NY Sun reporter Lauren Mechling wrote a piece on Tuesday about NY teachers blog after school.
Most of the teacher bloggers who corresponded with The New York Sun said chances of parents’ or students’ finding their sites were nil, but the teacher who runs Ahora Vamos A Contar wrote in an e-mail: “Pretty recently, a fellow blogger and I discovered through a tracking service that someone in our district was reading our blogs. The same service showed that someone in the Department of Education in D.C. was also reading them. Kind of freaks us out. We’ve heard a lot of horror stories about people who lose their jobs over this stuff, not to mention issues with student confidentiality.”
Asked if she’s ever hesitant about including certain observations in her blog, Ms. Frizzle responded: “Quite often. … The schools in New York City are very political places.”
The price of blogging is so minimal, free in most instances, that I’ve recently seen teachers using the platform to keep their students informed on upcoming class lessons.
2 Comments:
1 redhog
· Sep 9, 2005 at 2:35 am
I warn all teachers not to involve their students in any online associations, regardless of their nature and good-will notwithstanding. That includes blogging.
I have been a bitter and strident critic of the DOE for a long time and though they know who I am, they have to date left me alone. Follow your conscience, the law, and common sense, and trust in humanity even when it is sometimes inhumane. It ain’t easy being a bureaucracy. And go to risaac.blogs.com for some fine rhetoric and flaming truth.
2 JennyD
· Sep 9, 2005 at 7:27 am
Here’s one place I think the UFT can do a world of good: protect teacher blogs.
I learn a lot reading about the real lives of teachers, and also comparing and sharing ideas about lesson plans, teaching diverse students, managing time, tests, and bureaucracy, etc. As a teacher educator and researcher, this stuff is gold to me. Thanks.