a virtual school administrator.

Most influential blog post

The Flip – End of a Love Affair (Shelley Wright) – Browse the 129 comments; you’ll see why we nominated this post.

Best individual tweeter

@donalynbooks (Donalyn Miller) – Memorable tweets from the Texas middle grades teacher, author of The Book Whisper, co-founder of the Nerdy Book Club, champion of self-selected YA reading.

Best twitter hashtag

#msSunFun – The middle school math Sunday Funday twitter chats make you wish you were a math teacher. (And if you are, get on over there!)

Best open PD / unconference / webinar series

Connected Educator Month – Never been anything like it before.

Best educational use of a social network

The English Companion Ning continues to be remarkable, as it approaches 40,000 members.

Lifetime achievement

Larry Ferlazzo – His capacity for sharing teaching resources through multiple social media channels — and his commitment to educating self-reliant learners — is unmatched. This award is long overdue!