When Teachers Go Wild on the Web

[unbasslichkeit]

Good thing we never see this sort of foolishness on TB..no sireee Bob, we don't...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...l?hpid=topnews

[KeithBMI]

20-year-olds cracking jokes and finding funny things on the internet?

Terrible.



(I also thought that this thread was going to have pictures. )

[Matt_W]

Personally, I think these teachers have the right to put what ever they wish on their web pages, as long as it doesn't have a negative effect on their teaching. I do however think it is naive to list the school they work at along side less appropriate material.

[peaveyuser]

Wait if these are personal websites and pages why can't these people have what the heck they want on it? I mean it's not like it's connected to school in any way?

[i_got_a_mohawk]

They are free to do what they want.

Lets just hope they don't find Maki's stash!

[Wizardgoleman]

As a college student now where many of my friends are going to be entering the education field, this I feel is less of a matter of "what kind of people are teaching our children" but more of the private lives of teachers (just as it is for other people) being openly available in a larger community. It is ridiculous to assume that because a person is a teacher or will be a teacher that they would not or should not maintain their own private life, even if it may contradict what others feel as appropriate behavior for someone in the education field. If it does not affect performance in the classroom I do not feel that it should be made into an issue. It is hypocritical to assume people in other professions do not maintain some of their lifestyle choices while starting in their new career.

However...

It is also the responsibility of the individual, in the case of Facebook or Myspace, to make profiles as that to make them private, just because you should be able to maintain a private life, does not mean you should flaunt it as public information. In that case you are asking for someone to raise an issue, if it is not a nosy or concerned parent investigating, it will be a student to "stumble" upon you profile and make it known throughout the school.

[mothmonsterman]

HAHA,
I had a blog on myspace once, mostly satire.
But most importantly they where just rants about how ()$@^$&#^ stupid the people i work with where, the dumb comments and complete inability to learn when they are expected to teach children.

well one of the teachers found it printed it out gave it to the rest of the faculty and they marched to the CEO's office demanding i get fired.
Being the cheapest IT guy around i was allowed to keep my job in exchange for a public apology, and in return I got the teacher fired for bypassing my firewall via 3rd party proxy programs on her staff file >
I learned to watch my ass, and she learned not to #$&$ with the IT dept.

All in all you really have to be careful what you do on the internet days.

[Pilgrim]

Our constitution guarantees freedom of speech; therefore any of us are free (within certain legally defined limits) to post anything we want on the web.

However, our constitution does not guarantee freedom from the consequences of that free speech.

Once you've "spoken", you have to live with the consequences.

[Bad Brains]

They should be able to have whatever they want on their page. Are teachers expected to sit at home all day and read dictionaries?

With that being said, how dumb do you have to be list the school you teach at? Or use your real e-mail adress to sign up on these networking sites? Or even leave it on public.

Some helpful tips
1) Create seperate e-mail only you know about, that way no one can look you up.
2) Keep your profile on private, that way someone you don't want reading your stuff can't unless they become your "friend" first.
3) DON'T LIST THE SCHOOL OR COMPANY YOU WORK FOR.

[Baryonyx]

I wouldn't be surprised if Maki got the sack if his bosses found some of his posts on here!

[tZer]

In public, at work and in general here in the USA, you'd be led to believe that everyone you meet is just short of Mother Teresa or Ghandi in their virtuousness and piety. The very idea that everyday Americans might be interested in something like off color jokes, catching a buzz or sex (OMG!) is preposterous - if you believe what people say...

But somehow, someway the Internet seems to have exposed the truth - that just about everyone is just as human, perverted, buzz-hungry and otherwise flawed as everyone else.

Not me, of course.

That said, it's an unfortunate truth that, regardless of the hypocrisy, you do have to be careful what you say and how you say it online for fear that the morality police where you are employed will find out and have to deal with everyone else who is so shocked and offended by the utter smut you just spewed.

Whether it's right or not isn't even the issue. We are so repressed that we actually begin to believe our own BS and when someone actually exposes themselves as human - tells an odd joke or expresses interest in sex (OMG!) that our standing in the world community as the most virtuous country on the planet may be in peril!

