Favorite Education Blogs of 2008

· This Week in Education. www.thisweekineducation.com/

Bernstein: Maintained by Alexander Russo, this site is hosted now by Scholastic. Russo scans the blogosphere and the print media for interesting items related to education. Russo was a staffer on education on Capitol Hill, and has a good eye for what is important.

Mathews: Russo has an interest in mainstream education journalists and even interviews us occasionally, which we love since nobody else pays us much attention. This is the end of Bernstein's picks. The following are my additions to this year's list, but Bernstein fans -- and others -- should look for his special blogging tips at the end of this column.

· Assorted Stuff www.assortedstuff.com/

Mathews: This blog gets extra points for being very hard on me and the Challenge Index. The blogger is Tim Stahmer, whose identification page, dated May 17, 2003, says he is "an Instructional Technology Specialist in the Office of Instructional Technology Integration for an overly-large school district on the Virginia side of Washington DC." That sounds like Fairfax County, the center of the universe for many Washington Post reporters, since it has the largest share of our readers. His astute takes on many teaching issues are worth checking out.

· D-Ed Reckoning. http://d-edreckoning.blogspot.com/

Mathews: This continues to be one of the smartest blogs on teaching and other activities inside the classroom, the focus of most of my reporting. Education policy is important but often puts me to sleep. This blog has the opposite effect.

· Joanne Jacobs. http://joannejacobs.com/