The ELT Blogosphere: May 2010

On Friday 28th, 2010 I came home after a really hard day of teaching to find out, via Twitter, that Kalinago English has been chosen as Bab.la's #2 Language Teaching blog!   It's truly an honor and if you're one of my lovely readers or friends or family members who voted for me thank you very, very much!

In fact what I discovered also, once I recovered and looked at the Lexiophiles' round-up was that a whopping 15 members of BELTfree, an online community dedicated to ELT bloggers, made it into the top 100 and, as the group's mistress (moderator) I am even  prouder of this than my own prize.

The thing is, for those who have been following my conversations on Um, I hate to ask, on principle I tend to have reservations about contests of this nature.  

From a marketing perspective, it is important to have these sorts of badges on our blogs - it's part of social proof if you will, which is why we wear them, but what happens whenever these awards occur is that inevitably other blogs of similar or even higher quality are omitted - perhaps they don't have a significant number of contacts who can vote for them, or they weren't able to suck it up and toot their own horns (trust me, there is a certain loss of face involved in doing that) but it doesn't mean that their work has no value or isn't appreciated.

These monthly (or bi-monthly when I'm knee deep in other projects) come without any sort of shiny badge** to put on your blogs...  it's just me Karenne Sylvester, fellow TEFL teacher telling you, my blogging colleagues and professional readers: here's the quality, I've traveled throughout the globe to find it, have saved the best of the best posts I read and organized them for you - so go read and go enjoy!


(Sorry it really is a bit of a bumper edition this time 'round - forgot to publish April's due to IATEFL and the Carnival and some of the posts were just too good to decide not to... so it's probably best to use this list as an online magazine index and choose  to read the ones which sound most up your street!    Or come back later...)

**do you  want me to make a nice shiny badge? Or would you like to make me one that I can share with the stars below? :-)

To catch up posts from this blog see:
Kalinago English summary


In the ELT Blogosphere

TEFL industry

Methodology, Pedagogy, Linguistics

Teaching English as a Foreign Language


On Technology

Lessons using technology


Lessons without "technology"

Hidden Gems (Posts from the Past)

Introducing New ELT Bloggers on the Block
    Old Bloggers on the block: Why not pick one of these and put it into your google-reader, decide to read all of their posts and comment frequently and encourage them in their new style-writing process...


    And if all that wasn't enough...

    See you next month!
    Karenne
    image credit: Planet Earth Remix

    16 Responses to “The ELT Blogosphere: May 2010”

    • Nick Jaworski says:
      June 01, 2010

      Thanks again for the support mention. A Kalinago award badge. Hmm... Maybe we could have the Kalinago ELTons next year, lol :) Hell, maybe I my own Turkish ELTONs.

      I'm not into the whole award thing. I never really understood who creates or compiles these things. They just seem to spring up. Not that I wouldn't be excited if my blog got picked for something though :P

    • Leahn says:
      June 01, 2010

      Hi Karenne,

      Thanks for the mention and congrats on the Lexophiles award! The sun is shining here and its 30 degrees!

      Have a nice day

    • KALINAGO ENGLISH says:
      June 01, 2010

      Leahn: horrible woman, the sun is shining..every now and then but it's cold... it's summer :(

      Thanks Nick... re the KELTONS I couldn't bear to be a judge - I'd pick wrong and too many people would get upset and then they'd blog about it.

      :/

    • Tara Benwell says:
      June 01, 2010

      Holy impressive collection, Karenne! Don't you know I have work to do today. :) I've read many of these posts, but there are so many talented writers in this industry and I've missed many of these. Maybe for June I'll check out one of these posts each day. My own homework for myself. As for the bloggers, if they could all take a much deserved break in June we readers might be able to catch up. :)
      Thanks again.
      Tara

    • English Raven says:
      June 01, 2010

      Congrats to you Karenne (I'm glad to see my vote wasn't wasted!) and the other BELTfree 'placers'. Well done all of you.

      Thanks also for such a rich list of links to great reading here - very interesting and useful.

      I'm quite taken with Tara's suggestion as well... Perhaps we ought to promote one month of the year as a non-blogging month, and give readers a chance to check out the hidden gems in archives. Fabulous idea for all concerned!

      Cheers,

      - Jason

    • KALINAGO ENGLISH says:
      June 01, 2010

      Not a bad idea... actually planning this month on mostly catching up on doing guest-pieces... want one? :)

    • KALINAGO ENGLISH says:
      June 01, 2010

      Thanks Tara! There's real gold in amongst all these gems... :-) Oh, I am the corniest blogger in the 'sphere :)

    • David Warr says:
      June 01, 2010

      Congratulations on the award, Karenne! You sound happy. Personally, I like your blog very much, a nice mixture of seriousness and friendliness.

    • Marisa Constantinides says:
      June 01, 2010

      Dear Karenne,

      You never fail to surprise me with your blogging energy. I am, as ever, truly thrilled to have made ANY list you put me into... and I wish I could follow your example and be as prolific as you are.

      Thank you for always being a fantastic role model of a great blogger and for taking the time to support and give me feedback, as I'm sure you do with your usual generosity.

      A big cheer for your top position in the Lexophiles list!

      Marisa

    • eva Büyüksimkeşyan says:
      June 01, 2010

      Dear Karenne,
      Congratulations and Thank you for the mentions and support.
      Your energy and enthusiasm infect most of us. I'm so happy to be part of this community. It is a great feeling, it is a kind of relief that we are not alone and we will support, help and enthuse each other.
      Eva

    • Anonymous says:
      June 02, 2010

      Karenne,
      it's always a great honour to be mentioned here, thanks once again, as a (new) blogger I take it as a major award :)
      But more than that you're 'behind the scene' engagement and enthusiasm, esp with beltfree.ning is what really makes a difference for me, many times I've felt disheartened with blogging and the kalinagoenglishsphere showed me cool stuff to cheer up.
      Thanks!!!
      Willy

    • Unknown says:
      June 02, 2010

      Thanks for this great list, Karenne!
      And thanks for including my blog on it.
      And congratulations on the well-deserved award! All the best, Dagmar

    • Vicki says:
      June 03, 2010

      Thank you for another great list of links. And many congratulations on your very well deserved award. Terrific!

    • Anonymous says:
      June 04, 2010

      Congratulations on the award! :)

      This is a great list and I hope I've got the time to check it out. I've discovered many great "new" blogs because of these suggestions, so I know it's time well spent.

      I'm truly honored to be part of the list too. Thank you very much! I'm really happy to see the post was appreciated. :)

    • Sue Lyon-Jones says:
      June 05, 2010

      Congratulations on the Lexophiles award, Karenne!

      Thanks for the mention of last week's "Best of ELT" post, also - am looking forward to browsing through the posts on your list that I haven't read, over the weekend :-)

    • Mike Harrison says:
      June 09, 2010

      Hey Karenne,

      Adding mine to your list of congratulations for the Lexophiles award - well done!

      Thanks very much for mentioning my post here - like Willy says, it's like a badge in itself =)

      If it's any consolation it's cloudy here in London at the moment =(

     

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