Adding a teacher on facebook

LittleMissLost

Hypothetically - Say if you got on really well with a teacher in school. I mean you had the same interests, regularly competed against them in sport and s/he was only 4/5 years older than you. It wasn't really a student/teacher relationship and you both worked on mutual respect, do you think it would be appropriate to add him/her on facebook after the Leaving Cert? Just to keep in contact?

That it if you weren't going to see them again after the end of school and didn't get a chance to ask them if it would be ok. Do ye think it is appropriate or totally off the cards?

flyaway.

Our teachers always let students add them once they have left school.

rebel10

It wouldn't be inappropriate for you to invite them, but I do think it would be for them to accept it.
Their personal and professional lives should never be mixed imo.

C__

I know people in my school did add teachers after they finished. Infact I am friends with a teacher who was doin TP in my school and after he left i added him.

J_E

I don't see anything wrong with it, I was thinking of adding one of my teachers who I've gotten on well with and spent more time chatting to out of class than in. Once you leave school I don't think the teacher/student barrier is really there as much.

spurious

I know some of my colleagues accept 'add' requests from recent students, but I personally think it's inappropriate.
The only past pupils I have added are over 30.

PictureFrame

I don't see the problem at all! Nearly everyone in my PE class is friends with the teacher! :L, she's great crack! :P

Dougal.Maguire

I know i definitely wouldnt do it. But thats just me , I suppose it depends on the individual. Maybe you feel now that its sad to leave everyone and you want to stay in touch , but do you think when your enjoying the summer and beginnin college in September youll be thinking of old teachers and secondary school life ? I certainly hope I wont :rolleyes:

LittleMissLost

Dougal.Maguire wrote: »

I know i definitely wouldnt do it. But thats just me , I suppose it depends on the individual. Maybe you feel now that its sad to leave everyone and you want to stay in touch , but do you think when your enjoying the summer and beginnin college in September youll be thinking of old teachers and secondary school life ? I certainly hope I wont :rolleyes:

I actually think I will! :O So sad to be leaving everyone and everything!

TheFullDuck

I would not add them, especially when the inevitable frape happens and the teacher you are friends with gets sent messages etc. :pac:
Might be a different story if the teacher is only young or doing TP.

We all went to the pub with our teachers on our last day :cool:

Maybe_Memories

I've added two of my teachers on facebook. One I actually talk to on a regular basis actually.

._.

Just add whoever you want, it's not as if you're going to be seeing them face to face again any time soon..

AdamD wrote: »

We all went to the pub with our teachers on our last day :cool:

On grad night a few year ago the teachers went out at on the same night the students did, a few people were dancing with some of them in a nightclub
Great craic.

Elmidena

If you're that close/bonded with each other, simplest thing would be to say "wanna add me on facebook" or whatever on the last day? Ball's in their court, and if they don't like it then you don't have to see them again bar by chance. Better than doing it online and them going "uhhhhhhhhh" with no warning, but that's just my opinion

ElleEm

It would be so inappropriate for a teacher to add a student. I reckon if this was on the Teaching and Lecturing forum you'd be likely to get a similar response to mine.

Griffen262

One guy that did TP in our school last year added a heap of girls (6th years) after he left, he was only 3-4 years older than us. Now we have about 100 mutual friends, most people in the school added him for the craic, and he accpeted!

Dougal.Maguire

LittleMissLost wrote: »

I actually think I will! :O So sad to be leaving everyone and everything!

Fair enough - sure why not then if you really get on well enough. In my school though, im pretty sure none of the teachers would accept any of us 6th years now its too soon after school. Maybe in a few years or something it would be different

nitromaster

ElleEm wrote: »

It would be so inappropriate for a teacher to add a student. I reckon if this was on the Teaching and Lecturing forum you'd be likely to get a similar response to mine.

