Issues with blogging under your own name

From the comments on the post on lawyerly student writing below:

Do students ever have a problem with you making fun of their writing in a public forum?

I was worried about that, but already use examples of student writing in class to correct mistakes just like this one. In fact, I might use this very example in a class. Also, I tried adopt a humorous tone in that post without directly making fun of the student.

The other post, about the very exited student writing, was more directly teasing, but I hope the identity of the student is harder to discern, and that the audience can handle a little ribbing.

I'm walking a line here, I know. On the one hand, I think that it would be good if students read more of professor's complaints about student writing. I was considering making a list of professorial blog entries that do just that and giving them out to my classes. Among other things, it will show the students that there are consistent complaints across all the disciplines. In fact, most professors expect the same sorts of things out of student writing.

On the other hand, I have to remember that this is an uncloseted blog, and is in some ways an extension of the teaching environment. I am more frank about my views here, but I still can’t do things like insult students viciously. I don’t for instance, want to get in the habit of calling students “fascists” or “racists.”

A friend sent me an IM a while ago: "Loftis is making fun of you dude"--figuring the "chance, possibility, or probability" line came from my essay on the topic. I was pretty pissed... before I realized it wasn't mine at all.

People IM about this blog? I’m still not sure how much local readership I have. Sitemeter reports about 50 hits a day, which isn’t that much in the blog world.