Thursday, February 16, 2006
My Blog and My Job
Terry asked me in a recent post if my employer knew of my blog and expressed any concerns about it. The answer to that question would be no, to the best of my knowledge. That could change tomorrow of course, which is why I take certain precautions and avoid certain subjects. I don't believe that having a job such as mine and a blog such as this are incompatible, as long as common sense is used.
I am well aware of the fact that a co-worker, supervisor, parent, or even a student may some day stumble across my tiny dark corner of cyberspace. It even possible that they already have. I am not concerned about that because I follow a few simple rules, designed to protect my livelihood and keep food in my children's mouths.
1) I do not use this blog as a forum to criticize my employer. I don't believe that this is the place for that with my picture festooning the sidebar to the right. Does my employer do things I disagree with? Sure. Am I going to bash them for it here? Nope. I've been treated very well, and I owe it to my employer to not use my personal forum as a place to talk about professional disagreements.
2) Any time I talk about a student I use a pseudonym or a totally made-up name. Sometimes I even alter minor details such as the grade the student is in. Federal privacy laws are pretty strict, and I have no intention of running afoul of them here. What I do here is no different than the anecdotes you read in "school books" everywhere.
3) I don't criticize or even talk much about my co-workers. Once again, I am bound to respect their privacy and I won't use this forum as a place to discuss their professional or personal lives.
4) Even with fake names/pseudonmyms, there are still some things that happen with kids at school that I won't discuss here. Once such incident happened today. It would just feel wrong to write about it in this public forum.
5) I don't blog on school time.
This seems to work for me. I've developed these philosophies over time and you may find a few earlier posts that violate these self-imposed rules. I think that this would stand up to scrutiny if my employer ever stumbles across this little place. At least I hope so!
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I am well aware of the fact that a co-worker, supervisor, parent, or even a student may some day stumble across my tiny dark corner of cyberspace. It even possible that they already have. I am not concerned about that because I follow a few simple rules, designed to protect my livelihood and keep food in my children's mouths.
1) I do not use this blog as a forum to criticize my employer. I don't believe that this is the place for that with my picture festooning the sidebar to the right. Does my employer do things I disagree with? Sure. Am I going to bash them for it here? Nope. I've been treated very well, and I owe it to my employer to not use my personal forum as a place to talk about professional disagreements.
2) Any time I talk about a student I use a pseudonym or a totally made-up name. Sometimes I even alter minor details such as the grade the student is in. Federal privacy laws are pretty strict, and I have no intention of running afoul of them here. What I do here is no different than the anecdotes you read in "school books" everywhere.
3) I don't criticize or even talk much about my co-workers. Once again, I am bound to respect their privacy and I won't use this forum as a place to discuss their professional or personal lives.
4) Even with fake names/pseudonmyms, there are still some things that happen with kids at school that I won't discuss here. Once such incident happened today. It would just feel wrong to write about it in this public forum.
5) I don't blog on school time.
This seems to work for me. I've developed these philosophies over time and you may find a few earlier posts that violate these self-imposed rules. I think that this would stand up to scrutiny if my employer ever stumbles across this little place. At least I hope so!
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Yahoo ID - okieyetagain
