The Stumpies

A great number of influential educators have been blogging and tweeting about awards ceremonies and how crucial they are to motivate and engage learners. We all know that without awards at the end of the year students will stop trying hard and basically give up on learning. In addition, we know that acknowledging a student on the side will not work. Rather we have to make a public display and draw as much attention to the winners as possible.

In this renewed spirit of award giving I present the first annual Stumpies…modeled after the iconic leader, Michael Scott. The Stumpies are awards given to accomplishments in the area of Social Media use. It is our belief here at the Stumpies selection committee that only a select few can win these coveted awards. We cannot give one to everyone as that will take away from the winners.
Without further ado, here are the 2011 Stumpies award winners.

EduBrothers Award – This award is given to two twitter users living in vastly different geographic locations by connected by a brotherly connection where no blood line is actual present. Their connection and powerful relationship proves the value of social media in creating strong personal connections. Winners: @thenerdyteacher and @tgwynn.

Eraser Award – Given to the education reformer of the year with a passion for erasing mistakes to make positive statistical gains. Winner: @m_rhee

Cyborg Award – This award is given to the tweeter that may or may not be a cyborg due to heavy involvement in chats, blogs, and appears to always be there and have a page for everything. Winner: @cybraryman1

Greyhound Award – This award is given to a hard working tweeter who is at the front of the pack in educational thought and leadership. Winner: @L_Hilt

Michael Scott Award of Excellence – This award is given to the MVP of twitter and this year to a person that stands behind our mission to promote awards in school for the select few! Winner: @mrwejr

UPDATE: I had to update this post because I was contacted by @mrwejr's people in regards to his award. He was upset that he didn't actually receive a physical award and was adamant that for any award to be "real" there needed to be some hardware. He was also loosely quoted saying, "without the bling, the award don't mean a thing"...so, here is a placeholder certificate until the official Stumpie trophies come in.



That is all the awards for this year’s Stumpies. If you didn’t receive an award it was more than likely because you did not work hard. You probably failed in some way and you didn’t try hard enough. I know that you will take this failure and use it as motivation for the next year. We can’t give an award to everyone as that will water down the award’s process and devalue those that actually earned one.

10 comments:

Cybrary Man - Jerry Blumengarten said...

Thanks for this great honor. I will treasure it but I don't have time as I have to get back to chatting, working on my website and tweeting. Have an awesome day!

estubble said...

I'm glad I read all the way to the last paragraph. Love your sarcasm.

Lyn Hilt said...

Wow. When I woke up this morning, I never imagined I'd receive this type of recognition for my hard work. This is truly awesome.
And, for the record, let me say that I appreciate your reference to greyhounds due to my love of the breed and desire to free them from the tyranny of the greyhound racing industry. Adopt a greyhound, everyone!

Larry F. said...

Boohoohoo. I have been crying all morning since the awards were announced. I have been erasing everything that I can, I deserve that award. My parents are going to speak to the principal and if that doesn't work, they will talk to the superintendent.

Thanks.

Chris Wejr said...

Wow, as I read through this post, my heart started racing as I hoped to see my name. As I got to the bottom, there it was and I could hear my family chanting M-V-P, M-V-P!

I want to thank all those other bloggers who have not worked as hard as me. Thank you for being losers. Without you, I could not be a Stumpie winner. Just work harder for next year... but not too hard because then I could be a loser next year.

A message to all you kids out there: I don't care if you have no parent support, no money, English is your 4th language, or you have a disability - just work harder and the awards will be yours. This is the real world - it's all about the trophies.

A message to the other Stumpie award winners: although you may be happy, just remember that you are not MVP and thus you, too, are losers. Stop worrying about relationships and connections and kids... get your blog on better!

As the kids say: ROFL!!!

Brilliant post, Josh... brilliant.

Hilty: this is yet another reason you are not as cool as me.

Unknown said...

Curses. #loser #demandrecount #hangingchads

birklearns said...

Josh, I am shattered. I have done my own calculations and believe your methodology is flawed. By my math I should have won an award. I don't actually know which one, but if I didn't win an award, it has nothing to do with me or my performance, it is the criteria. I will be filing a complaint with someone. I am not sure who, but it will be someone that will tell you to give me an award.

PS. I will withdraw this complaint if you give me an award. Any award. Anything.

Josh said...

I have an addendum to the initial Stumpies Awards. Larry will now be awarded the Helicopter Award due to his parent’s continuous pestering and emailing to my boss. I am sure his parents are correct and I must have overlooked him. If his parents are that persistent, he surely deserves a Stumpie. In addition, Cale will be given the Pity Award because we feel bad for him. Even though he has not earned an award, the committee feels bad for him and that is a good enough reason to give an award as any.

Unknown said...

Um you went back & gave them an award & not me. I commented to. Even used awesome hashtags.

Dave Meister said...

I have been watching this blog. It has truly made some important contributions to the edublogging world! Because of its continuing contributions, I have decided that I will nominate it for an Edublogger "Best New Blog" award and I will also nominate this particular post for the "Most Influential Post". Then I will log into all the different machines in my school and vote for them to win. Josh can then proudly display those badges on his blog. After all, that is what he blogs for, right Josh?