Should teachers and students be facebook friends?

I would keep your main facebook page private to your students. I have heard of so many teachers getting in trouble about things they post of their sites. If you want to be friendly with your students, then create a special group that they can join. This way their pages and yours are private and both only have access to the groups page.

I don't think that they should be friends while the student is still at school, because seeing the private life of a teacher is a boundary that just shouldn't be crossed at any point. However, I do think that they could be friends when they leave school if the teacher should wish to be, although I do understand that there are a lot of people who would choose not to add any students as friends as they might not feel as though it was appropriate to do so. I think I would add some students, but not the ones that might have caused trouble during my lessons for example.

With facebook's privacy settings you can control most of the things you share. You can make a restricted list of people, and when you post something, you can set who can see it... same with photo albums. It's a lot of work, but if that is what holds you back, and otherwise you would accept your students' friend request, it can be done. They would probably appreciate it if they could stay in touch and share their thoughts with you, but I agree that not everything has to be shared with them.

if they have grown up and become adults i dont see anything wrong with that especially if they are no longer in the school

Hi Zinda_soula... being friends with your students... I don't see any problem with that specially if they are already graduated or already a past student and if they are your current students I don't see any problem also... However, with regards to personal stuff that would depend on you on how much you disclose on your facebook account or how much you would like to dig in to your students personal stuff. Anyway... you can use this tool to your current students to create some announcements and updates... :D

Like they say "Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer" :D . That was a joke of course. I think there's no reason why students and teachers shouldn't be friends at facebook.

I don´t like facebook because of what you just said. I feel I lose my intimacy. There are somethings I want to tell to some people, others that I would tell only to one person. I would not want to share personal stuff with my students as I feel there must be a line that should not be crossed.

Hiya zinda, Not really I don´t think that they should be Friends on Facebook although I suppose it can work out well if they all get along in the Class Room. If I were a Teacher I would not fancy having my Students on my Profile page really it would get too crowded for me at least. But seeing as I am neither a Teacher or a Student I will leave mine as it is. Even so there must be quite a few drawbacks with this kind of situation even if they do leave School. Well everyone is different and for some it might work I guess.xxx

This is a matter of choice. Personally I don't see anything wrong with it. Facebook is about sharing your ideas and feelings to your friends, so if you are the type of person that shares openly on FB then I don't think having your students as facebook friends would be beneficial since as a teacher you need to have that invisible gap between your as a teacher and them as your students. Besides, students look up to their teacher as their role models and you can't be yourself if you know your students can see your funny shout outs or anything.

Yes students and teachers may be friend on facebook why not my most of the students are facebook friend. I talk with them always about their study, future planning about job etc. Our students is also our good friend or family members like child or brothers sisters so no problem.

Some old school classmates are friends with an old teacher or two now that we are old, but I'm not to keen on that. I wouldn't go that far but then again I only have online friends, and penpals I used to have (from a group) on my FB anyways by choice.

They can, it depends on how they interact. There should be boundaries and not a lot of personal info exchange. It's important to still keep a student-teacher relationship.

I personaly think that if you put the trust in the teacher to teach your child at the school , then they should have total trust . Facebook sometimes can be a horrible place for a child due to bullies etc . So I suppose having a teacher on there would either be a deterrent or a bait for bullies . Its one of those questions that really doesn't have an answer because each individual has a different situation . I personaly would say to my child , do what you want, but just let me know what's going on from time to time . But from a teachers point of veiw , it could be a very tricky situation to be in if a child or student fired an accusation there way . Sometimes what is wriiten , isn't always interprettted the way it was meant to be . But as I said , I would leave it down to the teacher and child to decide .

There is a limit to all Just keep it in a level that you wont expose your privacy life and you wont risk your relationship with your students, we all need to protect our privacy from the public, you dont know whats hidden and waiting for you at anytime and anyplace either it is the internet of real life, just keep it simple and continue be the person that your student appreciate and honor

I don't think that it would be a good idea to befriend your students on facebook. Because of the things that they could see on your page and stuff. Although there are privacy settings to were you can block them if you do decide to have them as your friends on facebook. I would strictly keep it as student teacher thing through facebook like if they were to have questions about homework or if they need help with home work. But I wouldn't even befriend them on facebook just cause it could open the door to a lot of things.

I am friend with some of my teachers and its fine with me. I belies that it depends on the teachers personal opinion weather they add their students. I only ask for request from teachers that I feel are cool and that I personally like. Most of they are young any way I don't add any of my older teachers even if I think they are cool. Another thing that should be considered is that if the teachers accept friend request from students that they should know that they have to be careful about they things that they post on their walls or change their privacy settings when they make a post they don't want their students to see.