But if you do it after you leave...well then they aren't a teacher and you aren't their student :P

PJelly

A group of lads in my school know another lads password (They're all good friends so its all in good humor) and once a week they keep adding the same teacher on facebook and he keeps refusing!
Once in class he said "I'm not going to name names, but I only accept students on facebook if they've been gone for 5 years". Everyone started laughing. Including the lad who keeps adding him
On the last day the teacher asked him to leave him alone, and that he has some strange obsession

ElleEm

nitromaster wrote: »

But if you do it after you leave...well then they aren't a teacher and you aren't their student :P

I think you'd have to wait a fair while before it is acceptable!

Starscream25

dont do it until you finish school. in the meantime if the teacher adds you.you should befriend as not to insult, but the the teacher should know better as not to mix work with social networking.
peace out

J_E

Yeah, if I do it, I wouldn't do it until perhaps when I start college later on in the year. It would just be awkward and inapparopriate to add them when they're still your teachers.

Jamie Starr

The one teacher I'm friends with on Facebook was my JC/LC English teacher. I, along with a few other students, are friends with her in real life (have even been out drinking with her), so it's not that strange to us. She's a person I'd actually have more in common with than a lot of the other friends I have on FB, even though she's over 10 years older than me. I think it's okay in that situation.

There's only one other teacher I'd ever consider keeping in contact with after school, he'd also be the only one I'd accept a request from. I think it'd be weird to send or receive a request during your school years unless you had that kind of relationship with your teacher though.

It's strange that this has now become an almost moral issue. The days of Bebo and MySpace are well and truly gone.

DaveMur1

I'd say i's alright around the end of sixth year, only inappropriate if they started adding earlier years, some teachers get on really well with students.My geography teacher only turned 22 he used to come out to lunch with us at the end 6th year, it's nothing really major anymore we're all finished school and equals now.

implausible

There's a difference between your teacher being in the same night club as you or going out on the last day of term; it's on the teacher's terms. Adding someone on Fb is allowing them access to a lot more than your company for a few hours.

PurpleVintage

PJelly wrote: »

A group of lads in my school know another lads password (They're all good friends so its all in good humor) and once a week they keep adding the same teacher on facebook and he keeps refusing!
Once in class he said "I'm not going to name names, but I only accept students on facebook if they've been gone for 5 years". Everyone started laughing. Including the lad who keeps adding him
On the last day the teacher asked him to leave him alone, and that he has some strange obsession

That's awesome, totally laughed!


Well, I don't see what the problem is in adding a teacher as a friend, when you're done with school. One or two teachers in my school added students to their profile, and this was like, last year (so we were in 5th year and others younger). Although I don't think THAT'S 100% ok, this is different, as the whole 'Teacher / student' relationship is officially over. Some people are treating as if it's a lot more than just adding someone. Fgs, most people go around adding total strangers, thinking FB is a competition to see who has more unknown friends, so why is that 'nromal' and this isn't? There is nothing wrong with a higher level of intimacy (if you can call adding someone, that!) between both of you, since you are no longer in a uhhhh... 'professional' relationship or the likes.

I also think that once you're in college (since you're officially an adult and all), it's totally ok to add your professors, even if still being taught by them. So, go for it and by the looks of it, sounds like things may flourish between both of you. In whatever sense you want to take it as..

PJelly

For some reason, a teacher adding a student just seems to be a completely different case to a student adding a teacher.
I don't know why. In my head it just seems.... strange
Maybe it's due to our teachers in school. There's one or two that, if they added me. I'd be very concerned

citizen_p

theres acouple of teachers in my school who are sound and fresh out of college, but I doubt they would be getting added to my FB account

vagi_bleeder

Im friends with about 4 of my teachers, doesn't affect me really

OhMSGlive

Depends on the time you add them and the relationship you had with the teacher. As a general rule of thumb, I don't add any of my professional colleagues on Facebook until I am finished in that profession. In layman's terms, don't add a teacher/boss until you leave school/work. You could add them beforehand if you wanted to, but be careful: what they see on your profile could affect their opinion of you, leading to dire consequences. (Anyone hear about the BA hostess who got fired for having a photo of her in uniform as her DP on Facebook? That's what I mean.)

Again, each to their own at the end of the day.

Mountainlad

Teachers are not supposed to accept. Even past pupils. It could land them in hot water.

