Looks like some fans of the Borderland blog want to push me into the center of things. Josie Fraser emailed me this morning to say that Borderland made the shortlist of best teacher blogs for the 2006 Edublog Awards. Fun stuff!

Been thinking about what I might say here to acknowledge this honor and I can’t think of a thing, except that I’m very flattered. The poll is open until Dec. 16 - eight days from now.

Josie asked me to supply a biographical statement about the whys and wherefores of this blog. This is what I sent to the award site:

Borderland is a place where I can explore the contradictions I find working with kids in an institutional setting, helping them develop an awareness of who they are in a world that is changing more rapidly than anyone can understand. The name for the blog was inspired by my interest in the notion of peripheral participation and situated learning. I teach at Denali Elementary, a school in Fairbanks, Alaska, which is pretty far out on the global periphery. If the world has edges, we’re on one. Our school has a racially diverse student population of about 400 kids. I work with 9 and 10 year-old students, and my primary focus is on language and literacy. We’ve been publishing student writing in a classroom writing project called Tell the Raven for nearly a year. My blogging manifesto may provide more of an idea of what the Borderland blog is about.

Thanks for that pat on the back.