Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Education

Join the discussion on our Education forum.

Teachers on Facebook?

44 replies

LadyMuck · 11/10/2007 20:34

One of the dcs has a teacher who is in her first year of teaching. She is on Facebook and has published a number of photos of herself, including ones of her in nightwear. Nothing outrageous for a 22yo, but nevertheless slightly odd seeing your son's teacher like that. More than one parent has noticed. Most of her profile is private, so I don't know whetehr in fact she has just overlooked the fact that ther photos are public. Should I drop a hint or stay mum?

OP posts:
LadyMuck · 12/10/2007 23:54

wearing?

OP posts:
worzella · 12/10/2007 23:55

I'm a teacher and I would want to know. I wouldn't have hought she'd be offended - perhaps she's no idea ....?

worzella · 12/10/2007 23:55

sorry - thought.... honestly teachers these days....

LadyVictoriaOfCake · 12/10/2007 23:55

clothes!

i wont add her, thats just odd lol.

LadyMuck · 13/10/2007 00:00

Well a fellow parent has added one of the teachers but I know that they see each other out of school. Definitely wouldn't want her included on my status updates - I am sure that she deduces enough about me from my son's weekly "news". If I message her I think that she can see my profile for a week but there isn't anything embarrassing on there.

OP posts:
mummymagic · 13/10/2007 00:01

If her profile is private she probably hasn't realised that her pics aren't. I would def send her a message via facebook, saying 'your profile came up when facebook scanned my email contacts. When I clicked on your profile I could see all your pictures - did you mean them to be private too?'

I am a teacher and is all private BUT I also am reasonably careful about the information that is out there anyway. All the scaremongering is when you haven't used the appropriate security settings (and aren't careful about who your 'friends' are) IMO.

serenity · 13/10/2007 01:09

LOL, this was my first 'question' on facebook after I accidently found some of the younger teachers from the DCs school. In my case I looked up the school and because they had it down on their profiles, it came up on the search. Everyone who answered thought I should stalk them

kiskidee · 13/10/2007 05:11

if the teacher is using a work email for her facebook settings, she is probably breaking one of the rules for internet use of her employer.

if she has given you a private email as your contact, she is also going against recommended guidance regarding child protection issues - in a roundabout sense of protecting herself.

She needs to know to keep these two aspects of her life separate.

kiskidee · 13/10/2007 05:45

i'd add to speak quietly to her head. you aren't outing her or creating trouble for her but actually doing something to protect her if she has done this through naivete. as an nqt, this is the time too to learn of these mistakes.

it is also about the head protecting (all) staff by giving them the most up to date training on child protection issues which includes the changing face of internet/email use. by statutory guidance all staff should have this training every 5 yrs.

LadyMuck · 13/10/2007 07:50

Am fairly confident that if I went to the head I would be creating trouble for her actually!

OP posts:
TwigorTreat · 13/10/2007 08:50

oh fgs send her an email

say

"Hello

I thought you'd like know that I as a parent have just joined facebook and as I have your address in my email contacts your micro-site popped up.

I don't know if you're aware but there's a photo of you in your nightwear on there, now it doesn't bother me in the least but you might wish to edit your settings so that pupils, other teachers and other parents don't see it.

Hope you don't mind me mentioning but thought you'd prefer to know than not

Regards

xxx"

TwigorTreat · 13/10/2007 08:50

or similar

theresmoretolifethanmotherhood · 13/10/2007 09:33

Yep, that email would do the trick.
I'm a teacher and I certainly wouldn't consider it 'fairly standard' to communicate with parents via email.

mummymagic · 13/10/2007 10:26

I agree also with kiskidee that it's odd that she used her work email for fb. Or that she gave her personal one. She also might want to reconsider putting her current workplace/school on there.

Just tell her. Even if she was offended, she needs to know. Lots of teachers get in serious trouble because they are stupid (give out mobile numbers etc). Tell her.

serenity · 13/10/2007 12:30

I should add that I did mention it to our Head (who is young and approachable and understood that I wasn't bothered for myself, just for them) but only because a couple of them had photos of themselves rather the worse for wear, in bikinis on holiday......I could see that if some of the older children had seen them, it might have caused discipline/respect/ piss taking problems in the class - if they had actually been my DCs teachers (and I knew them better) I might have approached them directly. The Head knew they were on Fb, so I wonder if it was something that had come up before? They haven't changed their settings btw.

bubblerock · 13/10/2007 12:43

Challenge her to a game of scrabulous

duchesse · 13/10/2007 12:55

It's hard work in the first two years of teaching, trying to trim your life and exposure to present only the most authoritative and above-reproach face to the world. Shopping for work clothes for example becomes a major undertaking, as you have basically dress in purdah, gauging hem length, depth of neckline, etc in order not to be in any way alluring to your teenaged charges. As a 22 year old, this teacher may very well have overlooked the implications of being a teacher: that your life is basically no longer your own, that some parents will bay for blood if you so much as show a streak of humanity, and that some of your teenaged boys pupils will feel you are fair game because you are in front of them.

If we want to retain teachers in the profession, especially the young ones, is there any chance we could stop making teachers responsible for all the country's ills, and start actually attempting to instill some morality in our children at home, so that they are able to judge what is right and what is wrong at school without needing to be taught by nuns and robots? Children adequately brought up should be able to tell the difference between right and wrong by the age of 10 in most areas. If they don't, the PARENTS are the ones found wanting, not the teachers.

FWIW, I worked for 2 years at a very technologically advanced sec school: I always gave pupils my email address so that they could ask me questions re homework whenever they needed to. By extension, their parents had my email address. This facility was NEVER abused in any way by any of my pupils, or, surprisingly, by me.

The way things are at the moment (ie hate and abuse campaigns run online against teachers by pupils and parents) I would be more worried about this teacher than her pupils nor any standards of morality. In your place, I would mention it, just in case it is her student days site that she has forgotten to alter...

twinsetandpearls · 14/10/2007 17:55

Is she also on here this will do their profesional reputation no end of good.

twinsetandpearls · 14/10/2007 17:59

I don't think we are making teachers responible for the coutries ills but you do have to mantain standards in your private and public life that stanbd up to scruitiny. For example I know that if I go into town I will see lots of kids that I teach and therefore I behave appropriatly, whihc can mean naything from not snogging dp in public (not that we do anyway) to taking time to talk to parents or kids to not visiting the Anne Summers shop in town.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page