Whether you agree with this path of least resistance and prefer some other course of action so as to amicably resolve the potential problem, there is one thing you should most certainly not do: act shady about being Facebook friends with your students by telling them to keep it on the down-low or, worse, set up fake accounts altogether in order to befriend students.

A couple of teachers in England apparently missed this policy memo and are now being investigated for maintaining inappropriate relationships with students via Facebook. One teacher who, incredibly, exchanged comments with a former pupil about posing for erotic photos over a webcam received a 12-month suspension. Another teacher received a reprimand for using a decoy account in order to interact with students via Facebook.

This isn’t exactly breaking news because everybody knows there are creeps on the Internet. That’s not even to say that these teachers are explicitly creeps; they could very well be decent humans who just happened to make some very questionable decisions this time. It happens. It’s happened in the United States, it’s surely happened elsewhere, and it’s a pretty safe bet that it will continue happening in places. But if you’re doing something that makes you self-conscious enough to try to obfuscate your actions, then what you’re doing is more than likely not a good thing.

In the world of journalism, there’s this thing called a breakfast test. It goes like this: when determining whether the material you’re about to publish is appropriate, you ask yourself, “Would this be too shocking for someone to read while eating breakfast in the morning?” The metric here is that if the material is offensive enough to cause someone to choke on their Cheerios or spit out their bacon, then you probably shouldn’t publish it.

Similarly, if you’re a teacher, consider how some of your colleagues would pass the breakfast test if they were to discover in the morning news some day that you’re being investigated for how you’ve been corresponding with your students on Facebook. If you think your colleagues might require the Heimlich maneuver upon hearing the news, then you might want to re-evaluate the importance of those Facebook interactions with your students.

Florida teacher Jerry Buell stepped on a mine last month when he made some anti-gay comments on his Facebook page. He has been suspended from the classroom and reassigned pending investigation by the school board, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

He was once voted “Teacher of the Year.”

In a post on July 25th about the recent legalization of same-sex marriage in New York, Buell said that he “almost threw up” when he heard the news.

In that same post, he elaborated on his feelings about same-sex marriage, calling them “a sin” and making reference the the practice as a “cesspool.” I can’t imagine what he would have had to say about the possible Bert & Ernie marriage on Sesame Street.

Buell contended that he was within his rights to say what he wanted to say on his own time, from his own personal computer. “It wasn’t out of hatred,” he said. “It was about the way I interpret things.”

Here’s that problem with Buell’s defense: it doesn’t fly in many states, especially Florida. The Lake County School District has already come up with social media guidelines that discuss what teachers can and cannot post on their private Facebook pages.

The guidelines, among other things, warn teachers that they should “delay posting until you are calm and clearheaded. If you feel angry of passionate about the subject, it may not be the time to share your thoughts in a post.”

A Facebook page has already been created in support of Buell, entitled “Support Jerry Buell; Mount Dora High School Teacher of the Year Suspended.” Although the page only has a handful of likes, there is plenty of chatter on its wall about the situation.

Should employers have the right to fire employees based solely on comments posted to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter? Of course, it’s probably not a great idea to call your boss a dick on Facebook (especially if you’re friends with them), but if he fires you for it, do you have a complaint?

The National Labor Relations Board has taken up numerous cases of wrongful termination based on Facebook posts. One recent example involved a woman fired from an ambulance company for called her boss a scumbag on Facebook. She won a settlement before it could go to trial.

Or course, teachers are held to a higher standard by most – since they work with children. And with many school boards adopting social media policies, teachers might have to learn to keep their mouths shut.

Imagine the type of impact comments like this would have on the classroom environment if students were to catch wind of them. Sure, some Buell supporters would claim that he has a free speech right to express his opinions via social media – but since those comments could affect his ability to properly execute his job, should he be allowed to make them?

That question is most likely one of the reasons a new Missouri law is trying to ban teachers and students from being friends on Facebook.

The topic of free speech on social media sites was tested the other way recently when a judge ruled that a school had violated two teenage girls’ rights by punishing them for racy pics posted on Myspace.

Should teachers be allowed to voice their opinions, however controversial, on social media sites? Or should their speech be limited due to the nature of their job? Let us know what you think.

  Users can help teachers receive funding for projects by making Yahoo their homepage. The Yodel Anecdotal blog offers more details. “Through Yahoo Homepages for Homerooms, public school teachers are eligible to receive funding from Yahoo if they have a project posted on DonorsChoose.org, a renowned education nonprofit through which public school teachers can request funds for needed classroom items – books, art supplies, a projector, you name it!."

