teachers and myspace

I am going to school to be a teacher and have been told by my profesors that if we have a myspace or other site like it then we need to edit it because or future employees will look at them and it could influence their decision to hire or not. I have never been a member of sites like that, I just do not have time. But after becomeing aware of some of the issues that can come up I just do not plan on joining them. I know that when used as intended they are great sites, but I do not want my students to see me on these sites. That would make my personal life less personal. As far as the school district doing that, I can understand it if there have been problems with teachers includeing students on their pages. If that is the case then it is no longer private, and the school should be involved, bacause students should not have a part in a teacher's private life.

I personally feel that our lives are our own business. I know of an incident where a school district went digging for information on a teacher, found his private website, and tried to fire him and take away his credentials. Luckily he was just let go, but kept his credentials. I never understood it to be honest. I'm a teacher/student and I have a Myspace, Facebook, Mylot, and Aidpage account. I also have my personal website, plus our church's website. I'm more then just a teacher, and I think school districts need to respect that. Personally, I feel children should not be allowed on social networking sites until they turn 18, but that is for another discussion. I feel as if teachers are being held accountable for the moral foundation of the country and quite frankly, I'm tired of it. I've been told I should get rid of my tattoos and piercings because "Well, you're a teacher". None of mine are visble, save my piercings but they are not without taste. Right now I'm a stay at home mom taking time off from the classroom, working on my thesis but I hear this quite a bit. Why am I now free to be myself? Why are other teachers not free to be themselves? I recall hearing about the one teacher who was fired for her Myspace picture "Drunken Pirate", saying it was encouraging bad behavior. We seem to think that teachers are responsible for all the bad behavior out there, yet we never look at home. It seems to be a world full of pointing fingers, you know? I don't think I'd ever give up my private life just because a school district said for me to do so. Just like I won't stop being pagan because a district asked me to. I won't go into details there, but I've been in the witch hunt for not revealing my religion. Namaste-Anora

First, before I should react to something like that, what was the logic behind their want to cancel myspace for the teachers? Perhaps they're just trying to separate the teachers from their students. You know how kids are, they won't really respect you anymore if they can treat you as 'one of them'. Plus, it's credibility we're talking about here. If I were a teacher and was told to cancel my myspace or any social networking site account and they'd give be a clear cut reason why, then perhaps I would yield.

i feel the question is being posed across board rooms and classrooms, big company and small company. The social networking lives of people is a fine line between professional and personal. I read an article about a guy who him and his buddies make fart jokes often, he quickly realized because his Facebook was tied to clients at work he was looking immature. There really is only one solution and it becomes a dual personality, you need to user names one for friends and one for work. The problem is facebook and myspcae are not designed to handle that.

I think the district is asking you to do something for your own good. You never know when a student may try to attack a teacher or accuse them of something inappropriate. If you can not abide by the rules of the school, how can you expect your students to. I was really sad because the local high school lost two really great teachers because of accusations. To this day I truly wonder if they were founded. In the meantime, we live in a different world unfortunately and when dealing with children there must be caution on both sides.

What reason do they give. I agree what right do they have to say what someone does in there private time. I can see if they use it at school. taking away from students time. but come on. I dont think they should invite students to it. The news is full of teachers and students getting to close however those are extreme cases. Leave people to enjoy what they want in there own time!

Hi keasling, I will not agree with that. That is the personal and private life of an individual and as long as the Teachers are not doing bad in those sites, I believed there is nothing wrong to be a member... I was teaching in the Philippines before and I have joined one site where I also have a lot of students as my friends there!

Participating this kind of on-line socialization is not wrong. I dont have myspace account but i do have other account which connected with my friends and students.I dont have plan to delete all my connected students since there's no big deal on it. What's the problem having them as a friend outside the campus? As long your doing your job well during class hours.

