Inappropriate Use Digital Media

Within our school there was a group of students who did not like a teacher. As a result many of them were sending tweets on Twitter out about this individual. Although the tweets did not include the name of the teacher, it was clear who it was about. Since I had a good relationship with the students, I decided to lead a sort of discussion with them about this. The process that I followed in doing this, was a I printed off different sections of their twitter accounts and highlighted the questionable tweets. When they came into the room, I showed these and asked them if they would read them aloud to me. Many of them clammed up and did not want to. I took this as an opportunity to to let them know that if it was difficult to read these aloud or actually say these things to me, then they probably should not post them online where I and others can read them. I acknowledged their feelings about the teacher that they did not like and then went ahead and asked them what were other ways they could have expressed this. Some of the ways that we discussed included:
*Talking and venting with friends in a private setting (we discussed that sometimes you just need to do this)
*If they had issues that could be resolved, discussing this with the teacher one on one
*Talking with the Guidance Counselor if they felt uncomfortable going to the teacher
*Changing their own attitudes about the individual
*Looking at what their actions were and how that might contribute to the issues that they were having

We also then discussed what they wanted to happen with the teacher for the rest of the school year. I asked them if their comments on Twitter were a solution to this and they acknowledged that they weren't. I asked if they had considered the teacher's feelings and how they might feel if they saw these tweets and they had not.

Overall, it was a good small group discussion that I felt comfortable enough to do because I knew the students and had a good rapport with them. They all were embarrassed that an adult had seen these tweets and I reminded them that, anytime they post online that is a risk that they take.