“Yahoo will provide full project funding (up to $600 per project) to the projects that receive the most Yahoo.com homepages. We’ll fund up to $350,000 by the end of the year.”

Yahoo Homepages for Homerooms runs from November 19 through Dec 23.

Astrid Czubayko-Reiss, said her privacy was violated by the site, spickmich.de (roughly translated, checkmeout.de) where she received unfavorable ratings from students.

"The right of students to exchange opinions and communicate freely outweighs the right of the teacher suing to determine information available about her," the court in the southwestern city of Karlsruhe said.

"The opinions expressed are neither abusive nor insulting," the court said. "The plaintiff did not show that she had been harmed in any specific way."

The website allows students to rate teachers anonymously in categories including "cool and funny," "popular," "motivated," "relaxed," and "teaches well."

Czubayko, had received an overall grade of 4.3 or a "D." She had lost two previous cases before lower courts and appealed to the German High Court.

The German Teachers’ Association was critical of the ruling.

"It is inexplicable that the BGH values the personal rights of teachers less than an anonymous assessment of teachers by students on the Internet," Association president Josef Kraus said, referring to the federal court.
 

Four of the teachers have been disciplined for posts involving "poor judgment and bad taste," spokeswoman Nora Carr told the Charlotte Observer.

Unbelievably one teacher in the district posted on Facebook that one of her activities was "teaching chitlins in the ghetto of Charlotte" and listed one of her hobbies as drinking. In her "About Me" section she wrote, "I am teaching in the most ghetto school in Charlotte."

Superintendent Peter Gorman has recommended the teacher be fired. Currently the teacher is suspended with pay and the dismissal is not final because teachers have the right to an appeal. The name of the teacher has not been released until a final decision has been made in the case.

District officials are crafting a memo reminding all 19,000 employees that what they post on social networking sites that can be viewed by the public should be appropriate. "When you’re in a professional position, especially one where you’re interacting with children and parents, you need to be above reproach," Carr said.

Amazingly the teachers under fire did not use the option on Facebook that blocks public viewing of their pages.  "I think they just didn’t think these things through," Carr said. "That’s kind of mind -boggling."

One Montgomery County special education teacher displayed a poster that depicts talking sperm and invokes a slang term for oral sex. One woman who identified herself as a Prince William County kindergarten teacher posted a satiric shampoo commercial with a half-naked man having an orgasm in the shower. A D.C. public schools educator offered this tip on her page: “Teaching in DCPS — Lesson #1: Don’t smoke crack while pregnant.”

Shocking, huh?

I know you’re expecting me to now drone on about the importance of ensuring you have a clean online reputation and some bullet-points on how these teachers can protect their jobs, but I’m not going to.

Here’s why.

Should these teachers conduct themselves online with the same high standards they conduct themselves in the classroom? Absolutely! But, in the real world, we often have corners of our lives where we let our hair down and depart from the roles we play in our work environment. I’m sure each of you could name at least one incident in the past 5 years that you’d rather your employer not know about–we all could.

So yes, school officials should pull up the social networking profiles of the teachers they employ. And, if they find something illegal or likely to impact the teacher’s ability to teach and protect the children under his care, they should consider disciplinary action. However, they should also apply some common sense. We do indeed live in a Radically Transparent world, but its not the behavior of teachers that has changed in the past 5 years; its our ability to watch their behavior that has changed. If you think young teachers haven’t conducted themselves inappropriately on the weekends for, say, the last hundred years, you’re living in denial.

So, should we let teachers off the hook? Should we simply dismiss their rambunctious behavior? That depends. I like the sensible approach taken by the National Education Association:

If they can prove that no one at school complained about the page, then they might prevail in a personnel dispute “because there would be no evidence of any real or potential harm to the students or school,” he said.

And maybe the answer is not to judge the teachers. Maybe the burden should be on the parents. After all, if you’re letting your kids view social networking profiles that include a “half-naked man having an orgasm in the shower” then maybe you should be the one who’s role–as a parent–is scrutinized.

In summary…

If a tree falls in the woods, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a noise?

Likewise, if a teacher posts a photo of themselves getting drunk, and you don’t let you children view it, does it matter?

(Further reading: Over at Capitol Valley, Andrew Feinberg shares his thoughts on why passionate employees should be judged by their work, not their play.)

