We live in an age of social networks and the very art of teaching is an essentially social and communicative one. To move on we need to engage with the pupils on a level that they do, and if this involves VLEs, social networks and whatever else they (and we) are communicating by then what sort of school would choose to get in the way of that?

Well most of them it seems!

Surely it is trying to bury your head in the sand if you don’t engage in communications online and try and restrict internet use to looking stuff up as if it were a book. We have entered an age where finally all this theoretical educational theory about group dynamics that we are taught when teacher training is happening on a global level! And we are getting rid of the best practitioners of this from schools because the management are terrified through essentially ignorance of the technologies capabilities.

GRRRRRRRRRR!

It’s so frustraitng! Anyway, as Kate Says, “I’ll never fit in” here and so as of next September I’ll be leaving the profession as I think that it still has a long way to come before people like us can be accepted as the norm.

Although I encourage a more aggressive level of exposure and openness between student and teacher, I don’t think even I have ever advocated sharing everything. There are many things that are simply not appropriate to share.

I am simply arguing that we need not have this paranoid vision of hiding our online lives for fear of repercussions. If we value teaching these We 2.0 tools than we must value authentically using them as users as well as teachers. This level of web interdependence will be problematic in the years to come. We need to be having these discussions now. Who we are online should reflect who we are in the classroom. I am not saying we should link all of our sites to our students, but we should not fear being found, especially if what we have out there is a reflection of who we are.

I have never been a fan of superficial professionalism, especially in education. School is about building and maintaining relationships. Like all relationships, teachers must be able to negotiate how much they need to give in order to build trust. I have experience that the more open I am with students about my thoughts, my ideas, my likes and dislikes, the more inspired and passionate our learning communities become. It is unfair to expect students to express themselves fully in poetry, essays, and class discussion when their teacher is some old man they know nothing about.

So to answer your question: How much of yourself is appropriate to reveal to students?

As much as is necessary. As for Do we have a responsibility to be a quality role-model for our students? Of course we do, but one person’s role model is another person’s moral corruption. I think about the type of teachers I hope my daughter will have…and the role model I envision for her is very different then the traditional teacher model being forced down our throats.

None of my comments were directed toward @mscofino. I know first hand that she is an inspiring and amazing educator. Tone can be difficult to convey in text.

My question is: How much of yourself is appropriate to reveal to students?

I agree that you need to be yourself, I agree that we (as educators) need to demonstrate diversity, I agree that we need to be individuals and revel in our passions as role models for our students. However, I disagree that we should share everything we are with impressionable students. I think we need to think before we speak and post - both in our professional and personal lives, if we are sharing both with our students.

Do we have a responsibility to be a quality role-model for our students? That may include making visible mistakes and sharing aspects of our personal life, but again, how much is appropriate?

This is my second challenge. I do the daily thing for about three days, then branch off and do my thing. I get to the tasks, but it is very much in my own time. I frequently have to think about them and how they will impact my day to day interaction with my blog and others. I’m not looking to check off the task, but to really consider how it might work for me, or not.

That said, I do get a lot of value from watching others process and doing as much as I can in my own way.

Guess artists just have to be creative?