Poll: Teachers sharing their personal lives

[Yopaz]

My biology teacher talked about his trip to Israel once. He talked about what they observed, showed pictures of the diversity there.

It was actually very interesting and it was related to biology.

You are supposed to have a professional relationship with your teacher, but you can be friendly towards people and still be professional. It doesn't have to be relevant to the subject at hand, but always keep it in moderation. Positive relationships with the teacher has been proven to be a valuable addition to motivate students and improve the conditions for learning.

 

[bastardofmelbourne]

While I think she was maybe a little too personal by making you watch a video, it sounds like she was just super happy about the engagement and wanted to share it with everyone.

I wouldn't let it bother you.

 

[Grottnikk]

i'd say only if it serves to motivate or educate the students

Ditto. I've had teachers share personal details for this reason and it's fine by me. It gets iffy when they share just for the sake of sharing. Outside the classroom, sure, fine. Inside...meh, just teach.

 

[alandavidson]

I used to teach, and I would interject stories from my life into the lesson if they had something to do with what I was teaching. It was often, "this was the situation I was presented with, and this is how I handled it". Then we would talk about the situation, and come up with different (typically better) ways of overcoming whatever obstacle was there. It got the students involved, and helped them be able to relate to me.

 

[The Night Angel]

I think that school teachers shouldn't, as their students are still young and immature enough to use that against them. However, plenty of my lecturers (especially philosophy ones) bring in personal anecdotes all the time, and I think that as long as it is in some way relevant and doesn't take up too much of the lecture time, there is nothing wrong with this.

 

[Raikas]

It's more personal than I'd want to see, but one minute doesn't kill much class time, so assuming it was during the first or last minutes of the class it doesn't strike me as crossing much of a line. That's also assuming that the class is over the age of 16 or 17 - I think it's more unprofessional for a teacher to treat younger students as friends.

I find the idea of having a teacher on your friend list on Facebook crossing the line already.

I'd be surprised if teacher's groups/unions don't have rules about this kind of thing - I have friends who teach, and a lot of them use false names on FB specifically to avoid having their students trying to friend them.

 

[Jamieson 90]

I don't think it's too bad in moderation otherwise your teacher is the equivalent of a soulless robot that you can't even like or relate too, and some of my best teachers were extremely friendly and liked to have a laugh but also knew when we had to be serious, and in some cases used personal examples to show where they'd fucked up whilst getting us to learn from their mistakes, but in this instance I think making you watch a video of her wedding is a bit too far and isn't appropriate.

 

[Gigano]

No, it is not appropriate for educators to waste time on their own personal life in class. Unless it's relevant for the curriculum, it's unprofessional, and abuse of authority.

 

[RobfromtheGulag]

Moderation is key here.

My favorite teacher (Audio/video) actually told us about how he used to have a Lamb of God-style metal band. 5 minutes on google, and bam: we all got to see his gross college beard while he was hammering out breakdowns. We all had our laugh, and moved on because dwelling on their private lives is a bit weird, and we shouldn't waste class time on it.

If some teacher is constantly informing you of their life events, than they should probably just keep it to their Facebook page instead of letting it spill over into class.

This sounds right. You're never going to have a class packed with 45 or 75 or w/e full minutes of educational content. It's not going to happen. Even if the professor just lectured for the full length (not uncommon) you'd get bored and ignore half of it.

Chatting with the class and forming a casual relationship can get students a lot more involved than they would have been otherwise. Obviously spending too much time on it is a judgement call, and CrunkBear is perhaps an example of what not to end up as.

 

[Woodsey]

I remember being motivated more by teachers who were more personable. Besides, I assume she isn't showing you a video of her getting engaged every week. Hardly seems worth worrying about.

 

[HellbirdIV]

If she shared a video on Facebook, it probably has nothing to do with her class and she instead wants to show her friends and family?

... Duh?

 

[secretkeeper12]

In your example. it was a bit much. Unless it was a free period, your teacher could've just told you that she was getting married and have been done with it.

That said, as long as their story is used to prove a point or teach a lesson, I'm fine with it.

 

[Flamezdudes]

It depends... you shouldn't share too much. My class is quite close with my Philosophy teacher and we all share stories and things from our personal lives all the time, but he doesn't share to the point where it's too much but he will tell us of funny stories and some things going on in his life. I think it helps give us a stronger bond with our teacher. This is sixth form though and we aren't a class of 30, so I think it's more reasonable and understandable. If it were like this with secondary school years then that would be more inappropriate.

He's awesome.

 

[Longstreet]

Depends what type of school you are in

Primary? hell no
Middle / high? depends on the age of the students and connection between them and the teachers really.
University / college? sure why not. Most students are mature enough and not everything has to be so strict / up tight.

BUT! Story time kids, listen up.

As a teacher. DO. NOT. SHARE. your personal cell phone number. We got email to contact you.
A female teacher (the attractive kind) shared it with her classes (all of em). You guys wanna guess who got, slightly intoxicated, texts asking her out. Yep that teacher. No not by me though, just to nip that in the but.

