Do Your Schools Have These Rules?

[ols386]

I can understand not friending students on FB. That makes sense to me.

I can understand not accepting texts from students too.

Emailing assignments is fine. Other than that, teacher communications with students should probably be face to face.

 

[Ceila]

Yup. No FB access for any board employee on board computers at all.

Our College of Teachers released a special policy update a few months ago regarding social networking, in which they highly encouraged teachers to not have any social networking contact with students at all, period.

It has been proven that people are losing their sense of judgment with social networking sites. I don't consider my students, nor their parents "friends", yet when you are FB, they are your "friend". It sets up a different level of relationship just in how it's set up. I can see how coaches may be in a different situation, but we all survived before cell phones and texting, so I'm sure they'll survive now without it.

My students are my students, and I have absolutely no desire to communicate with them on a social networking site. If we need to email, we have school email, which is protected, and so if there is anything inappropriate, it's all documented on there. I have never emailed a student though, nor would I text or contact by social network. That is not the nature of our relationship...

It's a good policy as far as I'm concerned, Tiger

But they weren't just restricting FB access at work - they would prefer that all teachers delete their FB accounts entirely. That part is NOT a good policy. I do agree with not accepting current students as FB friends, but I believe that once they graduate the school district should not restrict teachers from accepting friend requests from them. Likewise, I don't think the schools should have a right to prevent teachers from using texting, especially when many teachers have coaching jobs. I teach, too. If I taught in my kids' district, would I not be allowed to friend my own children on FB or text them?

ETA: To me, this is just one more example of punishing everybody instead of dealing with those who are a problem.

 

[Tiger926]

But they weren't just restricting FB access at work - they would prefer that all teachers delete their FB accounts entirely. That part is NOT a good policy. I do agree with not accepting current students as FB friends, but I believe that once they graduate the school district should not restrict teachers from accepting friend requests from them. Likewise, I don't think the schools should have a right to prevent teachers from using texting, especially when many teachers have coaching jobs. I teach, too. If I taught in my kids' district, would I not be allowed to friend my own children on FB or text them?

Yup, that is what our College of Teachers, Union and School Board has said as well.

Remember, this type of policy is enacted for various reasons: legalities, school based communication only, inappropriate behaviours, errors in judgment and secrecy.

Do I believe that since Facebook more teachers/students are carrying on inappropriate communications of some sort? Yes, I do. I have seen it at my school, and have had to file a report on a fellow teacher, and it isn't a great thing to have to do. When you have adults who struggle with judgment, then you are going to have issues, so just because that person is an adult by definition, doesn't make him/her one by action, and that is why these types of polices are enacted.

The whole concept of Facebook is some weird definition of 'friend' - I wouldn't go up to a stranger on the street and proclaim them my friend, nor, do I call my students or their parents/guardians my friends. Never, ever! They are my students, and those two worlds will never meet!

That is just me, and I admit I'm probably in the minority, but I am all about boundaries and good judgment, and so I don't struggle in these areas at all, whether it be face to face, or, via computer. But many adults I know do struggle in these areas, teachers included, and so being a part of a social networking site that muddies the waters between friend and student, could be very problematic, and that is why you have these types of policies enacted. Is it fair or justifiable? Not sure, as I should be able to access Facebook on my own time, in my own home, but there have been many problems since its inception, and I think we haven't seen anything yet, as Facebook itself, is promoting a school-based service (just read the article about it recently) and they are going to schools to convince them to allow open access to Facebook on school property, with special emphasis on security, so it will be interesting to see where it leads in terms of academics, sports, etc. But, all that being said, people are in control of how they use Facebook, and from where I sit, many adults I know, teachers included, struggle with boundaries and good judgment, so for me, it's all about keeping the student/teacher relationship at school and face to face, with school based computer servers for emailing or messages, if that is deemed necessary.

Tiger

 

[brookmey]

I am a former teacher and would only be friends with former students who were also over 21. It's definitely not appropriate to be friends with a current student, but forcing a teacher to completely delete their FB account? I can kind of understand why, but I still don't think it's right.

