Teachers behaving badly

In Tom Hoffman’s Ed-Tech Insider’s Best Practices blog, he writes:

A Little Tip
If you're a teacher and you want to keep your blogging identity anonymous, don't quote your school website, even if it seems like an innocuous snippet.

I replied

Hi Tom,

I'm looking for an example in which it would be professional/ethical (even necessary) for a teacher to blog anonymously. I can't think of a circumstance.

I can think of lots of circumstances in which anonymous blogging by a teacher would certainly be unprofessional or unethical.

By offering such a "tip," are you enabling unprofessional behaviors?

All the best,
Doug Johnson, MANKATO AREA PUBLIC SCHOOLS
...and who had never published anything anonymously in his life.

I admit that my imagination is limited (at least in some areas) and would welcome any readers of the Blue Skunk to also come up with circumstances under which anonymous blogging is professional or ethical. (I promise to share them with Tom, too, and eat my crow with relish.)

I am coming to the conclusion that any revision of my ethics book will need to contain scenarios of teachers, as well as kids,  behaving badly. Like it or not, my position’s job description, under "other duties as assigned")  includes “ethics and copyright police” – not a job I relish nor always feel very comfortable performing. Among the never-ending and seemingly fruitless practices I try to curb in my district are:

• The use of copyrighted characters painted on walls.
• The use of videos for entertainment/reward purposes without obtaining public performance rights.
• The use of school e-mail accounts for conducting personal business (especially when obtaining a personal account is free and easy.)

Trust me, I don’t go out running around looking for these sorts of things. When I do see them, I am kind and try to explain, in writing, why the bad behaviors are indeed bad, and emphasize that setting a bad example for kids is even worse than being caught and fined. (I keep a copy of the message for what I call my “due diligence” files.)

So what bad teacher behavior bothers you – and how do you try to curb it?

______________

A side note… The LWW has a family in her school who have named their sons Hunter, Trapper and Fisher, which I think is pretty cute. I wonder if they named their daughter Shopper?

Comments

[Tom Hoffman]

Actually, I agree completely that teachers blogging anonymously is a bad idea in general, and I've made that point several times in the past. Rhetorically, I think that "tips" like this are likely to make people think a bit harder about how "anonymous" they really are, and perhaps reconsider their approach.

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Tom,

I'm eating only a crow drumstick, but I do appreciate the clarification. I haven't been reading your blog (or anybody's) for long. A sincere apology for any aspersions I may have cast.

Doug

[Christopher Harris]

Doug,

I am not sure if I am blogging anonymously if I am using my real name but failing to directly attach myself to my place of work. It isn't like it is a secret, there are only 42 school library system directors in the state, only about 10 that would refer to being from Western NY, and...let's be honest, chances are much high they would never be named Hunter, Trapper, or Fisher. I know (since I have tried) that a simple Google search would reveal my employeer to anyone worthy of being called an Infomancer. In fact, I seem to recall that I just couldn't help linking to one of my very cool little projects once.

And yet, even though my employers know that I blog - I have been open with them from the start of this latest blog and share some posts with them - they have asked that I not directly refer to my place of work in the blog. I figure it is their loss since they are missing out on the free publicity where I would otherwise be showing off even more cool things we are up to. But, being an educational service agency that serves 22 districts, we end up having to answer to a lot of customers. Thus staying "officially disconnected" allows me a greater freedom of expression.

So I am not anonymous, but I was asked to refrain from directly involving my employer in my blog. I wish it wasn't the case, but I like being employeed almost as much as I like blogging. Might I suggest some Buffalo Sauce for the crow wings? =)

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Chris,

I understand the dilemma of being both an employee and an individual with the right to free speech. While I've never been asked by my district to limit my writings either in print or digital formats, I do exercise caution about using district experiences as examples, especially negative ones. If I refer to individuals, I either get their permission or am sure there is never enough information that they could be identified.

I don't share my professional writings, as a rule, with my superintendent, unless it is something which really puts the district in a good light or is in another way exceptional such as being published in a prestigous magazine (Kappan) or one that may be read by many others in the district (School Administrator).

I do, rarely, write a letter to either the local or state newspapers. These are always general comments on state, not local, education issues, and so far have not been a problem for my administration.

I don't think anyone in the district has a clue about this blog.

It's quite a balance - one's First Amendment rights and the professional obligation one has to one's employer. Good luck with staying on the tightrope.

Doug

[Laura]

I went to school with six siblings: Thomas, Richard, Harold, Faith, Hope and Charity.

As for blogging anonymously being unethical, I think it depends on what you're blogging. IF you use pseudonyms and disguise where you work, you could be allowing others to learn from your example (eg, "Today, at MPOW,
Johnny X came in drunk and disorderly. How do you handle a class when there's a disruptive person? Well, we blah blah blah" or "In our study of 'Macbeth', Suzie Q said that she 'like, totally didn't get the thing with
Mrs. Mac'. It turns out that blah blah blah"). Many people do that in their writing, so why should blogs be different? I could see a school librarian doing it, using real life examples of reference questions and
classes to show how/why/where/when things should be done, without embarassing the idiot that asked for the phone number for 9-1-1 (a real question asked of someone at NYPL!).

Blogging anonymously to hurt or vent is another question and IS unethical.

Just my $.02.

[Bud Hunt]

Doug --

Thank you for the mention of teachers and anonimity and ethics. When I started blogging, I realized that if I wasn't willing to attach my name to a blog post, then I probably shouldn't be writing whatever it was that I was writing.
Your points about teacher ethics are good, too. I really don't like it when teachers "remix" others' lesson plans without giving credit. I once attended a conference session and was handed a packet that contained a copy of a handout that I created for another session. My name had been deleted -- otherwise, it was the same handout.
Of course, I've used my district e-mail once or twice for personal business. Got any of that crow left?

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Bud,

Well, I think we've all used our school e-mail account for personal business once in a while.

If you follow board guidelines closely, you probably shouldn't use the telephone for local personal business either. But you stop staff from calling to check on their kids, schedule drs appts, etc., can you imagine what that would do to school climate?

Now if people are using e-mail or the telephone so much their job performance suffers, that's another matters.

Thanks for the comment.here's and old http://www.doug-johnson.com/dougwri/didyouhear.html">column about being a little lenient when it comes to teacher uses of tech.

Thanks for commenting.