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As part of my research for this article I googled "teacher fired for posting in Facebook" and got 702,000 results. Well, not all are relevant, but you get my point.

My warning is simple and very clear: if you are employed by a school (or would like to be) do not post anything on Facebook which could be misinterpreted by your present or future employer.

The issue is not freedom of speech. The issue is electronic media. It is everlasting.

Facebook posts can be shared. They can turn up on Google searches. They can be used against  you by people who don't like you. Even when you supposedly didn't give them permission to do so.

So against this sobering backdrop, let's explore what's involved with Facebook.

1. "But my privacy settings were ultra-strict."
That's understandable. You only want to share your information with your friends and family. But remember: once you post something on Facebook, it's out there. It's no longer private. If one of your 'friends' decides to forward that photo of you hoisting a glass of champagne on your 30th birthday, that simple act of 'sharing' could cost you your job. It has done that for several teachers according to news reports which I found.

It's not just photos which can get you in trouble. It's your comments about your work or your students. If you want to self-destruct, then by all means post something like "My parents are arrogant snobs". That fuse will take only a few hours to ignite the bomb.

2. There...
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The Private School Survival Guide for Teachers

The Private School Survival Guide for Teachers
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Perhaps you are thinking about teaching in a private school in the future or maybe you have just started teaching in a private school for the current academic year. This article is written with you in mind. If you are coming from a public school, you will find several differences. If you have never taught at all, then the following are points and issues to consider.

No unions or bureaucracy
Public school teachers are unionized as a rule. This has its good points and its bad points depending on who you ask. Private school teachers are not unionized. As a result, you will need to be flexible and adaptable. Basically your job is whatever the school determines it to be depending on the exigencies of the moment and the day. One important consideration, however: if you are accustomed to telling an administrator "That's not my job." then perhaps you will need to look elsewhere for a teaching job. In a private school flexibility is critical. Everybody pitches in to get whatever needs to be done accomplished.

Another difference is that you won't have to deal with layers of bureaucracy to get simple things done. Private schools are generally small, close-knit communities where everybody knows everybody. Getting something fixed or some supplies replensihed is not ordinarily a big deal. Floating a new idea and bringing that idea to fruition is generally easier in a smaller school setting. Not so many people to convince.

Students who want to be there
Students attend private school because their...
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Are You a 21st Century Teacher?

Are You a 21st Century Teacher?
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As the United States faces unprecedented challenges both at home and abroad, the need for schools to have teachers with a 21st century viewpoint and a 21st century skillset has never been more obvious. Dynamic, visionary teachers are needed to shape new generations of citizens who will have the ideas and abilities to lead and guide our country. If this sounds radical, it really isn't. It is the same principle and thinking which caused the Phillips family of Exeter and Andover fame to found those schools. Those school founders knew that the infant nation needed well-schooled, well-trained people to lead it in the years ahead. They believed in this country and the concept of universal education so deeply that they put their money where their mouth was and created schools which still, to this day in the 21st century, reflect extraordinary dynamism and vision. With that thesis as our backdrop let's look at what is needed to be a 21st century teacher.

Viewpoint
A 21st century viewpoint includes teachers right across the K-12 spectrum. While things technological are not critical in the formative, early years, empowering children to discover and to learn most certainly is. Here are some things the 21st century primary grade teachers need to do.

  • Teach children that they are part of a global community.
  • Teach children to appreciate diversity in all its aspects.
  • Teach children to be tolerant.
  • Teach children to be aware of the many societies and civilizations which came before them.
  • Teach children to be sensitive...
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Don't Leave Any Evidence!

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Many teachers don't realize that conversations, activities and photographs which they considered personal and private are out there for anybody to see. If you have a Facebook page and Twitter, you have to understand that you are leaving all kinds of electronic evidence for potential employers, or anybody, for that matter, to see. Why does this matter? It matters because you never know how a future or current employer might interpret some of the things he sees on your Facebook page. Those candid photos of you and your friends enjoying a post-exam beer bash might be difficult to explain when you apply to St. Andrew's Methodist School. If you already have a position in a private school, you can be virtually guaranteed that your students will be searching the internet with a fine toothed comb looking for something - anything - about you. Make sure that whatever they find is squeaky clean and beyond reproach. If it isn't, the headmaster and trustees will learn about it faster than you can say "You're fired!"

Twitter is the hottest instant communications tool we have seen in a long time. It's great for zapping comments back and forth with your friends. But what if you make some frank comment about what a pain your dean is or how fat the athletic director is? How do you know that your comments aren't being retweeted to somebody else who knows your dean or that rotund AD? Next thing you know you are not even...
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What Is Praxis?

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Most states require public school teachers to be licensed. Part of the licensing process is taking and passing Praxis I and/or Praxis II. Praxis I tests your competence in Reading, Writing and Mathematics. Many education programs will accept Paxis I scores in place of SAT or ACT scores. They basically test the same kind of readiness for tertiary level academic work.
 
Praxis II are subject or content tests. They are offered in standard subject areas such as Spanish, physics, language arts and so on. If you seek to be licensed as a physics teacher, for example, you would pass the Praxis II exam in physics as part of that requirement.

While private schools are not required to employ licensed teachers, they do value those credentials. Licensing establishes a teacher's adherence to a standard of teaching practice, just as a degree in your subject establishes your knowledge and understanding of that subject. Put another way, a teaching license on its own proves that you have met certain minimum standards in the art and skill of teaching. You wouldn't have an angioplasty done by a physician who wasn't board-certified, would you? So why would you entrust your child's education to a teacher who has not been examined and found competent by a board of his peers?

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