No. No no no no no.
#FreeCrunkBear: Carly McKinney, High School Teacher Who Tweeted Semi-Nude Pics, Backed By Her Students On Twitter
I could kind of relate. With my students, I can talk about video games, dating and overbearing parents. It makes me easy to relate to, it gives relevance to what I teach. It makes my job enjoyable and kids love talking to me.
But should a teacher - someone who's a role model and an example of how a teacher should act - be posting pictures pictures of herself drinking, doing drugs, and/or semi-nude?
No. That crosses a line in "questionably UNPROFESSIONAL behaviour". When you sign up to be a teacher, you sign up to represent what the teaching profession is. To me, that means if someone goes swimming for an image of a teacher, you stand a good chance of being pulled out. While I scorn the image of old fogeys in tweed giving lectures, old fogeys in tweed also give the appearance of knowledge, authority and respect. Miss McKinney doing half-naked handstands? Harder to accept.
As cool as social media is, I will never add a student to my friends list on Facebook. Nor would I add an employer, or a fellow employee (unless we're already good friends outside of work). I enjoy bouts of heavy drinking, swearing profusely and wearing sexy lingerie, but would I want my students to see those pictures? Parents? Future employers? There's a really obvious line to draw in the sand.
It appears to be a problem with the younger generation. I have less of a problem with it, as I grew up with strict parents, and both Peter and I want(ed) to go into professions where every aspect of your social life is under the microscope. Anything questionable? Blacklist. Yet I've met people in online communities who are confused when others freak out about triggers and warnings about NSFW things - they're so desensitized to the Internet that anything looks kosher.
General rule: would I be comfortable showing this to my boss, my children or my students' parents? If you even had to think about that, then don't.
Worse is the lack of realization that anything that goes on the Internet is there forever. (Or at least it's safe to assume that.) Maybe it will get deleted, or buried, or just forgotten, but it's so easy for anyone to copy and paste things and store it on a little-used server. What you do will last, make no mistake about it, and it doesn't take a librarian to dig out poor history.
In short: I don't care how popular or relative it makes you to the student body. It sounds cool now, but it's a slow, downward slope that doesn't get any better as you age. You're a professional, now act like one.
I could kind of relate. With my students, I can talk about video games, dating and overbearing parents. It makes me easy to relate to, it gives relevance to what I teach. It makes my job enjoyable and kids love talking to me.
But should a teacher - someone who's a role model and an example of how a teacher should act - be posting pictures pictures of herself drinking, doing drugs, and/or semi-nude?
No. That crosses a line in "questionably UNPROFESSIONAL behaviour". When you sign up to be a teacher, you sign up to represent what the teaching profession is. To me, that means if someone goes swimming for an image of a teacher, you stand a good chance of being pulled out. While I scorn the image of old fogeys in tweed giving lectures, old fogeys in tweed also give the appearance of knowledge, authority and respect. Miss McKinney doing half-naked handstands? Harder to accept.
As cool as social media is, I will never add a student to my friends list on Facebook. Nor would I add an employer, or a fellow employee (unless we're already good friends outside of work). I enjoy bouts of heavy drinking, swearing profusely and wearing sexy lingerie, but would I want my students to see those pictures? Parents? Future employers? There's a really obvious line to draw in the sand.
It appears to be a problem with the younger generation. I have less of a problem with it, as I grew up with strict parents, and both Peter and I want(ed) to go into professions where every aspect of your social life is under the microscope. Anything questionable? Blacklist. Yet I've met people in online communities who are confused when others freak out about triggers and warnings about NSFW things - they're so desensitized to the Internet that anything looks kosher.
General rule: would I be comfortable showing this to my boss, my children or my students' parents? If you even had to think about that, then don't.
Worse is the lack of realization that anything that goes on the Internet is there forever. (Or at least it's safe to assume that.) Maybe it will get deleted, or buried, or just forgotten, but it's so easy for anyone to copy and paste things and store it on a little-used server. What you do will last, make no mistake about it, and it doesn't take a librarian to dig out poor history.
In short: I don't care how popular or relative it makes you to the student body. It sounds cool now, but it's a slow, downward slope that doesn't get any better as you age. You're a professional, now act like one.