Your Relationship With Students On Social Networking Sites, As Friend?

To be a successful teacher, it is quite a challenge to maintain your relationship with students, on and off your 'four walls of classroom'. We're looking at your relationship with students, on social networking circles.

In experiencing the new age of social networking across the globe, it is a very common thing to fall into work versus personal life imbalances. It deserves to be handled in the right way though. Drawing a line between your personal work and teaching association on such online communities, actually helps.

Even as we unfold some ways to handle social networking between teachers and students, let us take a look at some points which would help manage the whole relationship game.

Some factors governing the relationship between you and your student friends on social networking sites, may be as follows -

1. Being Transparent - For instance, never put anything on Facebook, that you wouldn't want your students to see. And set limits on what they can view on your page. Maintain a check on your content which you post on the site. Live life transparently. Try doing nothing of Facebook, that you wouldn't do in class.

2. Creating A Separate Account - You may want to think about having a separate account for professional reasons. By doing so, you are clear on defining the objective of your presence in the channel. Accept friend requests from students whom you know.

3. Avoid Unknown Requests - Think well before accepting friend requests from strangers whom you are not aware of. It is alright to accept your former students, preferably those who have passed out of your school or college after graduation. Exempt strangers.

4. The Pseudonym Trick - As much as you can, use a nickname on your account or a pseudonym, so that those students who are known to you closely, would be able to find you easily.

5. The 'NO' Rule - If you aren't quite sure on how it all actually works, you bet not to get into it! You have a choice to never, ever accept friend known or unknown requests under any circumstances. And if there is a thought in you which says, 'it is inappropriate for me to share my personal information or knowledge or social status with my students', then you may want to abide by it, by ALL means. So, let your NO be NO.

If you've got some more of such relationship tips to maintain with your students on social networking websites, then please do share it here!