Thing 3

This one was easy - I set up a Bloglines account some time ago. I have so many feeds that I may have to invent some way to RSS my RSS. :-) I even use it to keep on on Comic strips that the Strib doesn't run. I set one up for my husband for the comics, too. It's easy to categorize the feeds, and if you open the folders you can read selected feeds within a category. It lets you know which feeds have been updated, so you don't waste time checking those.
It certainly would be handy for a teacher to set up (or have students set up) feeds for sites they want students to monitor. It could even be used instead of reserve reading lists, in some cases.
I just now set up a Google Reader for the heck of it too. My first impression - so far I prefer Bloglines. One big difference, to me, anyway, is the scarcity of blogs that are found on a keyword search in GR. If I do a keyword search on Bloglines - librarian, wine, music; I end up with many, many feeds to check out. I generally will just search for feeds - it's a fast and easy way to find new blogs I may not have seen. Google Reader, on the other hand, brought back a limited number of results when I searched. I find the search a little easier to use on Bloglines, too. I like the dropdown to limit the search to posts, feeds, etc. The search on top of GR seems to be just searching within your sunscriptions, which threw me at first. Reading the posts on each is different - I haven't decided yet if I have a preference.
In GR's favor, though, I did find editing the feeds to be a bit easier. I chose different feeds in GR, so I'll use both of them for the time being. I did notice the option to export feeds to GR from another reader, which could be very handy if someone preferred GR.