On one level, blogs are little more than personal journals posted on the Internet for all to see. They provide a forum for teachers to share ideas with colleagues around the world or simply talk about themselves and others. But under a wider lens, the sometimes funny, sometimes searing blogs paint what may be the rawest portrait seen of the teaching profession in transition — and by some measures, in trouble.

Read some and find out why more teachers than ever — some estimates say up to half in this decade — are leaving the profession feeling exhausted, disillusioned and underpaid. —Valerie Strauss —Blackboard Blogging: Web Journals Become the New Fly on the Wall of Teachers’ Lounges (Washington Post (will expire))

This article begins with the approach that blogs are gossipy and snarky vehicles of personal opinion: “Some teachers use blogs in the classroom to communicate with students and allow them to critique each other’s work. But it is in the personal blogs that teachers have some of the most open, and occasionally brutal, discussions about themselves and their profession.”