How Social Should We Be on Social Media?

My current school’s policy on social media is to be as private as possible due to the fact that children are aged 4-14, Pre-K through 8^th grades, and we respect Illinois state law concerning child safety. Therefore, we use a private platform through “My Backpack.” Here, teachers are able to communicate important information to parents by posting blogs, important letters, and other vital information such as grades or other notifications. Besides this, we also use Seesaw, which is a social networking application where teachers create a private file for each student and we can tag their children in pictures, videos, or ebooks that we create with our kids. For example, our last project was to do an interview with “Willy Wonka” in the A.V. Studio. I dressed up in a top hat and the 1^st graders asked me questions as though they won a golden ticket and got to be inside my factory. We used a green screen and camera equipment, then we helped the kids push the videos on to See Saw so that they could enjoy seeing themselves next to a chocolate river, interviewing with a mic in hand. Internet tools like these have propelled student learning, as well as teacher/parent relationships in a positive way; thus, allowing us to partner in their child’s learning. No longer are students able to go home and tell their parents that they didn’t learn or do anything cool at school that day. Now, their parents are able to see what they do throughout the day and have meaningful conversations about it.

(https://dancingintheraine.wordpress.com/2012/05/21/35-charlie-and-the-chocolate-factory-by-roald-dahl/) 

Teachers are held accountable for protecting student information and making sure that anything posted on the web is private and password protected. We are cautioned against adding parents on social media and can definitely not add our students, unless they are no longer a part of our school and are alumni. However, as a private school there are plenty of social functions where teachers and parents are able to interact. Personally, I believe it is best to uphold a professional relationship with parents and not blur the boundaries of friendship. My mission is to teach, while also maintaining a personal life, which I would prefer people in the school community not be able to see. There are teachers that have really great relationships with parents on social media, but depending on the person, one is either public or private, or a combination of the two. I feel that I am more on the private side, only adding coworkers and students that have graduated and are over the age of 18.

(jcscocialmarketing.com)

Three guidelines that I would suggest for social media guidelines/ best practices, and my current school already follows are: sharing content on school sponsored applications only that are private and password protected, not posting any media of a child until a parent has signed a consent form and will be used on the school webpage only if included in any online advertisement, or school advancement, and lastly, making sure children are not exposed to any lewd content that the school doesn’t believe in, or coincide with their mission and school culture.

(theodysseyonline.com)

Here is a link to my school’s webpage and mission statement: https://www.catherinecookschool.org/about/mission