Whenever I had to communicate with students, it was always through the school phone or my school email. Never my own phone or personal email. And I also think that any communication a coach needs to have with a player should be done through the parent unless the student is 18.

The problem I have with this rule is what about those of us who hire students as babysitters? Before I stopped teaching, I had a few students who would babysit DD. I knew them, their parents, and I trusted them. They were my students and were great babysitters. But they had my cell phone number and DH's for emergencies when they were babysitting. There were times when I texted them to see how things were going and they would text back. It was a great situation, I found reliable sitters that I could trust and the sitters could make some money. So now teachers can't even hire students they trust to babysit their kids?

 

[Tiger926]

I am a former teacher and would only be friends with former students who were also over 21. It's definitely not appropriate to be friends with a current student, but forcing a teacher to completely delete their FB account? I can kind of understand why, but I still don't think it's right.

Whenever I had to communicate with students, it was always through the school phone or my school email. Never my own phone or personal email. And I also think that any communication a coach needs to have with a player should be done through the parent unless the student is 18.

The problem I have with this rule is what about those of us who hire students as babysitters? Before I stopped teaching, I had a few students who would babysit DD. I knew them, their parents, and I trusted them. They were my students and were great babysitters. But they had my cell phone number and DH's for emergencies when they were babysitting. There were times when I texted them to see how things were going and they would text back. It was a great situation, I found reliable sitters that I could trust and the sitters could make some money. So now teachers can't even hire students they trust to babysit their kids?

I don't think this is appropriate at all. Are they in your home? What if your kids say something very private and personal about you? I would never allow a student to babysit my kids, ever. Again, it is past the boundaries of our relationship. Not sure why you would think this is a good idea? I am really perplexed by this... Tiger

 

[whatsup]

I am not a teacher however I agree with all of the posted rules.

1. Teachers are there to teach not to be friends wheather through facebook or texting. Teachers are to be friendly but should not be considered 'friends"

2. Communication should be done through a call from teacher to the PARENTS and vise versa.

3. NO information from a minor should be submitted through email. Wheather reports, tests etc....

4. WHAT did teachers do before facebook, internet, cell phones? They sure did have a way to communicate with MY parents. I know! Many calls to home wheather I was good, bad or a practice was cancelled.

Some things should NEVER change! Seems like the schools want to put back communication from teacher to parent and parent to teacher.

 

[luvsJack]

Like I said, I am in agreement with the facebook issue. Each organization can make a page and then use that for communication and I think a teacher can even make a class page--like "7th Grade English @ xxxxxx" for the kids to check in.

Another teacher has made a web page for her class for the kids to respond to discussion questions, see assignments going on now and future assignments (this is ok with the new rules). This is something they keep up with even when out of school. I really like it because as a community college employee, I see how many classes are going online and hybrid and it would be great for incoming freshman to be so familiar with the format. She also uses email for submiting work. When kids are out sick this is a GREAT tool.

The other teacher allowing students to submit work by email just didn't have the web site. The kids were using technology--that is a good thing. LOTS of community college teachers also teach at other schools. They don't all have an office and require quite a bit of work to be submitted by email. Doing this while still in public school, teaches them how to attach it to the email and submit it and to send the text as a follow up. The text was just a way for him to insure that it was sent even if for some reason he didn't get it. Its THEIR responsibility to do these things. The teacher did not respond to the text.

The texts that most of these teachers sent out were mass texts to their team, group, club, whatever. It wasn't conversations that were going on.

Texting is just an easy way to communicate. If the kid is somewhere that they can't talk on the phone, they still get the message.

 

[ms.yt]

I don't think this is appropriate at all. Are they in your home? What if your kids say something very private and personal about you? I would never allow a student to babysit my kids, ever. Again, it is past the boundaries of our relationship. Not sure why you would think this is a good idea? I am really perplexed by this... Tiger

Well, I can't speak for the person you were directing this too, but as I've hired students as babysitters, I'm going to answer you. I think it is a good idea because there are times I'd like to go somewhere with my husband without my kids.

