Is technology in the classroom a good or bad thing? That all depends on how the technology is being used. As long as computers, cellphones, etc are being put to proper use in the classroom, then there should be no problem with their presence. Technology in schooling should be used for educational purposes only. However, if these things are not being used properly by staff and students, then your job may be at risk!
If teachers are using social media, things can get exceptionally tricky. It is so very important that educators, or any professional for that matter, are careful with what they post on the internet. In the Global Educator, a collaborative learning and teaching book, the author explains that an educators presence on social media is acceptable but only if they are being careful with what they say! I understand social media is generally used to express likes/dislikes, and feelings but as a professional you need to kept your site professional! I found an ABC news article, http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/facebook-firing-teacher-loses-job-commenting-students-parents/story?id=11437248, in which a teacher is fired for misuse of technology. Unfortunately, June Talvitie-Siple, a Massachusetts high-school teacher, broke this professional boundary by posting about her students and their parents on her Facebook wall. What a huge mistake! According to the article, June “was forced to resign … after parents spotted Facebook comments she wrote describing students as “germ bags” and parents as “snobby” and “arrogant” (abcnews.go.com). The teacher tried to stand by what she did, saying that she thought her Facebook was private so only friends and family could see what she was saying. Even if that was the case, it is never okay to bad-mouth your students on the internet!
Lately in media, I have seen a large amount of videos going around where teachers are being caught on camera doing/saying unthinkable things to their students. For a long time, there was a video going around of a teacher fighting one of their students, also there was one of a gym teacher dragging one of his students into a pool; unfortunately the list goes on and on. Through the usage of cellphones in the class, students are able to video tape/record anything and everything. Through the use of apps such as Snap Chat, they can take a video and post it immediately for the internet to see. In Baltimore, a teacher was caught getting verbally aggressive with one of her students and she actually began making racial slurs at the child. The video starts with her screaming at a student, and ends with her calling her kids stupid, and the N-word. To watch this monstrosity of a video and read the Baltimore Suns article, you can visit: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/bs-md-ci-teacher-video-20161117-story.html. Although this teacher 100% deserved to be fired, if she was not caught doing this vulgar act, no one would have proof of how she treats her students. Cellphones in the classroom will certainly get you fired if you act equivalently to this teacher.
My last example of how to get fired does not involve an article, but more-so a personal experience. In high school, I had a specific teacher who obviously did not care much about her job nor her relations with students. Whenever she did not want to teach, she would have us play board games instead. As we played games instead of learning, she would surf the internet. She would be on Facebook, YouTube, or she would be playing games like solitaire, etc. The principle came into our classroom one day, but the way our classroom is set up there was a front entrance and a back entrance. My teachers desk had its back towards the back entrance so if someone came in quite enough she would not be able to tell. Needless to say, our principle was in shock by the obnoxiously loud classroom, where no work was getting done, and the teacher with head phones in watching YouTube videos. She did not have ten year, so she was fired and replaced by someone new. As educators we need to remember that technology is not always our friend!
Your blog post is incorrect. I never called my students germ bags. That is a misquote of my facebook posting that has been going around. I posted that I had been sick for about 6 weeks with three different illnesses and I had been on three different antibiotics. I posted that “kids” are germ bags. That included my own daughter. It would be great if people would get their facts straight before writing stupid blogs about others.
Regardless, should a teacher be posting ANY thing about their students or profession on the internet? I think not.