"Have you googled your teacher lately?"

“Have you googled yourself lately?” I did and I did not find myself online. This was not surprising to me because I do not have a myspace or facebook account. I have always thought of my future teaching career and made sure that nothing inappropriate has been posted.

“While judgments about whether or not personal information should be publicly displayed cannot be based on personal feelings or underlying moral or religious beliefs,' predictable legal interpretations have not, yet been firmly established. Moreover, the choices teachers make about what to post must be influenced by the context of the, diverse communities in which they work”.(Carter, Foulger, Ewbank, 2008)

Teachers should be advocates of free speech however teachers should realize that they are role models for their community. Teachers have the right to a personal life but, once they have posted blogs or social networking pages they have placed their personal information in a public space. Many teachers many disagree that they should be able to post anything to the web, but they must realize that their actions implicate all teachers. When teachers are using social networking sites they have the options to set those sites to private, which still allows them the ability to communicate with their family and friends. As for blogging, teachers my find this an excellent outlet to raise community awareness or advocate for education. However, they should keep in mind that their students or their parents might stumble across their pages. If teachers consciencely keep in mind who might see their posting, they might be more apt to post community acceptable items.

“No matter how significant the outcome, these cases create lasting opinions about individuals and affect the entire profession.” (Carter, Foulger, Ewbank, 2008)

Teachers are a community. One teacher’s action has an effect on a communities respect for other teachers. Being a teacher is a powerful position that impacts children’s lives. As teachers we should value this opportunity. An unspoken assumption is that all teachers should hold a certain level of moral standards and never fall prey to inappropriate behavior. This is an unrealistic expectation, but teachers should strive to be positive influences in their community. The importance of education should be valued by a community and teachers must realize that their inappropriate actions might degrade a whole community’s respect for all teachers and education.

As a teacher I am going to be aware that I am under the public’s microscope. I have already chosen not to use social networking sites and I have asked friends and family to be cautious when posting a picture of myself on their pages. When I am at school I plan to only use school computers and school email for work purposes. As a future health teacher I also plan on doing all my research from my home computer, because when you are searching health related material it is easy to end up on an inappropriate websites. By using these precautions I hope that I am able to keep myself out of trouble.