(image credit)

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Teachers unions with the backing of the education ministry took the site to court, saying the personal comments were a breach of privacy and an "incitement to public disorder." The site note2be.com was created in January by French entrepreneurs, allowed students to rate and discuss their teacher’s abilities.

The judges in the case took the side of the teachers and said the Web site could no longer rate teachers by their names and any violation would require the sites owners to pay a $1,520 (1,000 euro) fine.

"This is an astonishing and surprising decision that has worrying implications for the development of the Web," said Stephane Cola, who co-founded the site, Reuters reported. "The ranking and evaluation of professionals on the Web is a fundamental principle and a primary motor of the Internet around the world," he told reporters after the verdict.

The teachers unions praised the verdict. "We are totally satisfied by this ruling," said Francis Berguin, the head of the SNES teachers’ union. "It is not up to pupils to mark their own teachers and certainly not on a commercial Web site," he told LCI news channel.

Note2be.com allowed students to rate their teachers in six areas including, how interesting, clear, fair, available, respectful and motivated they were. It also featured a ranking system to reward France’s top 10 teachers.

Education Minister Xavier Darcos voiced approval of the court verdict saying he," totally supported teachers whose difficult mission will not be the object of anonymous attacks on the Internet".

On the Google LatLong Blog, Anna Bishop writes, "We know that the last thing teachers have is tons of free time to spend learning about new teaching tools.  That’s why I’m thrilled to point out some new YouTube video tutorials that offer up basic tricks for using Google Earth and can serve as inspiration for lesson plans. . . .  [I]t’s our hunch that educators will find them particularly useful."

Now, whether the move is sneaky or not, it sounds like a good idea.  Google Earth is the sort of thing that’ll cause kids to say "oh, cool," and that’s an important step in the learning process.  If teachers can get familiar with Google Earth in less than ten minutes, all the better.

So Bishop continues, "These short clips (there are 5 total) will walk you through some of the most popular features in Google Earth. . . .  More videos are in the works, and, of course, the Google Earth User Guide is also a great training resource.  We hope that you’ll soon be developing and sharing your own educational content just like these awesome literary field trips!"

And that’s Google for you – keeping one eye on improving the world and another on its market share.  Hey, whatever works.

Yahoo Teachers bills itself as “easy-to-use” and “designed by and for teachers.”  You will, to be honest, be hard-pressed to find any social network that doesn’t make similar claims.  But I’m a dog person; I am not, to understate the matter, a “child” person.  So I can believe that teachers, after spending a full day among students, would enjoy a little interaction with their peers.

Furthermore, an early version of the site received a positive write-up from Ars Technica’s Thomas Wilburn.  A “presentation at the recently concluded UX Week on the web application, while still revealing a few rough edges, was an intriguing look at high-tech solutions for the most unglamorous side of teaching: the lesson plan,” he stated.

Wilburn later added, “While showing the application, both Weber and Scott noted that its development had been eased considerably by the use of existing widgets as a ‘guerrilla’ development process . . . .  They praised this approach, noting that they were able to put the tool in front of educators and then tweak it nightly as they got feedback during the day.”  Weber and Scott, by the way, are Karon Weber, Yahoo’s principal designer, and Bill Scott, Yahoo’s Ajax evangelist.

This feedback hasn’t resulted in a final product, however; portions of the Yahoo Teachers homepage still say things like “Get ready!  It’s coming…” and “Sign up now to be among the first to know about the public release.”  Given that a new school year has already started in most places, I’d wager that it could be at least several more months before a launch occurs.

Tripod for Teachers offers classroom templates, building tools and hosting services for teachers to create a Web site. Tripod allows teachers to post homework assignments, provide links to Web sites for references, host class photo albums, field trip videos and blog with parents.

"Education is the fifth most popular topic with our millions of Tripod members, and we are thrilled that more and more teachers are turning to Tripod to access our easy-to-use site building tools to aid them in their classrooms," said Don Kosak, chief technology officer for Lycos. 

"Lycos is proud to be able to offer educators the opportunity to utilize our award-winning building and blogging tools to better connect with the audiences that are most important to them."

Tripod for Teachers directs educators to site building tutorials, offer guides to building Web sites, blogs and photo albums. It also offers customizable Sitebuilder templates to build a Web site. Tripod’s Blog Builder tools allow teachers to communicate publicly or privately.

"Tripod has made a huge impact in my classroom, especially in the communications between myself, students and parents," said New York teacher Heidi McCasland.  "I discovered Tripod more than five years ago and have been using it in my classroom ever since, and spreading the word to colleagues across the country as well."