Innocents in Blogland

9. Joanne Jacobs

Gardner: Professional commentary from a former Knight Ridder columnist.

Mathews: I have admired Jacobs' work for some time, and blurbed her book, "Our School." She is a former columnist who made the transition to blogging with great courage and confidence. I might have left her, as well as Rotherham, off of this list because I knew them so well and could be accused of favoritism. But so many readers put their blogs on their lists of favorites that I figured it was okay to have them on mine.

10. MathNotations

Mathews: The contributor, Dave Marain, is a math teacher who has attempted to correct my many flaws as a reporter of math education by sending me e-mails. Now I can look at his blog too. He tackles very difficult topics, but is clear and aggressive and well worth reading.

11. A Passion for Teaching and Opinions

Mathews: The contributor refers to himself as a 33-year-old social studies teacher and basketball coach at Ukiah High School in California, but does not give a first name, just Coach Brown. (Perhaps his first name IS Coach. You can get away with that in Ukiah.) The writing is very good and very personal, and I was drawn to his "Stupid Bastard of the Month Award," presented to the San Francisco Board of Education for eliminating Junior ROTC.

12. A Shrewdness of Apes

Mathews: This is another very personal inside look at teaching from a smart educator. She identifies herself only as "Ms. Cornelius" and says she teaches in a public high school somewhere in the United States.

13. Susan Ohanian. Org

Gardner: Pulls no punches in confronting controversial issues. Tough but fair. (Full disclosure: My letters to the editor have been cited favorably in t his blog.)

14. Teaching in the 408