Over the past (almost) three years of blogging, I have learned a lot more about myself, teaching, blogging, WordPress, CSS, HTML, and social media than I ever really thought I would. Most of it has been good, or at least fun. Some of it hasn’t been all that great, but I keep on keeping on.

As we close out each year, I like to take a sort of retrospective on the past year and look at some of the most popular articles from the year. I’ve traditionally broken this retrospective into three individual posts (2007 Loneliest/Busiest/Overlooked, 2008 Loneliest/Busiest/Overlooked), but this year I’ll do things a little differently and pack everything into one huge year-end blowout.

The busiest articles of 2009
2009 really saw Twitter begin to do some crazy things to my blog. So much so that I have actually considered turning off comments altogether and just letting the conversations flow across the social media spheres. I still have comments on for now, but it takes up more and more time to weed through the junk. That being said, I’ve decided to break the popular posts down into various categories.

The 10 most discussed overall
Whether it be on Twitter, Facebook, or comments on the site, these were the most discussed articles from SYWTT in 2009.

1. 30 Twitter Tips for Teachers
2. 25 Free Apps And Websites For Tech-Loving Teachers
3. Google Wave Will Revolutionize Online Classroom Instruction
4. 20 Free Tech Tools for Learning and Communicating
5. Twitter Guide for Teachers
6. 20 Blogs I Wish Were Around When I Started Teaching
7. The Power of Potential: 19 Educational Uses for Google Wave
8. 20 Great Websites for Teachers
9. 85+ Cool Sites I Found In October Via Twitter
10. 10 Things A First Year Teacher Should Do

10 more of the popular articles
Beyond these 10 high-performing articles, there were some others that were also popular in the social media circles.

1. Recession 2009 And Its Impact On Teaching
2. Who’s Looking For A Job This Summer?
3. Should All Great Blogs Have A Comments Policy?
4. When Is It Time To Relocate?
5. Wake Up Call
6. Help A Struggling Teacher Out!
7. Graduate First – Why I Won’t Add You As My Facebook Friend Yet
8. Carnival of Education #214: The Day To End All Days
9. Video: How To Use Twitter In The Classroom
10. Video: Texting While Driving A School Bus? Are You Serious?

The overlooked articles of 2009
Some of the best stuff on the blog just didn’t catch on for one reason or another. Even so, I still think these articles are well worth your time.

Joel Wagner

Joel Wagner (@sywtt) began teaching band in 2002. Though he had a lot of information, his classes were out of control. He found himself tired, frustrated, disrespected by students, lonely, and on the brink of quitting. He had had enough. He resigned from his school district right before spring break of his second year and made it his personal mission to learn to be a great teacher. So You Want To Teach? is the ongoing story of that quest for educational excellence.