Author Topic: Ex-students on Facebook  (Read 3758 times)

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charlotte26

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Re: Ex-students on Facebook
« Reply #30 on: November 09, 2009, 05:47:15 PM »
LynnV

Our District has warned us that it is not a good idea to have one, not that we are not allowed. I have been teaching for three years and don't
have one but my sister does have one. She has allowed me to see a page of a new teacher that has just come into the profession and I was completely shocked by what I saw. Its okay that your husband has one, I didn't state that its a terrible thing. I just choose to follow what my District has recommended.

Lynnv

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Re: Ex-students on Facebook
« Reply #31 on: November 09, 2009, 06:54:55 PM »
LynnV

Our District has warned us that it is not a good idea to have one, not that we are not allowed. I have been teaching for three years and don't
have one but my sister does have one. She has allowed me to see a page of a new teacher that has just come into the profession and I was completely shocked by what I saw. Its okay that your husband has one, I didn't state that its a terrible thing. I just choose to follow what my District has recommended.

I apologize-I misunderstood and thought it was a rule, not a recommendation.

I still think it is stepping way, way too far into a teacher's personal life to tell a teacher that he/she should not have a FB page, but it is not quite so (IMO) egregious as recommendation rather than a mandate. 
Lynn

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Mina

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Re: Ex-students on Facebook
« Reply #32 on: November 09, 2009, 07:24:01 PM »
Thinking about some of my grade school and high school friends who have become teachers, they pretty much all have Facebook accounts, and they pretty much all have pictures/information on their Facebooks that could be deemed inappropriate if their students/their students' parents/their school administrators picked over it with a fine-tooth comb.  Photos from nights of drunken debauchery featuring scantily-clad guests are almost universally inappropriate for the workforce (unless you work in the entertainment/adult industry), but even the groups someone is a member of Facebook can be seen as offensive to some people (i.e. groups that reveal one's political affiliation, stance on hot button issues, etc.).  I don't know how much discretion my FB friends who are now in the workforce use when they consider what information should be on their Facebooks, and how selective they are in blocking certain groups from seeing certain info.  Facebook is a really useful tool for communicating with all sorts of people, but you have to be really careful that what you think is 'private' on Facebook is really private.

OP, it seems like your former student hasn't matured at all since his antics in your classroom a few years ago.  I wouldn't suggest having anything to do with him on Facebook.


Lisbeth

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Re: Ex-students on Facebook
« Reply #33 on: November 09, 2009, 07:46:05 PM »
My older SIL, a special ed teacher, dropped her Facebook account because of problems with students.

I don't necessarily agree with this course of action. 

If you have a polite, respectful, professional relationship with students, I don't think there's a problem with accepting their friend requests.

I do think you have the right to ignore his friend request and block him.  And that's what I'd do.
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Re: Ex-students on Facebook
« Reply #34 on: November 09, 2009, 08:40:09 PM »
The teachers I know are either all or none with their students.  Either they have a bland, student-friendly page and are friends with students OR they have a "normal" page and don't have any friends as students.

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Re: Ex-students on Facebook
« Reply #35 on: November 10, 2009, 12:06:07 AM »
My older SIL, a special ed teacher, dropped her Facebook account because of problems with students.
I don't necessarily agree with this course of action. 
If you have a polite, respectful, professional rel@tionship with students, I don't think there's a problem with accepting their friend requests.

I wonder why she did that - she could just have blocked them and made her page unsearchable. I've blocked a couple of kids who kept typing their updates in Mixit-speak. (u see da gr8 movie y-t-day? - that kind of thing) I told them I would unfriend anyone who did that; they didn't listen; gone. I spend enough time in school trying to decipher gibberish, I'm not going to do it on my off-hours.

Not only do I have students and ex-students as friends (but none that I teach), but also the principal of my school. But then, I don't put stuff on my page that could be considered objectionable. I even stay away from possibly inappropriate quizzes and apps.


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