kids being friends with teachers on facebook

[memoo]

Am I the only one who things this is weird?

I use to work in a primary school, stopped last year after having dd.

I have lost count of the number of students from the school (some now in high school) who have requested me as a friend.

I have also seen teaching staff that I am friends with that have pupils from school as their friend on facebook.

Surely this is inappropriate?

Kids should not be requesting the friendship in the first place but the teacher/TA shouldn't be accepting them.

If I found out one of my children was friends with their teacher on FB I would be complaining to the school

The teacher/TA is leaving themselves open to all kind of allegations

I know some teachers who have 2 accounts, one with pupils and parents. If I was teaching secondary, I would do the same, useful way to get hold of them and hassle them about coursework.

As it happens, I have a couple of ex parents and two ex pupils on my FB, but the children have PMLD and so their pages are updated by their parents for their family and friends to see how they are. Since I am genuinely interested in how they are getting on, I am happy to have them as friends.

My cousin is a teacher in secondary school (here in Norway). There is no policy against it here, but teaching staff is advised on their privacy settings, and advised to not use facebook actively if they DO have pupils as friends. Ie, no photos, no wall postings, etc, or to use Limited profiles. So to her students, my cousins fb page is very dull indeed. (I think she has them grouped and under a limited profile)

She says it is great. She gets a real look into their minds, get to nip any bullying in the bud, knows who has a crush on who, knows who feels depressed and unable to cope, knows which student has problems with their parents, etc...

But while she has been able to guide her students and point them in the direction to professional or other help on occasion, it blures the lines between "social worker" and teacher. To what extent should a teacher be involved in a students welfare and wellbeing?

Don't you have an IT use policy or similar at your school which covers this? The amount of teachers' disciplinary hearings I've worked on that have involved Facebook, some teachers need to wake up and smell roses.

yanbu if they are still young, but I am friends with some of my old teachers now.. I am in my 20's now though and I do talk to them alot as I would any of my friends.

"I know some teachers who have 2 accounts, one with pupils and parents. If I was teaching secondary, I would do the same, useful way to get hold of them and hassle them about coursework."

Our school has started last year a site called VLE (virtal learnig something) Each school can make their own . It is a website only accessible by the pupils and their parents by typing in the correct adress (you cannot access it by googleing VLE ). You can communicate with the teachers and the children to communicate with each other or the teacher, There are also links to educational sites for the children and a space to ask question about homework... It is safe and fantastic IMH because there is no way the children can be confronted too rudness or non child friendly material (DS wrote someting about a peacock he had seen on the way to school and the cock got blackened)

I think that is the way foreward at least fir children of primary age.

too rudeness!

I'm a deputy head in a secondary school and we instruct teachers not to accept friend requests from students and not to give students mobile phone numbers etc.

VLEs (virtual learning environments - aka managed learning environments) are becoming very common now and, as described by a previous poster, offer opportunities for the kinds of professional online contact which is desirable between staff and students.

In the light of all of this; where children have had friend requests accepted by members of staff it's worth querying as most teachers and TAs recognise the boundaries and the need for them.

I'm glad you've said that Unrulysun, I'm a bit surprised at the number of teachers who are obviously allowing pupils as Facebook friends.

My friend who is a secondary school teacher came off facebook entirely for precisely this reason. And even with all the privacy settings in the world, she just couldn't risk any of them getting to see any of her drunken, debaucherous pics etc!

Very wrong. I still can't get my head round my mum being on there...

YANBU, but then I'm really against Primary age children being on FB, unless heavily supervised.

Leaves them wide open to being bullied, at an age when social confidence is very fragile and also seeing inappropriate stuff, IMO

I would think it most odd if a teacher was friending their pupils on FB.

I have two female friends who teach, and both use their maiden names on FB so they are not searchable by their pupils.