Blog Post 2

•   Is it fair to scrutinize teachers' private lives (either online or offline)? Explain/defend your position.

•  Should teachers maintain a presence on social networking sites? Why or why not? As a teacher, what steps can you take to protect yourself from criticism and/or sanctions when using social media sites?

Speaking from a parent's point of view, I personally don't think it's wrong to scrutinize teacher's private lives. As long as you're not invading their private life and trying to do some background search to see what kind of person they are is fairly acceptable. As a parent, I would want to know what kind of teacher is going to be teaching my child. If I search their name on Google and find their personal webpage and see that there are repeated partying pictures, I wouldn't be okay with them teaching my child anything. As an educator, responsible for the child's education, teachers should act accordingly. I don't think it's right to stalk the teacher and find out where they live or their history record. However, I do think it's okay to search up their name on Facebook or Myspace and see what kind of activities they're involved with and to see their use of language. I think that there is a fine line between work and personal life. As long as their personal life on their webpage is good I don't see a problem with anything wanting to invade their privacy any further.

I think it’s the teacher’s choice to maintain a presence on a social networking site. If they are confident that their activities are above the influence and won’t do any harm, they have all the right to keep one. However, I don’t think they should have one if they’re not good at being cautious to what they post and freely exposing their private life on their page. As a teacher, one of the best ways you can protect yourself from criticism and/or sanctions is not to have one. That way, there’s no risk of anyone finding out anything. If you do choose to keep one, the other best way is not to post anything that looks bad in any way. Watch your language when you post things, make sure to check that you only add the people you know. I once knew of a teacher that kept his Facebook private in all areas and made his page with his legal name. Most of the students didn’t know his legal name so there weren’t a lot of students that knew of his page. After a while, students found out that this teacher only adds you if you’ve officially graduated. I thought this was a great way to keep your private life separately from students and work.