Social Networking/Googling Your Teacher

As I began searching the Google and Pipl sites, I had some anticipation as to what I might find. There aren’t exactly hidden skeletons in my closet or anything but you never know what your name could be linked to or what the possibilities hold. I found that the sites only had past addresses of mine or a social networking link that I belong to (i.e. Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/David-Volke/42006773). There is one site link that came up for me that is intriguing and somewhat disturbing. This link http://www.knowfirst.info/forums/showthread.php?t=6225 states that someone with the same name as me had a secret homosexual love affair with the supervising producer of A Current Affair. This is news to me for multiple reasons. One, I’m not homosexual and two, I have never met the supervising producer of A Current Affair. This just goes to show what people could find if they had searched for me because it doesn’t state middle names to discern if this person was me or not. Other than these hits I found some links that pertain to my father as he and I have the same first and last names. He runs marathons and I do not so it was easy for me to tell which ones were his and which were mine.

I don’t have anything to hide as far as what I found on these sites. There isn’t anything damaging to my character or anything that would get me in trouble as a teacher. The only thing I could do is change some of the privacy settings on my Facebook page so that it limits the access of outside people to my information. However, I’m not going to go through everything and hide or “un-tag” photos of myself to protect my identity. I’m allowed to have my own life outside of teaching and I would most assuredly fight any complaint, lawsuit, or firing that might occur because of this. I don’t have any damning photos or anything but there might be some photos of me dancing or holding a drink but I don’t have photos of me being drunk because I rarely drink let alone drink to excess.

According to the article we read titled Have you Googled your teacher lately?, “whether we like it or not, teachers are held to a higher standard of moral behavior than is the population in general.” I think this is true because we as teachers will be setting the example for our students. We can have our own personal lives but we need to be conscious of the fact that we are now representing more than just ourselves. We are representing our school, our district, and the students. I think that people in general should conduct themselves with respect for others but I do not think a teacher’s right of free speech should be sacrificed in its entirety. Teachers should be able to speak their minds as well but they have to realize the consequences and the time and place in which they say things. In the classroom or on a social networking site would probably not be the best places to speak out freely. However, with friends or at home with loved ones are perfectly good places to share whatever you might like. Teachers need to be held to higher standards and conduct themselves with a certain amount of dignity and respect but they also need to have the leeway to be human beings and vent their thoughts and feelings if the need should arise to do so.

The most interesting stories that I read in the article were about teachers being friends on networking sites with their students. As a teacher, you have to maintain a certain level of professionalism in regards to how you conduct yourself with the student body. One aspect of this is to keep your personal life somewhat personal and keep your professional life somewhat professional. I say somewhat because I think that you have to include some personal aspects of your life within the classroom so that your students can feel connected to you enough so that they trust you as a teacher and will willingly learn from you. However, the flip side to that is when people become too close to students. You run the risk of lawsuits and criminal charges when you have personal relationships with students, even if you are just friends. Honestly, our jobs as teachers are not to primarily be a student’s friend but to be a leader and guide through life and their education. The way that I will protect myself from these things is to be friendly to my students but maintain a teacher-student relationship as well. I think I will be using common sense to be aware of potential pitfalls but I try to conduct myself with honor and respect on a daily basis so I will not have to change much in the way of my interactions or socializing.