Yes I have a myspace and yeah they shouldn't tell you if you can have a myspace page when its on their own time and their own life. Its a different story if they foudn they were doing things wrong and abusing it and it related to school. But if not, its not right for them to tell the teachers what they can have and not have.

i think that they should demand their teachers to not make any account in myspace. i think that the students need to see their teachers as like any people or friends and not just a person who work as a teacher. cause i think that it will help them develop good relationship with teachers. anyways, teachers need some social life too online and so if they chose to have an account i don't see any wrong with it. it does not mean that it will make them a bad example for their students or will create a bad impression if a teacher has a myspace account.

thats stuped myspace use to be for just college studet and the teacher and u find studie buddy and stuff in tell on day all of the high school ppl came on. Now we have facebook for that and it slowly doing the same thing that happed to myspace.

I am a teacher in a daycare but thats not the point. That is invading there personal space and time. If these teachers don't have nothing bad on there myspace facebook. then they don't have nothing to worry about. But they can't tell them to get a rid of it. For some this may be there means of communication with there family or friends what are they going to do stop them from that also. I think that it's just crazy. It's like people can't have do what they want any more nor be free. That's there personal time they aint on the sites at work so leave it alone. I don't have a myspace my children do and my husband My husbands is suppose to be joined together with both of us. I don't have students on there I wouldn't put students on there because I don't have parents permission to display there picture to the public. If I did I still wouldnt do it. I would absolutley not be willing to cancel my account especially if I did nothing wrong had nothing to hide on my account.

I fully agree with the pay issue. Why they get so little is so beyond me. I could never figure it out and I probably never will. Guess thats a whole nother issue in itself. Anyways I dont think there should be an issue with a Myspace page. So long as they are not out doing anything wrong then whatever. I could understand if there were pictures that were unappropriate and a student was one of their friends or if they were promoting something that would be wrong because students do tend to look up to their teachers but then again it depends on the ages the teacher is teaching too. They can always have their profiles private so no one can see them and then what difference does it really make?!?! I can see why it might be good to not have a Myspace page if I were a teacher but I would want it to be my decision, not someone elses. And so long as I wasnt doing anything wrong then no big deal.

I think it's unfair for the teacher, but I understand why the school does that.

I have teachers at my old school with facebooks account. The only thing with our district is, is that teachers are not allowed to have students on their friends lists until they are out of school. If they are not in the same school together then they're allowed to add eachother. I understand why, but I think it's stupid. sometimes students need help on their homework so they e-mail their teachers.. We were always allowed to email our teachers, but we aren't allowed to have them on our friendslist on facebook? talking on there is a lot easier than emailing eachother back and forth. It just doesn't make sense. If I were a teacher I would just relocate. I wouldn't let a school board run my life outside of work. There's a difference between understandable limitations and just invasion of privacy.

That is just plain ridiculous. Do you have anyone related to the school as a friend? Students, staff, parents? If so, I would just delete them as a friend if you think they might cause problems and then make your profile private. I graduated last year and was excited to find that one of my teachers had a facebook. There is no reason that the school district should be allowed to tell you what you can and cannot do in your personal life unless it somehow affects your ability to teach.

well. i am not a teacher but i think teacher is also human at first so he/she can also have mistake or weakness. don't they say to err is human? if i have students on mypace i won't cancel it and will ask as most student as i can to visit there and show them i also have sorts of happy or unhappy things. let them to undstand and communicate more. it would be help.

I am a teacher and have a myspace page. I also have facebook. I am careful not to add anyone associated with school. Then again, there isn't anything on either one of them that would get me into trouble. I agree that it is something associated with their personal life and they shouldn't be told it's going to be taken away from them. As long as the teachers aren't adding parents and students that could potentially see something they shouldn't, why does it matter?

yes, teacher have more rights, obligations and they are very much their responsibility also large. There is no one teacher has myspace. But I don't have.. Hope that life can be better teachers to the increase to their salaries

i completely agree that teachers are paid enough, and that has always baffled me. teachers are the backbone of someone's education and in turn, in many cases, their futures, as well. i don't understand how someone who has such a vital job could not be paid more than they are. i also don't think they should have to delete their myspaces. when they're hired at a school, they're hired there as a teacher and agree to put in their time needed for their students. they still have a personal life, as they ARE human, after all. i think it's wrong for the district to tell them what they can and can't do with their personal lives, especially over something as silly as a website.