1) Is it fair to scrutinize teachers' private lives (either online or offline?) Explain/defend your position.
I think that it is fair to scrutinize, as well as analyze the private life of a teacher because they are held to a higher standard than many other positions. They are prominent influences to the students they are educating daily, and if they expect to be respected and admired, than they must hold themselves to the standards they hope for their students. How can a high school teacher, for example, expect their students to stay sober or drug free if they themselves are using those things and openly discussing it? A teacher should demand respect by the way they live their life and their everyday actions. As far as their online life, if a teacher is going to do immoral things, then they need to be tactful about what they are posting online. All things on the internet are accessible to anyone and we need to be careful and cautious. For the same reasons I mentioned about an online life, even a teacher's life offline is important to monitor. Teachers need to be aware that learning eyes from students, as well as the critical eye of their parents are always watching them. Teachers should not be offended that they are scrutinized about their private life, but they should rather expect to be challenged and watched if they expect to live openly and recklessly. If they do, however, want to live in a manner that is inappropriate in the professional world than
"Actions Speak Louder Than Words"
2) 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?
I believe that it is important that teachers stay connected to social networking sites. Communicating online is quick, easy and efficient and without using online networks as a tool to communicate, the process is much slower. It is, for example, convenient to send out a group email to parents or an assignment to students. Both teachers and students alike can greatly benefit from using email, blogs, blackboard, etc to get information such as alerts, dates to remember, reminders, questions, updates and much more.
The steps a teacher can take to protect themselves from criticisms is to be wary of what they say and do, as well as and their activities online. For instance, if they wanted to have a Facebook, then they could have two separate profiles, one for their students and co-workers, and the other for personal friends and social reasons. That way, they are separating work life from social life. Although this could be a good plan, a teacher must still act the way they want to be viewed by their students. Teachers will be held accountable for their actions if something unwanted was found by a student and brought to the principal's attention. A teacher can also protect themselves by refraining from putting personal frustrations or negative comments in permanent ink on the internet. To sum everything up, teachers basically need to make smart choices and live a life worth modeling after.
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