You seem really paranoid about your students. Do you teach at a violent inner city school or something? I teach in a very small rural school. It's very common around here for teachers to hire students to babysit. There are 1,100 people in our town. There is no babysitting service within 75 miles. My parents are both dead, and my husband's parents will rarely ever babysit for us. I don't have siblings in the area. Am I just supposed to never go out without my kids?

 

[brookmey]

I don't think this is appropriate at all. Are they in your home? What if your kids say something very private and personal about you? I would never allow a student to babysit my kids, ever. Again, it is past the boundaries of our relationship. Not sure why you would think this is a good idea? I am really perplexed by this... Tiger

I'm confused as to why you think this is so inappropriate? What better way to find a great babysitter than by getting to know students in your classroom? DH and I lived 3 hours away from family and our friends all had young kids, so I needed a babysitter who was available in the evenings. The girls I chose I had as students for 3 or more semesters and 1 of them I also coached in basketball. I knew them and their parents very well.

And no, I wasn't worried about DD saying anything personal about me because she was just learning to talk!

FWIW, my parents are both retired teachers and they hired students as babysitters for my siblings and I, as did several other teachers in my school. When I got old enough, I babysat for teacher's kids all the time. The kids I babysat never said anything personal or embarrassing about their parents.

Just like the above poster, I'm wondering where the paranoia regarding your students comes from?

 

[Tiger926]

Well, I can't speak for the person you were directing this too, but as I've hired students as babysitters, I'm going to answer you. I think it is a good idea because there are times I'd like to go somewhere with my husband without my kids.

You seem really paranoid about your students. Do you teach at a violent inner city school or something? I teach in a very small rural school. It's very common around here for teachers to hire students to babysit. There are 1,100 people in our town. There is no babysitting service within 75 miles. My parents are both dead, and my husband's parents will rarely ever babysit for us. I don't have siblings in the area. Am I just supposed to never go out without my kids?

I'm confused as to why you think this is so inappropriate? What better way to find a great babysitter than by getting to know students in your classroom? DH and I lived 3 hours away from family and our friends all had young kids, so I needed a babysitter who was available in the evenings. The girls I chose I had as students for 3 or more semesters and 1 of them I also coached in basketball. I knew them and their parents very well.

And no, I wasn't worried about DD saying anything personal about me because she was just learning to talk!

FWIW, my parents are both retired teachers and they hired students as babysitters for my siblings and I, as did several other teachers in my school. When I got old enough, I babysat for teacher's kids all the time. The kids I babysat never said anything personal or embarrassing about their parents.

Just like the above poster, I'm wondering where the paranoia regarding your students comes from?

I'm the farthest from paranoid you'll find. Not sure why you would assume that because a teacher has good judgment and doesn't cross boundaries, that I am paranoid? That is rather ridiculous.

I am a teacher, and I teach students in a classroom...they are not my friends, babysitters, nor my landscapers. Our relationship is in the classroom, and they have no business being in my home, nor tending to my kids.

It shouldn't matter where I teach, and I also fail to see how living in a small town has anything to do with it? Incidentally, hubby and I don't go out much either, but if I needed a babysitter, I'm sure there would be an appropriate adult to babysit.

As I have already mentioned, it has nothing to do with paranoia, but everything to do with understanding boundaries and having good judgment, and in my opinion, and most of my colleagues (we've discussed this many times), none of us would ever have our students babysitting our kids.

This is perhaps why school boards have enacted social media policies? If teacher's have no problems with having their students in their homes to watch their kids, then what is next? Please don't think I am saying anything inappropriate is happening between you and a student, but can you not see how having them in your home, watching your children, and being in your private living space, could be problematic? This is exactly what happens with Facebook, with the few teachers that I have known to have issues - a few comments here and there, and then sharing of photos, etc. It is not appropriate to hav any relationship with current students outside of school, period.

