Lessons Learned and Mistakes Made #6: Lists are Fun

I was being a complete narcissist checking my blog stats the other day and I noticed that if you look at my "Top 5" blog posts, two of them are lists (number five, for some reason, is my review of Teachers.  So somebody is either a huge Nick Nolte fan or people really want to know what I have to say about that flick).  The two lists are a 2009 post entitled "The Seven Habits of Highly Annoying Students" and a more recent post, "20 Things a Teacher Wants the Nation to Know About Education."  My next entry in this whole swan song series actually focuses on the topics contained within these posts so I won't dwell on them too much.  At least not today.

No, for today, I thought I would take a few moments to pay tribute to a time-honored blogging tradition: the list.  Oh yes, we love our lists, don't we?  They're easy to read, easy to digest, and if you're actually ranking things, they're easy to argue over.  If you're a blogger and you want people to read your posts and then comment, all you have to do is pick a popular topic, form an opinion, and hit the number or bullet-point button and you're on your way!  And okay, they're fun to write, too, especially when you can fill said list with witty bon mots that make you (and hopefully your audience) think you're the next Oscar Wilde or Mark Twain.

But enough about lists.  Let me get to the meat and potatoes of this post (mmmm ... meat and potatoes) and present the list (because you can't have a post about lists without a list).  Since I am taking a few moments to take a look back at my "career" as a teacher and teacher-blogger, I present to you ...

25 Things I Have Learned While Blogging About Education

1. The posts you think are clever and insightful will not get re-posted nearly as much as the ones you wrote in the twenty minutes you got to yourself because your kid wanted to watch Wow Wow Wubbzy.
2. If your blog's title isn't straightforward, doesn't include some sort of superlative, doesn't make a reference to an educational tool, or isn't a pun on teaching, you will get at least two or three comments per year that misunderstand and therefore question or criticize said title.
3. You can always tell who has latched on to a new philosophy or practice by the earnestness of their posts about it (I have lost count of the number of newly minted homeschooling/unschooling/let's-call-it-something-else-this-time-because-people-still-think-we're-lunatics disciples I think are in the process of trying on black sweatpants and white Nikes).
4. If the content of your blog isn't 100% about wonderment and puppy dogs and ice cream, it's best you remain relatively anonymous or else your ability to teach will be called into question.
5. That being said, there are a lot of people firmly in denial that students aren't always special little wonderful snowflakes.
6. And btw, anonymous or not, it's best to try not to get too specific when writing about your students.
7. Don't count on people to actually read every word of your posts before commenting.
8. Also don't count on commenters to not be promoting some sort of agenda.
9. The bulk of your comments will be from random people praising your site in broken English and providing links to sites that are set up to get your financial information so some hacker in Zandia can buy endless amounts of online pornography.  If your blog is on Blogger, these comments will be in Chinese.  Oh, and all your base are belong to us.
10. It's fun to goad commenters who are obviously the type of people who always need to have the last word.
11. That being said, the dumbest comments on your site--the ones that aren't worth a response--are the ones that you find yourself randomly thinking about and responding to in your head in the middle of your first period class the next day.
12. If blogging for someone else's site, make sure that you have an editor who is actually going to post what you wrote instead of rejecting your post then cannibalizing it into one of his own about a week later.
13. Even if they have nothing to do with education, it's awesome to blow off some steam by poking fun at the letters to the editor page of a shitty local newspaper.
14. I wasn't impressed by name-dropping of experts.  After nearly five years of blogging, I'm still not impressed.  
15. As much as you try not to and as much as you think it's stupid to do so, you will inevitably find yourself on Google late one night searching for references to you, your blog, or any of your blog's posts to find out who might be reading or talking about you behind your back.
16. Blogging, Facebook, and Twitter are not just for the young Turks and it's great to see older, more experienced teachers online because the lessons that can be learned from them are incredibly valuable.
17. I'm still amazed that in all of the hubbub about teachers on Facebook and whether or not you should friend them, I rarely see the advice of creating TWO Facebook accounts: one for professional use and one for personal use (granted, this might only work if you technically have two names, like "Joseph" and "Joe" or "Antonia" and "Toni").
18. It's really hard to constantly be "current" with your commentary, especially when the majority of your time is taken up by actually teaching or raising a small child.  Play to your strengths and don't feel like you're in some sort of online race.
19. I sort of give a crap that I was never considered for an Edublog award; then again, I don't.  
20. Even though it's not "cool" to be a good student these days because it means that you were a well-working cog in THE SYSTEM, I will never, ever apologize for the fact that I was a good student.
21. Coming up with 25 things for this list is proving to be a pain in the ass.
22. My continuing online presence and exploration of technology and social media has not changed my initial skepticism of using such tools in my specific classes.
23. It's complete crap that blogging, participating in #edchat and other online activity can't be counted toward recertification/relicensure.  I have learned more online as a blogger and tweeter about teaching than I have sitting through bad, overpaid guest speakers.
24. I am grateful for the conversations I have had and friendships formed with other bloggers and commenters because their insight--especially the ones who don't always agree with me--has helped me learn a great deal and in the end made me a better teacher.
25. It's always good to finish a list with a statement that wraps everything up in a nice bow.