Oops, They Did It Again

Unbelievable!  I'm sitting in front of the TV watching one of my shows, Hawaii 5-0, when I stopped in my tracks.  The episode's plot contains an investigation at a high school, and wouldn't you know it--the principal is sleeping with one of the students.  What's worse, he claims it's legal because the girl is 17 and the legal age of consent is 16 in Hawaii.

Wait, what?  Because some girl's a certain age, it's still OK to have sex with your students?!  Are these guys stealing a page from the Glee playbook?

Cheating 101

The last competency in my class deals with ethics on the workplace, and the above video about a young man being paid to take the SAT for fellow students fit perfectly with the lecture.

We had a good discussion in both classes about why students do this, how successful they're likely to be in college and more.  When I made the comment that I wouldn't hire this kid because I wouldn't trust him, I got the most disagreement from my class--shocking, right?

Posting on Tumblr

A couple of weeks ago, I created a Tumblr account.  I wasn't sure how to use it, and at this point I'm still trying to figure it out.  Today, I authored my first real posts.

One of the things that helped me figure out how to use Tumblr is following what others are doing.  I'm quite impressed with what Sports Illustrated is doing with their Tumblr, and I think that's direction I want to go with mine.

With a class of Sports & Entertainment Marketing II students on the way, I think there will be plenty of things to post.  In fact, by tying in this account to Twitter, Tumblr may turn out to be a good way to publish all of the articles and photos we plan on producing this spring.

Goals for 2012

From: newyeartextmessages.blogspot.com

Resolutions don't do me much good.  I make the same ones every year, and then don't follow through on them.  However, if I'm going to tell my students to set goals, then I need to have some myself, at least professionally.  So here we go...

• Have my SEM II students write their own blogs (already have the accounts set up!)
• Be more proactive and communicative with parents of failing students
• Find a better way of keeping my SEM II students producing content work
• Incorporate more textbook reading in my classes
• Become a more effective technology facilitator

It's not too much, but it's a start, at least.

Reaching Out to Students Via Twitter

Lots of good stuff in the Washington Post this week.  This time, it's a profile of an assistant principal in Maryland that uses Twitter to reach out to his students.

What I took away from this article:

• I was amazed at the disparity of Twitter use of black students vs. white students.  According to the article, black students use Twitter at about twice the rate of whites.  I hadn't noticed that at my school-maybe it's because most of my students are black.
• I didn't realize that comments on Twitter were being used to provoke fights...although I should have .  I've heard more about Facebook comments getting kids fightin' mad at my school, but I guess it shouldn't surprise me that kids would move on to other technologies to do this.
• It's interesting that the principal can get kids to follow him.  I'm surprised when my students follow me, even though I tweet links of videos and photos of our students in action.  I've pondered creating another Twitter account, one that's more personal and not constrained by the "official-ness" of my current account.

It is encouraging that a principal can engage kids in a conversation using social media.  So many kids use Twitter and Facebook to cause trouble/goof off, so it's nice to see them use it as (some) adults use it.