Teacher/Student Social Networking

Teacher Conduct Outside of the Classroom

   How teachers conduct themselves outside of the classroom has been a controversial subject for many years.  There have been many stories of teachers having inappropriate relationships with their students.  Phone calls, texting, and even physical relationships are happening with students and teachers.  Now, with the use of social media, it has become an even bigger problem.  



   Social media websites can be a very useful tool in the classroom when used appropriately. For example, a teacher may set up a face book page for her students to work on a collaborative project with students from another school. There is , however, a problem when these websites are used for personal teacher-students contact.   According to a New York Times article, "At least seven school employees have been arrested in the past few months in relation to sexual offenses involving students.  School chancellor Dennis M. Walcott is pushing to fire teachers accused of such offenses" (Chen, McGee pg.1) 

   Since this investigation in the New York City schools began, there have been rules and guidelines established for teachers concerning social networking with students.  Teachers are allowed to establish professional Web pages for academic use only.  Teachers are not allowed to "friend, email, or otherwise communicate with students via the teacher's or student's personal web page." (Chen, McGee pg.1).

      The guidelines encourage teachers to use privacy settings on their personal web pages so students do not have access to them.  They also state that a teacher should not post anything on their web page that they would not want their students to see in a classroom.  School employee unions disagree. Chiara Coletti , a principal union spokesperson said "we are concerned that out principals will ne expected to bear the burden of monitoring  social media activities that are in fact, almost impossible to monitor" (Chen, McGee pg2). 

      In addition to social media web pages/ networking, cell phone use between teachers and students has become a major concern as well.  There are many New York City teachers under investigation for inappropriate contact of a student using cell phones. For example, "Soliber Martinez, a teacher at Pablo Neruda Academy in the Bronx, exchanged 1,824 text messages in three weeks to a male student...The boys mother told investigators that Ms. Martinez professed her love for him, which she denied.  Ms. Martinez, who did not have tenure, was let go." (Chen, McGee pg 3).  Teachers need to use common sense.

  

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/02/nyregion/social-media-rules-for-nyc-school-staff-limits-contact-with-students.html?ref=nyregion (ctrl +click to follow link)

  

   Works Cited

Chen, David W. and McGeehan, Patrick, "Social Media Rules Limit New York Student-Teacher Contact."  New York Times, May1,2012.

   This article shows how student/teacher relationships, via social networking, need to have guidelines and boundaries. The article covers all aspects of communication between teachers and their students that range from physical relationships, phone calls and texting, to social web pages such as face book and twitter. This article was written to show that there are steps being taken to stop inappropriate student/teacher contact. The authors Chen and McGeehan are not teachers or administrators. Chen has worked for the New York Times as an investigative reporter since 1995.  This article was very helpful as it not only covered the topic of teacher conduct and social media, but also how the teachers unions reacted to the guidelines set by the state .This article was written in May of 2012, and covers the past five years of activity in various school districts in New York. Chen and McGeehan are very detailed in their article by citing quotes and giving dates that the alleged incidents took place.  I feel this article exposed a very important subject, that not many people are comfortable talking about.  I also think that more school districts should be monitoring teacher/ student contact. Teachers need to be responsible for their actions , not only in the classroom, but outside as well.



http://youtu.be/x5x-fN6t2Q0  "New York City Draws Line Between Teachers and Students on Social Media", Mashable , May 2.2012.

   This video has a strong  correlation to the article I used.  I actually chose the video first, and then got the article after.  This video summarizes the four page article completely and thoroughly while highlighting key points such as quotes from the article from the NYC Department of Education.  While some guidelines are presented in the video, it gives the basic message to use common sense. This video was part of Mashable.com.  According to their website,"Mashable is the largest independent website dedicated to news information for the connected generation"  (www.mashable.com)  After looking at the date this video was published, I realized that it was the day after the article I chose came out.  I felt that this video was made to summarize how New York City is cracking down on inappropriate teacher/student contact.  I think this video is a very accurate.  The video displays the actual document that was composed by the NYC Department of Education.  Although I have never used Mashable before, I feel that they are a credible source for quick information about current events.  In a few short minutes, this video was able to give key information about the topic I chose.