1) RacyTweets: A teacher in in Auroro, Colorado posted on Twitter messages such as "stay sexy...stay high...stay drunk". See below for an additional tweet made by this teacher.
3) Teachers posts jokes about wishing your students would drown: A grade school teacher in Harlem posted on Facebook that she wished her students would drown, the day after a local student drowned in the ocean.
2) Inappropriate "modeling" pictures posted on Facebook: A teacher in Florida thought it would be a great idea to post racy bikini model pictures on Facebook.
4) Teacher posts inappropriate pictures of students: a substitute teacher posted inappropriate and underage photos on Reddit, an online forum.
5) Photos posted of students mouths covered with duct tape: A teacher in Ohio posted a picture to Facebook of students with duct tape on their mouths, with the message "finally found a way to keep them quiet".
6) Religion teacher encourages students to sleep around before marriage: This same teacher also shared her personal experiences, swore to students, and even posted on Facebook after parent night a highly inappropriate message regarding the parents.
Of course, 99.9% of teachers seem to be making right decisions, and it's unfortunate that some teachers are not able to align common sense, professionalism, and social media.
I wanted to add another one to your list. I heard of a teacher who used SnapChat to text students innocuous classroom photographs. But because the photos disappeared after a set number of seconds, the teacher was undoubtedly putting himself at even greater risk than if he had just used Instagram to send classroom photos. To me, all of it was risky and unwarranted--both the text messaging and sending a photo to individual students, especially via SnapChat. All in all, sounds like a recipe for disaster.
ReplyDeleteWOW! I am still in shock that there really are teachers that thought these things were appropriate in anyway, shape or form. Regardless of what profession you are in, you have to use some common sense when using social media. This makes me think of our digital footprints and how important it is to educate our students about these and the impact on their careers it can have.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree! When I was reading some of these I was thinking that there is absolutely no way that they thought about what they were doing before they acted. As educators we must be the example to our students and follow our own advice. We must think before we post something. What were they thinking?
DeleteI am actually thankful for these instances. It seems like in every instance, a teacher made a mistake and obviously did something they shouldn't have. Social media was just the tool that eventually led to that teacher being caught and reprimanded. Had it not been for social media, the teachers would continue to do these things and share their inappropriate thoughts with others. Do we really want those types of individuals influencing our youth? I understand that everyone makes mistakes and in some instances, these social media mistakes could be used as a learning and growing tool, however in other instances, I appreciate that some teachers are removed from the classroom due to their actions and social media mess ups.
ReplyDeleteSee previous response about facebook- great job on this topic- its true, one bad apple.
DeleteYou provide a point that I had not previously thought about. Social media is the watchdog that keeps us in check. I do agree with your sentiment that Facebook and Twitter can give us the insights to who people really are.
DeleteI agree if not for these instances... we could not pinpoint to the idea that the teacher is the problem. The tool that they used to make these bad judgement calls was social media. These type of things happen in the workforce as well I am sure and it too has impact on the culture. I agree that the watchdog theory is true as well.... always watching and listening. Do teachers not know that it is obvious when they post on facebook in the middle of the school day???? Not sure but I feel that this one is very easy to avoid:)
DeleteAlso,have heard first hand accounts of potential hirees who swore up and down they never used twitter and facebook inappropriately, and all of a sudden, a search is done- and it is a profanity laced stream of tweets and very juvenile responses to some really of the color subjects... stupid is as stupid does
ReplyDeleteExactly! Why bother lying about something that is so easily found? People, mostly adults, too, often think that what they put online is safe just because their account is set to private. Think again!
DeleteIt just goes to show why we have to teach digital literacy. People can easily be misconstrued by the word "private". Nothing is really private. Anyone at anytime can take a picture of your page or make a copy of it on their computer and send it to anyone they want. It happens all the time.
DeleteIt is a shame that so many people can post such stupid or inappropriate things on the internet, yet, in some ways it is laughable- I can't believe how such a lack of common sense can be found in people who are supposed to be professionals! These are the types of things that used to be done "behind closed doors," and Facebook or other social media sites has opened the doors to the world.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who did not grow up with Facebook, does anyone think that some digital natives--ones who are not thinking things through, obviously--are just used to throwing information about themselves out there slapdash? Sometimes I am so surprised at what my children's friends posted to social media during their high school years, both text and images. We've also experienced a "coarsening of the culture," and norms have shifted so much. Do you think that the teachers in the article's examples have lost their way partly because the cultural norms have shifted, and what used to be seen as clearly inappropriate is now sometimes seen as humorous?
DeleteUnfortunately, this one falls under the category that nothing really surprises me anymore. Whenever I hear of cases like this, I try to put myself in the person's shoes and rationalize their thought process. I usually come up baffled. Social media has provided a Big Brother component to our society. When you put something out on the WWW, it is there for the world to see. Many seem to forget this point.
ReplyDeleteFunny...was thinking the same thing! Not much surprises me either! It seems as though... there is almost always someone that will do something like these incidents and get caught. I am not sure that you can find clarity in these choices.
DeleteThese things seem crazy to me! Do they seem this way to anyone else? I feel like before I ever post anything on Schoology or do anything where I am posting something, I ALWAYS try to think if what I am posting could be misconstrued. As I am reading these things, there is no way if you ask yourself that question, you could say yes. What I worry more than these things is the misunderstandings that happen out there. I believe this is why I am so cautious. I think this is one of the main reasons that teachers are not a fan of using social media.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Dion that this is the reason so many teachers are so cautious when it comes to social media. However, maybe this is a good thing? I feel like we so many times tell our students to think before they speak - we now need to make sure we model the behavior of thinking before we tweet. It is key we model this to students.
DeleteAs I mentioned in my blog post, it's not the technology that makes the bad decisions. It's the users of the technology that make bad decisions. Most of the time, teachers that behave inappropriately online, also behave inappropriately offline. I think social media makes it easier to expose these inappropriate teachers and I believe that is a good thing.
ReplyDelete