1st amendment rights & teachers

[Kevin]

Unless your administration has said otherwise, what is the issue here? My wife's a teacher and her kids IM her, contact her on Myspace/Facebook, etc. I actually think that this sort of out-of-school communication is better than oral communication because there's automatically a record of everything which was said.

The only way I think this is bad joojoo is if your administration has mandated that you may only contact kids in certain ways.

[Educatingblue]

Originally Posted by Kevin

Unless your administration has said otherwise, what is the issue here? My wife's a teacher and her kids IM her, contact her on Myspace/Facebook, etc. I actually think that this sort of out-of-school communication is better than oral communication because there's automatically a record of everything which was said.

I agree that this is a great way to stay connected to the students on "their" level, but with all of the inappropriate teacher/student situations in the news lately, I am very cautious with how I deal with my students. It only takes one time for "John" to get mad about something in class and tell his parents his teacher has been socializing with him outside of school etc.

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by Educatingblue

I agree that this is a great way to stay connected to the students on "their" level, but with all of the inappropriate teacher/student situations in the news lately, I am very cautious with how I deal with my students. It only takes one time for "John" to get mad about something in class and tell his parents his teacher has been socializing with him outside of school etc.

That'd be fine. You could then turn over to your administrator all of the logs which would show nothing even remotely inappropriate.

I should probably add that my wife doesn't teach at an ordinary public school, it's a college-prep charter school. The students and faculty interact a lot more outside of class as compared to anything I've seen at any other school.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by Kevin

That'd be fine. You could then turn over to your administrator all of the logs which would show nothing even remotely inappropriate.

I should probably add that my wife doesn't teach at an ordinary public school, it's a college-prep charter school. The students and faculty interact a lot more outside of class as compared to anything I've seen at any other school.

And if it's normal interaction for the school, then I suspect it's great. But if it's not typical for the school, you may be setting yourself up for something.

While you might not be fired for mere suspicion of impropriety, it does damage to your professional reputation. What logs do you think would completely clear you?

[ASUADPi]

I never actually sent the email. I am not sure how to address my concerns with the inequities. Myself and the other freshmen coach both have a gut feeling that the booster club paid for varsity's stuff, but yet the parents are being asked the "foot the bill" for the freshmen goodie bags.

But hey, my friend who works for UCA said that we can do a camp for a really cheap price, if I can try to get booster club to pay for half of it, I'll call it "even" on the goodie bags

[33girl]

I agree w/ UGA that the Booster Club is overstepping their bounds and should have come to you as the coach first before they did anything. If they want to do something special for the SENIORS ONLY, that's one thing, but that usually happens at the end of the season, not with goodie bags. (Actually, I think the whole concept of goodie bags is silly in general, given how anal girls can be about what products they use.)

To me, the whole email thing is an absolute nonissue. That's like saying if a client calls our president on our president's personal phone line that what he says doesn't count - which of course is ridiculous.

Oh, and is varsity judged by age or by ability?

[epchick]

If teachers sending emails to students is wrong, then there are a few teachers at the cousin's school who need to be reprimanded.

Some of my cousin's teachers email my aunt to essentially "tattle" on my cousin.

[AKA_Monet]

At the University level, they provide us with a website and a "epost" session, kind of like GC forum format. Students can discuss as needed. They can email me and tell me if they are unable to come to class or turning is some homework exercises.

I think discussing extra-curricular activities is different from academics. On some level I would use one exposure with my work email and a personal email for other issues.

[ASUADPi]

What's the kicker is that I was communicating with other adults about the cheer program. Not even with students.

ree-XI: my mom is a frickin teacher too. I think my mom, from the admin courses we are taking, has gone to one extreme where I would be an admin who finds a balance (but I'm not even sure I want to go into admin.)

[BetteDavisEyes]

I'm a teacher as well but the "policing" of teachers is getting ridiculous. From my personal computer, I do whatever the hell I want and it's no one's business what I send and to whom. My teaching partner & I communicate frequently using our personal emails & computers instead of our work emails.