Like I said, I'm all about good judgment, and so I conduct myself accordingly, and that means knowing what levels of relationships are appropriate between myself and my students, whether that be with social media or in a private relationship such as babysitting. And, I am not even talking about an extreme issue such as sexual abuse, but moreso regular boundaries with how you communicate and act with each other. Our relationship ends once we leave school property, and it would never even occur to me to hire a student to babysit my children in my home, nor "friend" them on Facebook, as our business is in the classroom only. Once you bring another element to that relationship, whether that be Facebook or babysitting, then you've changed the nature of your relationship, and that could be problematic.

Tiger

 

[ms.yt]

I'm the farthest from paranoid you'll find. Not sure why you would assume that because a teacher has good judgment and doesn't cross boundaries, that I am paranoid? That is rather ridiculous.

I am a teacher, and I teach them in a classroom...they are not my friends, babysitters, nor my landscapers. Our relationship is in the classroom, and they have no business being in my home, nor tending to my kids.

It shouldn't matter where I teach, and I also fail to see how living in a small town has anything to do with it? Incidentally, hubby and I don't go out much either, but if I needed a babysitter, I'm sure there would be an appropriate adult to babysit.

As I have already mentioned, it has nothing to do with paranoia, but everything to do with understanding boundaries and having good judgment, and in my opinion, and most of my colleagues (we've discussed this many times), none of us would ever have our students babysitting our kids.

This is perhaps why school boards have enacted social media policies? If teacher's have no problems with having their students in their homes to watch their kids, then what is next? Please don't think I am saying anything inappropriate is happening between you and a student, but can you not see how having them in your home, watching your children, and being in your private living space, could be problematic? This is exactly what happens with Facebook, with the few teachers that I have known to have issues - a few comments here and there, and then sharing of photos, etc. It is not appropriate to hav any relationship with current students outside of school, period.

Like I said, I'm all about good judgment, and so I conduct myself accordingly, and that means knowing what levels of relationships are appropriate between myself and my students, whether that be with social media or in a private relationship such as babysitting. And, I am not even talking about an extreme issue such as sexual abuse, but moreso regular boundaries with how you communicate and act with each other. Our relationship ends once we leave school property, and it would never even occur to me to hire a student to babysit my children in my home, nor "friend" them on Facebook, as our business is in the classroom only. Once you bring another element to that relationship, whether that be Facebook or babysitting, then you've changed the nature of your relationship.

Tiger

Living in a small town means that for one, there is a smaller pool of potential babysitters available. I don't know where you live that there are adults that want to get temporary babysitting jobs. That sounds a little weird to me. Also, living in a small town means that people aren't so rigid in the way they view people. I teach the kids of people that I went to school with, and I have a lot of students that are children of my colleagues. While I agree that there are boundaries that shouldn't be crossed, my classroom management isn't going to suffer if I have a student babysit for me twice a year.

Do you have children, and, if so, how old are they? When they are the same age as the students you teach, will you allow their friends to come into your home? I would assume the answer is no since you're so concerned with maintaining your professionalism by not having students in your home.

 

[NotUrsula]

I don't see anything at all wrong with HS students babysitting for teachers at their schools, but as a general rule I don't think that it's a good idea to hire students who are currently in your classes, because reliable babysitters are hard to find, and a teacher might be tempted to pad grades in order to keep one.

In a lot of smaller communities older ladies will babysit on an occasional basis to bring in some cash; my mother did it when she was in her late 60's. She tended to sit mostly for families with young babies. I was in my teens at the time and would usually sit for older kids, as I had more energy to run around after them.

 

[justhat]

I babysat for teachers in my school all the time! Started in 8th grade and still babysat for some of my old teachers when I was in college.