Higgzy

LittleMissLost wrote: »

Hypothetically - Say if you got on really well with a teacher in school. I mean you had the same interests, regularly competed against them in sport and s/he was only 4/5 years older than you. It wasn't really a student/teacher relationship and you both worked on mutual respect, do you think it would be appropriate to add him/her on facebook after the Leaving Cert? Just to keep in contact?

That it if you weren't going to see them again after the end of school and didn't get a chance to ask them if it would be ok. Do ye think it is appropriate or totally off the cards?

I would only do it if you fancy them. Otherwise it is sending out mixed messages.

Also agree, with most of the advice above. Completely inappropriate for the teacher to initiate anything like that.

copeyhagen

just cuz you add them on facebook, doesnt mean your gonna be banging them.

schools over, add away.

i finished in 2001 and have loads of teachers on my fb. now, granted i dont really be on it as i despise it!

J_E

Mountainlad wrote: »

Teachers are not supposed to accept. Even past pupils. It could land them in hot water.

Really? Are there any cases of it leading to something?

Mountainlad

Cydoniac wrote: »

Really? Are there any cases of it leading to something?

That's what we were told. A teacher that left our school at the end of last year came down for our grad night, and when someone asked him he said they weren't allowed. Somebody came in to advise them on it, and he asked about past pupils and he said even that's not allowed!

._.

Mountainlad wrote: »

Teachers are not supposed to accept. Even past pupils. It could land them in hot water.

That's defiantly just your schools policy.
I don't see why a school is allowed to restrict what teachers do in their free time/on the internet.
I'm pretty sure they couldn't punish the teacher for accepting a student (especially a past pupil), that sounds like all kinds of illegal to me.

Bottom line, it makes no difference if it's "inappropriate" or not for you to add them. The worst that will happen is they ignore the request, you're not going to be seeing them IRL very much (if at all) after school is done.

randylonghorn

Mountainlad wrote: »

Teachers are not supposed to accept. Even past pupils. It could land them in hot water.

Accepting adult past pupils isn't going to land them in hot water, certainly, but many teachers won't particularly want to do so unless they know the person very well indeed, and outside of the school environment.

Doesn't mean they dislike the person or anything silly like that; in fact, they may have a lot of time for them, but still not necessarily want to give them that level of access to their private lives.

Teachers like everyone else are entitled to get up on Sunday morning and say "Good night, but I might have overdone it! Ouch!" without getting 20 comments from past students going "HaHa!"

And remember that this craze for adding everyone you ever encountered to facebook and sharing every detail of your lives with them is relatively new, and causes most people even over 21 to go 0_o ...

Mountainlad

I kinda feel that anyone that posts about having a hangover, or having breakfast in the morning etc. deserves a slap to be honest

Im just saying what he told me. Think it was someone borught in from outside. I can see your point about not getting on hot water, but thing is our school is new so past pupils are at most 20 years old. It does seem odd

randylonghorn

Mountainlad wrote: »

I kinda feel that anyone that posts about having a hangover, or having breakfast in the morning etc. deserves a slap to be honest

I was just giving you an example off the top of my head to illustrate the point! :P

Mountainlad wrote: »

Im just saying what he told me. Think it was someone borught in from outside. I can see your point about not getting on hot water, but thing is our school is new so past pupils are at most 20 years old. It does seem odd

Maybe someone did come and tell them that, but it's a bit OTT. A past pupil, certainly once over 18, is an independent adult, and a former teacher simply accepting them on fb is hardly inappropriate as such.

I know young teachers for example who play on sports teams with past pupils they taught in LC in their first year of teaching ... if they added that person on fb would it be inappropriate? Ofc not.

But as I say, most teachers will prefer not to do so unless they have connections like that with the person above and beyond the simple teacher / past pupil relationship. Teachers are entitled to a private life too.

Mountainlad

I know yeah, but it was a pretty relevant example. I mean that seems to be a lot of what clogs up the news feed on f=Facebook. I was just expressing my view on that

I completely I agree with you. I just don't know how teachers are advised. It could be that the teacher in question was saying to let them down easy or whatever. I also agree with those that have said there's no harm in adding them and letting them decide whether to accept or not!