She won't be doing that anymore.

Quick edit:
Since names / ages in school differ from each other around the world, here is a quick rundown.
Primary = until 12 y/o (give or take, unless they have to do a do over year, or w/e)
Middle / high= until 16/18 (give or take, one could need more years)
University / college= until 20/22 (taking a 4 year average here, but you know, give or take)

 

[Lilani]

So, a couple days ago my history teacher got engaged. I like her as a teacher and I'm happy for her, but this raises a question, and it's been niggling at my mind all day. My friend on Facebook brought this up, is it appropriate for a teacher to share a video of her getting engaged. Why couldn't she just have told us instead of having us watch a video. Once again, I'm happy for her and all, but was it in her place to go in depth. This brings us to the big question. Is it in a teacher's place to share their personal lives?

I'm confused. Did she put the video up on Facebook to where you could see it, or did she actually spend class time having you watch it? Because depending on which it is, it makes the situation very different.

If it's just that the video is on Facebook, then yeah she has every right to share whatever she wants on her Facebook. An engagement video is anything but inappropriate to have on one's Facebook page. If it were here partying it up or breaking the law or something then yeah it probably wouldn't be a good thing for a teacher to have on her Facebook, but an engagement video? Come on.

If she actually showed it in class (which first of all surprises me she'd be able to do it at all--most schools block Facebook and YouTube so the only way I can see her show it is if she had the raw video on a flash drive), then first of all I'd want to know the context. How well do the students know the teacher already? I know I had some teachers in high school that we were close enough to that it wouldn't be an odd thing to do at all. We'd find out one way or another that they got engaged, and we'd probably end up asking how it happened. And then at that point showing the video wouldn't be inappropriate. And time was rarely a concern, I can't think of a class I've had, even in high school, that we couldn't have spent a few minutes watching a video and talking about it.

If she brought it up without being asked and the students weren't interested, then I might be worried. Not all classes have that sort of a relationship with the teacher, so there is the possibility of awkwardness here.

 

[Agayek]

Unless said life experience is directly related to the class' subject matter, then no, it's really not appropriate.

For example, if the OP's teacher used the video as a way to highlight the changes in marriage traditions or whatever, then it would have been perfectly appropriate and fine to share. Just showing the video with no purpose is just a self-congratulatory wankfest though, and really has no place in the classroom.

Also, to add on to that, teachers sharing their personal lives with their students is not at all a problem, if they do it on their own time. It's only a problem when they do it during class.

 

[Random Argument Man]

Marriage and pregnancy are not that bad of a subject. I can understand pregnancy because it explains why the teacher won't probably be around at some point. Marriage is something good because it shows that you're human in some way.

The big no-nos are telling about partying, personal information (sexual partners, a way to contact you non-professionaly, etc.) and telling stories about other people in a negative perspective. (There's more).

We're told that you're a teacher and not a friend. You can talk about stuff as long it's professional and you're willing to respect that line. We're basically human symbols. We're symbols as in we have to show what's the difference between right and wrong. Although, we're human which means you're capable of connecting with others and we can make mistakes. A good teacher is capable of balancing the two concepts together in order to interact with people.

A teacher who doesn't say anything about his personal experience will tend to lose the connection with his/her students. A teacher who says too much will give the wrong ideas and lose his/her standing with the classroom.

 

[Brutal Peanut]

I personally disliked when a teacher would tell us personal information for what appeared to be no reason at all. If it actually makes sense towards what we were learning and they felt it would help in some way, then fine, have at it; but I would have preferred if they hadn't because it felt like it was eating into the lesson and allotted time given to finish my assignments or tasks for the class itself. I don't connect or bond with people one-on-one very well in what apparently is a natural way, especially when it feels like it's being forced. I had no problem with being civil and polite towards my teachers, and I know they are human beings with their own crap going on, but I just wanted to get through the lessons and go home.

Spoiler: Example of unnecessary personal information

My 7th grade Science teacher started the class by telling us how she was going to be going through a divorce and how tough it was and how bad she felt. That's a conversation you should probably have with your therapist or your best friend, not a class full of children. It quite literally had nothing to do with frog anatomy.

I had more than one, but, one is enough.

 

[Zombie Sodomy]

I'd say she's going a bit far, but anything beats having to learn.

 

[The_Echo]

Showing the class a video of your engagement? That's a bit far for my taste.

However, I think it's a good thing for teachers to share their lives (on occasion). One of my absolute favorite teachers of all time was my German teacher in high school, and she'd talk about her life every so often. I always liked the teachers who would actually talk to us and occasionally allow themselves to have some fun in the classroom--alternatively, I never much cared for the teachers who seemed to just want to roll through the lesson and be done with us.

I think being familiar with a teacher is conducive to being taught. It's a good way to forge bonds between student and teacher, and I'm sure we can all agree that your opinion of a teacher has an impact on how you are/how well you do in the class.