Does Google know me?

I thought I was going to find a lot more about myself through google. I was invloved in sports, social networking, and other various media sources. But as a teacher, I am glad that I am nowhere to be found. There were a lot of “Nick Thompson’s” and Nicholas Thompson’s” but none of them were me. They ranged from professional golfers, MMA fighters, and published authors. Using gooogle.com and pipl.com, it was a bit surprising to find nothing but it did leave a good feeling know I don’t have to correct much.

Social networking sites have blown up in the last 5 years and it is because of this, we as teachers, have to be very careful about what we put on there. Having a facebook page has made me aware of that. I already had privatized all of the information. At least, I believe I did until someone finds some photos of me. That is going to be the hard part is keeping my friends from tagging me in photos after I become a teacher. I know we don’t have the most glamorous job; we do need to do it will respect and dignity towards our students.

We have a huge responsibility in teaching the youth of America; the youth that are going to be running this society in the next 50 years. While we still need to be able to have fun and enjoy our lives, we do need to watch what we are doing. One of the questions, that needs to be asked is “would this decision effect my ability to teach respectfully.” Would my students still respect me if they knew the decision I was making? I am not saying we need to be put on this podium but we do need to think before we act, if we are asking our students to do this, shouldn’t we? If our personal lives during our personal times are not effecting our schools reputation or our students, it should not be held against us.

Viral is the new word of this generation. Whether it is the new youtube video or it is an email that shouldn’t have been sent. It only takes a second to hit the send button and snowball has been started. An email go from one person to the next, then two more, and two more from those two and so on. It is something that cannot be taken back and before you know it an email that we sent to a colleague bashing the new curriculum has gone viral and is back in the superintendents’ email box. Be careful who you send this to and make sure you aren’t the one continuing the snowball!

Protecting myself and my job is priority number 1. Limiting myself with social networking and understanding it can be more painful than it is worth. Keeping my opinions to myself and if I really have that big of a trouble taking it to the people that matter, not just gossiping about it behind people backs. The big thing is taking a second to think about what you or I am going, and making sure it is not going to hurt anyone or even myself!