On that note, I'd just like to say,

booger.

[Vince S.]

I agree with what Pilgrim said about free speech and its consequences. I've heard somebody say that posting on the internet is akin to getting on a park bench and shouting your thoughts to everybody in the vicinity with a megaphone. The internet is a public domain, and information on it can reach anybody with a computer and internet access.

A teacher is an authority figure and in a position of public trust, so a kid finding a rant about "retarded children" or a picture of his or her teacher having a body shot taken off of them would probably lose trust or respect for that authority. People in that line of work, or any line of work which involves public trust need to watch out for what they do in their personal time. At my volunteer EMS organization, there was actually an EMT who was terminated from the organization because he wore a department issued t-shirt into a liquor store. Even though he was off duty and of drinking age, the fact that he wore the shirt in a liquor store was grounds for dismissal because it tainted the public image of our organization.

I personally use the highest privacy/restriction settings on my Facebook account, and try to keep things off of it that I would not want my parents or younger siblings to see.

[::::BASSIST::::]

As a teacher, I am well aware that we are held well above the status quo of what is acceptable. If I ever got arrested for anything (including protests) my job would be in jeopardy. If I displayed inappropriate images on my website my job would be in jeopardy. Up here in BC, we have what's called the British Columbia College of Teachers. A large purpose of the BCCT is monitor the activities of teachers to make sure their conduct is that 'suitable' to a teacher. The BCCT is the organizational body that issues the licence to be a practicing teacher, if you dont have a licence, or have it revoked or suspended, you cant teach. So yeah, I have to be very careful of what I do and how I act. For example, if I went to strip club (not that I ever do) and somebody recognized me I could get in trouble. The BCCT would launch an investigation. Even if I was found not guilty, it would be in the public record (on the BCCT website) and parents of the children I teach could see it, jeopardizing not only my current job, but future employment prospects. There is definitely a double-standard. The Premier of BC, Gordon Campbell, got arrested a couple years ago in Hawaii for DUI, but yet still retains his position. If a teacher found themselves in the same predicament, they'd be in deep trouble. Why? Because as teachers we are role models to the children we teach and therefore are held to a higher standard.

[Jared Lash]

At my old school, I had students I knew claiming that a teacher was gay. He was new that year and a couple years younger than me (25 or so) I told them to stop spreading rumors and was greeted with, "It says so on his MySpace page." My first thought was that this page (if it existed) was perhaps made by a student that didn't like him. But no, it was a legit MySpace page complete with a list of guys he thought were hot and some half naked pictures of his "friends".

Mind you, this was at a Catholic school. He didn't lose his job, though I guess he was run through the ringer. Our principal was actually most upset by the fact that his MySpace blog had a long entry criticizing a number of aspects of the school.

I'm certainly not a saint, and I expect every teacher to have a private life, but there's no reason it should be plastered on the internet where it diminishes your authority or alters the professional relationship you should have with your students. And as I just mentioned, the complaints you have with your job should not be made public for everyone to see. That's just common sense.

[peterbright]

Discretion...where have you gone?

[GeneralElectric]

I stopped reading at

The annals of teachers-gone-wild...

due to childish laughter.

[Bad Brains]

That's gotta suck having a job where people monitor your private life outside of work. So much for privacy.

[Chris Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by Pilgrim

Our constitution guarantees freedom of speech; therefore any of us are free (within certain legally defined limits) to post anything we want on the web.

However, our constitution does not guarantee freedom from the consequences of that free speech.

Once you've "spoken", you have to live with the consequences.

Well spoken, sir.

[Chris Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by tZer

On that note, I'd just like to say,

booger.

[Jared Lash]

Originally Posted by Bad Brains

That's gotta suck having a job where people monitor your private life outside of work. So much for privacy.

I hope the irony of this statement isn't lost on you.

No one monitored my private life as a teacher. It's the act of making your private life public that people take notice of. There's an easy rule of thumb when posting aspects of your life on MySpace/Facebook etc. If there's anyone in the world that you wouldn't want seeing that information, then it probably shouldn't be online.