I’ve been writing this blog for six or seven years. I thought readers might find it useful for me to dig back in the “archives” and highlight my choices for some of the best posts that appeared during that time.

The first list in this series, My Best Posts Over The Years — Volume One, focused on the year 2007 and included a fair amount of still-useful material (at least in my opinion).

I’d say the same thing about my review of posts from 2008, which you can find in My Best Posts Over The Years — Volume Two.

Volume Three covered 2009.

Volume Four reviewed 2010.

And now it’s time to look back at 2011:

I published my third book, Helping Students Motivate Themselves. You can find lots of excerpts at the link.

Here are some of my favorite “The Best…” lists from that year (of course, they’ve all been updated since that time):

The Best Resources Showing Why We Need To Be “Data-Informed” & Not “Data-Driven”

The Best Tools For Creating Fake “Stuff” For Learning

The Best Resources On The Importance Of Building Positive Relationships With Students

The Best Posts Discussing Arrogance & School Reform

So, You Want To Write A Book? Here’s The Best Advice…

The Best Posts & Articles About Compromise

The Best Posts, Articles & Videos About Learning From Mistakes & Failures

The Best Videos Illustrating Qualities Of A Successful Language Learner

The Best Articles Describing Alternatives To High-Stakes Testing

I published quite a few articles in other publications that year:

Videotaping teachers the right way (not the Gates way) appeared in The Washington Post.  I still think it’s the best piece I’ve ever written.

“Finishing the School Year Strong” was a very popular piece that appeared in Education Week.

Five Questions That Will Improve Your Teaching

What’s really wrong with ‘parent trigger’ laws

Why schools should not grade character traits

Here are some useful classroom management posts:

What Can We Learn About Classroom Management From Abraham Lincoln?

Collective Punishment In The Classroom

Whenever You’re Tempted To Use Punishment As A Classroom Management Tool, Remember This Comic Strip

What Is The “Zeigarnik Effect” & How Did I Apply It In The Classroom Today?

Here are my favorite posts on instruction:

How I Milked A Lesson For Every Last Ounce Of Learning And Why I’m An Idiot For Not Thinking Of It Earlier

An Effective Five-Minute Lesson On Metacognition

Is This The Most Important Research Study Of The Year? Maybe

This Is The Best Lesson Plan On Punctuation I’ve Ever Read

Three “Bonus” Posts:

Three Good Questions For Teachers To Ask Themselves

Moonwalking Birds Video

“Draw A Stickman” & Make Him Come To Life