To follow child's teacher on twitter?

[Yellowskies1988]

Shes my sons SEN teacher at special school. I use twitter a bit and she had liked something from a local page that I follow. Her profile isn't private.

Obviously we speak at school twitter is, I feel a bit more relaxed than Facebook if that makes sense to anybody. Facebook is more photos where twitter is more of a forum.

Just wondering what you guys think or if you have any experience

I wouldn't. Yes, teachers are normal people with normal lives outside of school hut I think adding them on social media crosses a line and could out them in an awkward position professionally if problems were to arise from it in future (e.g., posting something a parent disagrees with or feeling pressured to share information about the school, etc).

No absolutely not, bad idea

It won’t end well

Oh god don’t do this. Obviously everything she puts out there is public but she’s a person with a whole life that I can guarantee she doesn’t want you to really know about.

Am SEN teacher. None of us want parents following us on fb or Twitter or insta. You wouldn’t follow the person who serves you in the bank or your gp would you? It’s the same here. Keep the relationship professional.

Twitter is a public site, she wants people to follow her. I think it's fine.

Yes. She should not post anything she would not be comfortable with you seeing.

Please, please don't. She won't appreciate it.

Nope. Don’t do it. She won’t want a parent following her.

I'm a teacher and I use Twitter only for work stuff. If I were using it for personal stuff I would lock down my account.

Nope. It'd be creepy.
Also she's unwise to let herself be identified on twitter. Our school/local authority's social media policy didn't allow it. Likewise our FB pages had to be friends only, we weren't allowed to mention where we worked, and we weren't allowed to have parents as FB friends except in particular circumstances (maybe a parent was also a relative of a teacher)

If she’s posting educational & SEN related stuff then I dont see why not. I used to follow my university lecturers, they were there in a professional capacity (or at least semi professional). If she’s tweeting about personal interests then no.

I mention where I work all the time, but it is an account I only use professionally. If it is a work account, there is no problem following. If it is personal, she or he should have locked it down.

It would just be so inconsiderate. Please do not. What if another parent sees you, or an SLT member, and they decide it's inappropriate? She should not accept you following her, or it may be against her school's IT policy. So it's a choice of her awkwardly rejecting your request, or potentially getting a disciplinary!

Our school asked us to follow our DC teachers on Twitter so we can show things we are doing and then the DC get a nice comment from their teacher. He also shares ideas and things they have been doing. I also follow my DD's pastoral care teacher, the principal and the PE teacher. They all leave messages and the PE teacher does challenges every day.

Just no, I am surprised her account is not private and equally surprised you are considering it. You need to stick to professional boundaries here.

I'm fine with parents following me. That's how social media works. If you want a personal account, use privacy settings. No teacher is unaware of this.

If it's all about school and education then yes. Otherwise no.

Underthecedartree those will be specially created work accounts, not their actual private preexisting accounts. Please don't do this, it's crossing a boundary and invading her personal life. I'm a teacher and would be horrified if I parent tried to me on social media

Overwhelming no on that one. 👍