Today in class we talked a lot about a few topics that interested me. (Teachers using myspace/facebook, and students losing interest in reading being a few)
When it comes to teachers and having online profiles, I think it is ok for teachers to be involved with facebook or myspace, or whatever site, as long as they are appropriate for anyone to see. I personally use these sites to keep in touch with people I otherwise would not have seen or spoken to maybe for for years, and I don't think being a teacher should take that away. I've had teachers who were online and were very professional about it; they did not reveal anything offensive and did not talk about behavior that might be looked down upon. They used it to keep in touch with students after the school year, or if they needed extra help via e-mail. I think it is probably the best and safest idea to simply delete your online sites when you are a teacher, but I think I would do everything I could do to keep it. My myspace, for example, is set to private. I made it so that you can't find me in a search, you can only see my profile if you are my friend, and I disabled most of the links on my page. The pictures I have posted are completely innocent. If teachers keep a clean appearance and don't do anything offensive there shouldn't be a problem.
I thought a lot about students and how less are reading for enjoyment nowadays. I think technology has a lot to do with students not wanting to read recreationally. When i think of reading I think of books, not necessarily spending hours on myspace or IMDB (which I am guilty of doing). I work at Barnes and Noble, where I get a lot of kids coming in with assignments for book reports, and they are always looking for the shortest and easiest stories, and preferably a book that can be found on SparkNotes. The parents always complain that television and video games take up their free time. I notice that more kids are reading because they have to, not because they want to. I was reading on my own at age 3; my parents would always read to me because they knew it was very important, so at a young age I enjoyed reading because it was not yet a "chore." Even though throughout school I hated reading most of the things I was assigned, I still liked reading the things I wanted. I think teachers should try to motivate students to read. They can find out what their studens are interested in and start from there. Parents should do the same thing, whether it is a book store or the school library, I think they should tell their kids to find a book they would like to read based on their interests, while limiting their time on playing video games and watching tv.
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2 comments:
Yes, I DEFINITELY agree. It is a free world, we as future teachers should be able to keep our social networks. It is how you come across as a professional that sculpts how you are as an individual.
the public image is part of the job and i think to market yourself in the proper way is also important to an employer as the community aspect is important
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