At my old school, we were told that our work computers are monitored frequently. I was then told that I shouldn't be scouring ebay while at work. This was stupid because no one bothered to notice that I was on vacation during this incident so whomever was using my classroom used my classroom computers for ebay shopping but I got the blame.

[ASUADPi]

Originally Posted by BetteDavisEyes

I'm a teacher as well but the "policing" of teachers is getting ridiculous. From my personal computer, I do whatever the hell I want and it's no one's business what I send and to whom. My teaching partner & I communicate frequently using our personal emails & computers instead of our work emails.

At my old school, we were told that our work computers are monitored frequently. I was then told that I shouldn't be scouring ebay while at work. This was stupid because no one bothered to notice that I was on vacation during this incident so whomever was using my classroom used my classroom computers for ebay shopping but I got the blame.

You are so right (with regards to policing of teachers). What about all the other people in the world who are supposed to be "moral"? Don't see society giving them much crap, but yet teachers are expected to be these perfect little creatures and the moment one acts human "bam" its a huge deal. It's really dumb.

My work too monitors our emails and considering I essentially lost my last job because of district email (I was emailing my mom who works in district, she's tenured, I wasn't, so I was forced to resign), so I am pretty more anal about emails. But to have someone tell me what I can and cannot do from my home email is pretty asinine.

My principal was actually my ed. law professor. I'm going to approach him with this topic tomorrow and talk to him as my professor and not as my principal.

As bad as this sounds I kind of what to "shove it in my mom's face" that administrators can't police home emails as she thinks she can (when she becomes an administrator). I love my mom and I don't want her to turn into a heinous bitch of an administrator that I saw her becoming last night.

[UGAalum94]

I think that you can probably be held responsible for any message that you send as a representative of the school system, no matter where or how you send it.

So, since you were speaking as the cheer coach, IF there had been something objectionable about your email, I think you could probably be reprimanded for it. BUT I don't think there's anything wrong with expressing your opinion about goodie bags. As a matter of fact, I think the booster club should have solicited your opinion on this matter before they did anything, to tell you the truth. Things get dysfunctional really quickly on teams and squads for which booster clubs are acting in ways that the coaches don't request or want.

I think, as long as you were professional is what and how you said it, that you did the right thing and there should be no reprimand. Working with and directing the booster club probably actually falls directly within your professional duties in your role as a coach and that not responding to the email probably would have been a problem, unless you spoke to an administrator and they recommended not doing so (which is what we do with crazy people's email at my school).

That said, I don't think that you should be responsible to your district for anything you posted on GreekChat or that you posted just as yourself outside your professional duties.

But personally, I try to be really careful about having lines clearly drawn when I can. If I "friended" my students on facebook, then I'd be mindful that I was presenting myself to them through that medium. My only relationship with them is professional after all. Instead, I keep my profile set to private and can't be found in search, etc. I'll friend kids once they graduate (It amuses me to no end that they want to.), but I try to be careful about what I post on their walls that my current students might see.

Interestingly, our district has eased up a little about using the email system for non-professional purposes. The web we can only use for instructional and appropriate purposes, but the way the email policy reads, they seem to acknowledge that one might need to email a family member about an appropriate but personal matter and that would be acceptable. Basically, it seems to be the same standard that they'd have for the school phones. No one wants to fire you because you called your husband for two minutes at planning, assume the conversation itself wasn't criminal; similarly, you could email. ETA: I should note that they make very clear that nothing on the email system is private and particularly remind people that emails have been sought and used in court cases.

[AGDee]

I agree with UGAalum. If you are acting in an official capacity, that communication can be addressed by your employer no matter how it took place.. face to face, phone, home email or work email. However, if your opinions in the email were expressed in a professional manner, I don't see why it would be a problem anyway. Example "Why the hell does the varsity squad get so much and the freshman get nothing??" vs. "I have concerns about the inequity of the goodie bags among the squads"