Teachers on Facebook

[happygirl]

I'm surprised teachers don't set up public pages for their students and their parents so they can post assignments and communicate things and have a separate private page for their real life friends. This is what celebrities, journalists, and public figures do and is very easy. You get the best of both worlds without having to compromise either.

That would work for older students, FB has a age limit of 13 and older. I guess the parents could on the site,

My son teacher has a sight set up through school you can go to and do that.

 

[castleview]

Only two of my kids teachers are on my FB friends list. They sought me out and it's only for Zynga games. Otherwise, I don't try and friend them - it's a boundary issue for me. DH is a tech-savvy high school teacher and hasn't done a FB page. A friend of our's doesn't have a personal page, but he's an assistant principal and has some aliases he works under . Unfortunately, schools have to deal with things that didn't even happen on school grounds due to FB.

 

[ashley0139]

As a teacher, it makes me very uncomfortable when a parent or student, past or present, sends me a friend request. If I friend them, they know more about my personal life than I want them to know. If I don't friend them, then I'm worried about hurting their feelings or making them mad. (And over the years, I've dealt with a few nuts, so that's always in the back of my mind.)

I find this interesting. All throughout my high school and college years, teachers/professors would say to students, "We can be friends on facebook when you graduate." They were all very firm that they wouldn't be friends WHILE they were in school, but were completely fine with it after they graduated.

 

[FireDancer]

If the school system is providing an alternative that is probably just as good provided it is implemented right. The same goes for blogs and other bulletin boards. I just look at it as an additional tool. The more ways you have to communicate a message, any message, the better. So many teachers want more parent involvement, which is important, so make it as easy as possible to get them involved.

Leo Laporte does a lot of speaking in California schools and sits on the board of at least one. He is a proponent of taking the message to where the kids and parents already are as opposed to try and force them to the forum you want.

 

[2binak]

I don't like the idea of crossing the personal/professional line with DD's teachers, at least not while they are her teachers. I did become friends with one of DD's daycare teachers after the teacher left the school to take a job closer to her home. She was an amazing woman who truly cared for DD and when she left, I gave her a card and included a note saying that we'd love to stay in touch with her via e-mail or FB if she wanted to. A couple of weeks later I got the friend request from her and she often tells me how she loves reading updates & seeing pics of DD.

My father worked at my school. We all (dad, me & teachers) knew that school was school & home was home and that there was a very definite line between the two. He never allowed teachers to discuss my academics with him while they were on the clock, only during parent/teacher meetings and vice versa.

I find this interesting. All throughout my high school and college years, teachers/professors would say to students, "We can be friends on facebook when you graduate." They were all very firm that they wouldn't be friends WHILE they were in school, but were completely fine with it after they graduated.

This is a GREAT policy! I have a family member (DH's family) who was a middle school teacher. She would friend students as soon as they went to the next class year. I thought it was really inappropriate since the they were still in the school system.

 

[shaylyn]

No. I see it as a professional relationship and Facebook, I believe, is for personal relationships.

 

[thewebbs5]

So many of my friends (irl) are teachers and it just so happens several of them are teachers at my youngest daughters school. I am not friends with her classroom teacher on facebook but I am friends with her music, PE and art teachers on facebook.

 

[Mom of 3 Princesses]

This is a very interesting thread.

As a past librarian of a Lighthouse school that expressly encourages children to use social media to connect and communicate this issue was brought up numerous times.

I had 3 FB pages.

Site #1. For the XC team that I coached whereas I was friends with the parents and the Students of the team.

Site #2. Was the parents of the school as well as the students to keep up with assignments, activities, recommendations and outreach.

O yeah, to answer the OP... no I am not friends with any of my daughters teachers.

Site #3. My site. My daughters have friends who are also my friends on FB. This is where the fine line comes in because I have heard differing opinions.. yet the plot thickens as we go along.

Therefore,
Before posting anything else, I want you to know I respect your opinion, but it is also difficult to understand the full spectrum of where people are coming from in this. I say this cause this a hotly debated topic that encompasses many aspects, as well as your personal belief and evaluation of the communication of today's child.

My rules:

I NEVER send a friend request to a child, unless they are family.
I never "narc" on any posting of any child unless it is bullying or is putting others or themselves in life threatening or unsafe situations.
I never correct or deem myself their parent so do not try to instill or impose my moral ethics on them.
I never enter a conversation that seem unsavory with a child.
I NEVER tag a child on my site in a picture. they had to be tagged by the child (anyone under 18) or their parent. I didn't do that.

This applied to ALL of my sites.

Site #1 XC site. This is a great social media outreach site that kept parents and students up to date on practices and meets as well as any other pertinent information. Parents do not always answer their emails, but more parents have a FB page. All the information is available and orgnaized in one place.

Site #2 School Site. This was a site where I was "friends" with my students as well as my parents. This included HS and MS students. I was a Librarian and taught research across the curr. so it was a good place to communicate. It was also a good place to communicate and answer common questions from parents that would benefit others. If it was of a personal matter from a parent, they would call or email. But general questions, those were good. Our school did a lot of outreach and community activities, this was a great way to stay in a social media.

#3 This is my personal site. My oldest daughters have their own FB page. (they do not attend the school where I taught) One of those requirements of having that page is that I am friends with them. I get friended by some of their friends as well, and do have many of their friends on my FB. I do not friend a child unless I know that child and they have spent time with my family. I also have to have some type of communication with their parents or have to have known them for a long time. However, my children have adults that they are friends with that are the parents of their friends. These adults are the same as I am. I only accept the requests should the fit the criteria, and never friend request anyone else. I am not a policeman, therefore I do not interfer, but I still remain aware.

I am no longer working at the Lighthouse school. Therefore, I have shut down Site #1, and Site #2. Yet a few choice parents and a few choice runners have friended me and I have accepted those friendships.

Now, some may say, I do not want to watch what I say... well, I have children and I think live by the rule that if I do not want people to know something then the stupiest thing I could do is put it in writing.

I believe that children communicate through social media and technology and that unless we embrace this media and learn to keep up with it, we (as adults) are going to become less ignorant of the world than we THINK our children are.

But once again, that is my opinion. Keep in mind, there is always more than one demension and this was just a quick explanation of what I do.

 

[HsvTeacher]

I find this interesting. All throughout my high school and college years, teachers/professors would say to students, "We can be friends on facebook when you graduate." They were all very firm that they wouldn't be friends WHILE they were in school, but were completely fine with it after they graduated.

Just to be clear, I do not friend my students and/or their parents.

I teach 2nd grade, so my situation is a very different from high school and college. Mostly it's my classroom parents who send me friend requests. However, some of my students also send requests. I have no idea why my students would even have FB but most of them do.