10. Comic Sans - Yes, Comic Sans annoys me. I know. The letters look like a kid wrote them — a deranged kid. If you want a kid or handwriting font, there are so many better choices out there. You don't have to be a graphic design expert, but please have some taste.

9.   Exclamation Points - Many teachers send out emails riddled with  exclamation points. Does the announcement of a meeting truly warrant exclamation points, let alone several exclamation points in one sentence? Are you really that excited? Or angry? Enough of the exclamation points!!!!

8.   Paper - I am buried in tons of handouts and memos all on paper. Save some trees. Go electronic.

7.   "Experts" - These are the non-teaching teachers in your school who think they know everything, and they love to tell you that everything they know. What they never tell you is that they had to leave the classroom because they couldn't teach.

6.   Being Sick - With so many germ-covered kids, you get sick a lot, but don't bother taking a day off. It's not worth the trouble of writing lesson plans and recovering from a sub.

5.   Clueless Taxpayers - "Teachers get paid for all those days off." No we don't. "Teachers can't ever be fired." The same due process we have protects firefighters and police officers too, and I have seen many teachers fired.

4.   Test, Test, Test - You can't make a pig heavier by weighing it more. I'm for using data, but let us teach.

3.   The New Thing -  There is always something that is the New Thing, something that will transform education. Whether it's Singapore Math or Whole Language or Depth of Knowledge, it always comes back to quality teaching, though. And these teaching methods are ones that haven't changed much in years.

2.   Comparisons to Other Countries - I am tired of hearing how our students do compared to other countries. Other countries are very discriminatory with the populations they teach. We teach them all.

1.   Meetings - If you have something to tell me, please put it in an email. If you want my opinion, by all means, call a meeting. I have plenty to share.