A Little About Myself: Part 2 (+ Digital Ethics & Reputation)

In my last semester of college, I completed my student teaching in a 7th grade classroom in Northbrook, Illinois. My cooperating teacher was taking classes towards her master's degree at the university next door, so I had full control of her classroom from day one. In fact, she wasn't even in the building! In hindsight, her throwing me into the deep end of the pool was the best thing that could have happened, because I learned that I'm adaptable and resourceful and that I can complete the job even if I'm terrified while doing so! By the time I graduated and got my first "real" teaching job, I felt confident in myself as a teacher. 

Over the next two decades, I taught literature in a rural junior high school; a Teen Mom alternative education classroom in an urban high school; language arts in a suburban middle school; plus a few years of substitute teaching K-12 in parochial elementary & high schools, while my own kids were young. That brings me to today and my current classroom of teaching middle/high school alternative ed. and virtual school. Right now, I have 6 students in person and 38 virtual students. All of my students complete their courses online through a program called Edgenuity. We have some challenging days but, on the balance, I love it. 

In addition to starting a new job this year, I finally started working on a master's degree in curriculum and instruction. About fifteen years ago, I took two classes towards an administrative degree, but at that time all classes at the university I enrolled in were only offered in-person, which I attended at night, after my day job. With young kids at home at the time, it just proved too difficult, so I didn't continue. However, just as alternative education classes have gone online, so have college courses (which is the format I'm taking now), so it does feel sort of full circle for me. 

That brings me to today, and my current class, Leading in the Digital Age, where we've been discussing digital ethics and reputation. The timing of this class feels very appropriate, as I've talked about these topics- online safety and privacy, responsible use of AI, plagiarism, cyberbullying, etc.- with my students this year. Any time I've given them a rule to follow, I explain that everyone has rules to follow, even their principals and teachers. Some of the "rules" I keep for myself that relate to digital ethics and online reputation are steps that I complete almost every day, such as locking my devices when I step away from my desk and vetting any websites and online materials for safety and appropriateness before I share them with students. I also check for bias (i.e. something that could be construed negatively) before posting photos of students and try to stay aware of bias in online content that I share with them. To protect my digital reputation, I keep my personal social media accounts private, and I never post photos of students or give out any personally identifiable information about them. I also try to never discuss students with another collegue in writing (particulary through email). 

When I was a student teacher in 2000, I couldn't have known that 25 years in the future I'd be teaching students online that I would never see in the classroom. Some things, like classroom management and lesson planning, aren't all that different from back then; other topics, like online safety and artificial intelligence, were barely on the horizon at the start of the 21st century. If I could give any advice to a student teacher or new teacher today, in knowing what I've learned, it would be to guard your online reputation and privacy when it comes to your students, and teach them to do the same for themselves.