And I assume our school does not have these FB restrictions, nor our old school, as I am FB friends with my son's teacher (she friended me, I did not seek her out, nor would I have, as I don't like intruding in teachers lives) and friends with many of my kids old teachers (from a school in another state). They all friended me too, other than 1, the librarian, but I friended him just last month, a year after we moved, to tell him I found an old library book while I was unpacking, since we had a laugh about me likely packing it when my kids were still in the school and we couldn't find it. I'm also friends from teachers from my old high school, but given that I am 31 now, guess that isn't so weird.

 

[golfgal]

I am not a teacher however I agree with all of the posted rules.

1. Teachers are there to teach not to be friends wheather through facebook or texting. Teachers are to be friendly but should not be considered 'friends"

2. Communication should be done through a call from teacher to the PARENTS and vise versa.

3. NO information from a minor should be submitted through email. Wheather reports, tests etc....

4. WHAT did teachers do before facebook, internet, cell phones? They sure did have a way to communicate with MY parents. I know! Many calls to home wheather I was good, bad or a practice was cancelled.

Some things should NEVER change! Seems like the schools want to put back communication from teacher to parent and parent to teacher.

Like I said, I am in agreement with the facebook issue. Each organization can make a page and then use that for communication and I think a teacher can even make a class page--like "7th Grade English @ xxxxxx" for the kids to check in.

Another teacher has made a web page for her class for the kids to respond to discussion questions, see assignments going on now and future assignments (this is ok with the new rules). This is something they keep up with even when out of school. I really like it because as a community college employee, I see how many classes are going online and hybrid and it would be great for incoming freshman to be so familiar with the format. She also uses email for submiting work. When kids are out sick this is a GREAT tool.

The other teacher allowing students to submit work by email just didn't have the web site. The kids were using technology--that is a good thing. LOTS of community college teachers also teach at other schools. They don't all have an office and require quite a bit of work to be submitted by email. Doing this while still in public school, teaches them how to attach it to the email and submit it and to send the text as a follow up. The text was just a way for him to insure that it was sent even if for some reason he didn't get it. Its THEIR responsibility to do these things. The teacher did not respond to the text.

The texts that most of these teachers sent out were mass texts to their team, group, club, whatever. It wasn't conversations that were going on.

Texting is just an easy way to communicate. If the kid is somewhere that they can't talk on the phone, they still get the message.

Sorry but when the kids are old enough to be ON Facebook, legally, they are old enough to be the point of contact from a teacher. After they have tried to work things out between them is when I want to get involved, not before. Pretty much every organization our kids are in, communication is through Facebook and texting--students and teachers alike. Kids don't "email" unless they HAVE to. Our kids go weeks without checking emails. It just isn't they way they communicate.

Our school is trying to go as paperless as possible and assignments are listed on websites, turned in via email or an account on the school server, etc. Textbooks are accessible online. School communications do go out over emails but they are also on the website (for mass communications about upcoming events, etc.). When there are difficult assignments due, the kids are texting back and forth to help each other, etc.

 

[Tiger926]

Living in a small town means that for one, there is a smaller pool of potential babysitters available. I don't know where you live that there are adults that want to get temporary babysitting jobs. That sounds a little weird to me. Also, living in a small town means that people aren't so rigid in the way they view people. I teach the kids of people that I went to school with, and I have a lot of students that are children of my colleagues. While I agree that there are boundaries that shouldn't be crossed, my classroom management isn't going to suffer if I have a student babysit for me twice a year.

Do you have children, and, if so, how old are they? When they are the same age as the students you teach, will you allow their friends to come into your home? I would assume the answer is no since you're so concerned with maintaining your professionalism by not having students in your home.

I don't want to derail the thread, as babysitting was not part of OP's original intent. I will say I disagree that your classroom management may not suffer with babysitting, as well as if you are communicating about non-school matters with students or parents on Facebook. You have set up a different relationship, and therefore, it has different expectations, and so it takes very strong and responsible partners in that relationship to separate those levels. Can you honestly say that you would never favour that student who babysits your kids, or whose mom you chat with on Facebook? You personally may not, but I have seen it with many teachers, and that is why it's best to leave school at school.

I have had people over the years ask me to do things that were inappropriate or private in regards to teaching - those people were taking advantage of our personal relationship (eg. help with student marks, family members asking me to contact board admin in regards to a behaviour issue their child caused, etc.), and surely this sort of thing will and probably does happen if maintaining relationships with current students outside of school.

I don't see anything at all wrong with HS students babysitting for teachers at their schools, but as a general rule I don't think that it's a good idea to hire students who are currently in your classes, because reliable babysitters are hard to find, and a teacher might be tempted to pad grades in order to keep one.

In a lot of smaller communities older ladies will babysit on an occasional basis to bring in some cash; my mother did it when she was in her late 60's. She tended to sit mostly for families with young babies. I was in my teens at the time and would usually sit for older kids, as I had more energy to run around after them.

This is exactly what I am referring to when I discuss communication between the people involved. As a teacher, my job is to remain neutral, especially when it comes to assessment and evaluation of my students, so if they are babysitting for me, or I'm chatting with their moms on Facebook about neighborhood gossip, the relationship parameters have now changed, and you have an area of distractibility that may take away from you doing your job as teacher.

I still am not sure how I feel about personal Facebook teacher accounts - should I be able to have a personal account in order to communicate with my cousin in Montreal? Sure. Do I need to "friend" my students' parents on my personal Facebook account to chat about neighborhood gossip? No.

I think school boards in this age of social media have to strike a balance between school based accounts that list school events, parent/teacher interview schedules, sporting competitions, etc. and private teacher accounts in which they are friending current students and their parents/guardians, as the latter is proving to be problematic in certain situations. I find many people struggle with good judgment, and boundaries, so you throw in a casual social media relationship, and it could distract and clutter up that important teacher/student relationship.

I don't envy the school administrators who are left to figure out what the acceptable and appropriate balance is in regards to social media policy.

Tiger

 

[miralys]

I agree with both rules. Maybe I am going to sound old, but I participated in all sorts of after-school sports, events, etc and never needed a teacher's phone number once to coordinate these things.

So get off my lawn, you darn kids!

 

[Jestocost]

Here in Missouri, the state legislature just passed a law that significantly restricts all kinds of direct electronic communication between teachers and students. Some of it makes sense, some of it is ridiculous. One of the big problems is that the law is so poorly and vaguely written (go figure) that it is wide open to many different interpretations.

A summary of the law is below:

SECTION 162.069 - By January 1, 2012, every school district must develop a written policy concerning teacher-student communication and employee-student communications. Each policy must include appropriate oral and nonverbal personal communication, which may be combined with sexual harassment policies, and appropriate use of electronic media as described in the act, including social networking sites. Teachers cannot establish, maintain, or use a work-related website unless it is available to school administrators and the child's legal custodian, physical custodian, or legal guardian. Teachers also cannot have a nonwork-related website that allows exclusive access with a current or former student. Former student is defined as any person who was at one time a student at the school at which the teacher is employed and who is eighteen years of age or less and who has not graduated.

By January 1, 2012, each school district must include in its teacher and employee training a component that provides information on identifying signs of sexual abuse in children and of potentially abusive relationships between children and adults, with an emphasis on mandatory reporting. Training must also include an emphasis on the obligation of mandated reporters to report suspected abuse by other mandatory reporters.

The problems are complicated by the law's inclusion of text messaging and social network sites in "electronic media," and by other definitions and specific statutory language.

The full text of the law is here.

The authors of the legislation express puzzlement that reaction has been negative (and consistently misrepresent that the ACLU and others supported the bill) as they believe the only people who have to worry about anything are the ones who are doing something wrong. The reality is that most school districts will have to adopt extremely conservative policies to minimize the risk that they could have problems going forward.

 

[princessmom29]

I'm the farthest from paranoid you'll find. Not sure why you would assume that because a teacher has good judgment and doesn't cross boundaries, that I am paranoid? That is rather ridiculous.

I am a teacher, and I teach students in a classroom...they are not my friends, babysitters, nor my landscapers. Our relationship is in the classroom, and they have no business being in my home, nor tending to my kids.

It shouldn't matter where I teach, and I also fail to see how living in a small town has anything to do with it? Incidentally, hubby and I don't go out much either, but if I needed a babysitter, I'm sure there would be an appropriate adult to babysit.

As I have already mentioned, it has nothing to do with paranoia, but everything to do with understanding boundaries and having good judgment, and in my opinion, and most of my colleagues (we've discussed this many times), none of us would ever have our students babysitting our kids.

This is perhaps why school boards have enacted social media policies? If teacher's have no problems with having their students in their homes to watch their kids, then what is next? Please don't think I am saying anything inappropriate is happening between you and a student, but can you not see how having them in your home, watching your children, and being in your private living space, could be problematic? This is exactly what happens with Facebook, with the few teachers that I have known to have issues - a few comments here and there, and then sharing of photos, etc. It is not appropriate to hav any relationship with current students outside of school, period.

Like I said, I'm all about good judgment, and so I conduct myself accordingly, and that means knowing what levels of relationships are appropriate between myself and my students, whether that be with social media or in a private relationship such as babysitting. And, I am not even talking about an extreme issue such as sexual abuse, but moreso regular boundaries with how you communicate and act with each other. Our relationship ends once we leave school property, and it would never even occur to me to hire a student to babysit my children in my home, nor "friend" them on Facebook, as our business is in the classroom only. Once you bring another element to that relationship, whether that be Facebook or babysitting, then you've changed the nature of your relationship, and that could be problematic.

Tiger

I am a teacher, and my responsibility to my students doesn't stop at the classroom door because I actually care about them and what happens to them. I don't see how anyone could teach and not care about what happens to the kids in thier charge outside the classroom. If I know something is going on at home, I am not gonig to sit by and do nothing. I have fed hungry kids, seen to it that they have a safe place to sleep, and yes, even had them babysit on occasion. I care about thier futures, and do my best to help them in any way I can. I don't want my interaction with them to be "classroom only", becuase many of them need so much more than that. I cannot fathom being the callous about my students as to say, nope sorry cannot help you. Not my job. No, I am noty their friend, but I do hope that I can be thier role model.

 

[powellrj]

I am surprised at the number of people who have no outside access with their students. My kids are friends with teachers on facebook as needed for different organizations they are members of. They also have cellphone numbers of these teachers to call as needed. DD gets texts for updates and will sent texts when she can't attend whatever.

She texts and gets texts from her golf coach. She is a member of a youth choral that is run by teachers outside of school and everything is done by email and text and cellphone with this group.

We have many teachers that are members of our church and will have parties in their home for the kids from church so not only do the kids have their phone numbers they also know where they live. What about kids that are friends of teachers that teach at the school they attend. Do they never have friends over?

This has gone on for years. My brother use to bale hay for the principal of our HS and other teachers.

My DS is friends with several of his former HS teachers now that he is in college. A few he would consider mentors and he talks to them regularly even though he has only been out for 2 years. I don't consider the relationships inappropriate at all.

 

[princessmom29]

I am not a teacher however I agree with all of the posted rules.


2. Communication should be done through a call from teacher to the PARENTS and vise versa.

3. NO information from a minor should be submitted through email. Wheather reports, tests etc....


Some things should NEVER change! Seems like the schools want to put back communication from teacher to parent and parent to teacher.

sorry, but not in high school. Students need to be the first point of communication. They have to learn to manage thier own work and communicate effectively with teachers. Mommy is not going to be ther to hold thier hand in college and deal with the teacher for them. Teacher s needto be communicating first with STUDENTS aboutthier work, and THEN with parents if the situation is not resolved. There is no law agianst using email as a form of communication and I don't know what being a minor has to do with emailing a paper rather than printing it out? I really don't get why it should be so "bad" to allow that?? It is what students will be expected to do from day 1 in college. I don't know a single professor who accepts them in print anymore. In fact, our school provides every student with an email account for this purpose.