Facebook minefield for teachers

My youngest daughter may be only five years old, but on the door of her classroom is a big notice about Facebook

 My youngest daughter may be only five years old, but on the door of her classroom is a big notice about Facebook.

It warns that teachers have been put in akward and embarrassing situations by children using Facebook to send messages to teachers.

I doubt whether 5-year-olds are using the social networking site, but the notice is another sign of the growing concern among teachers about the way Facebook and other sites are undermining their profession.

This week headteachers were issued with guidance in response to complaints about intimidation and personal attacks on staff via Facebook.

The National Association of Headteachers (NAHT) said the fastest growing source of calls to its advice line involved misuse of Facebook and other social networking sites.

The misuse of social networking sites includes personal attacks on staff and "unsubstantiated" allegations about management decisions, the union said.

Fuelled by technology and encouraged by anonymity, rumours and gossip easily grow into petitions and campaigns, the union said.

In Cumbria teachers might be best advised to avoid visiting any of the dozens of Facebook pages set up for pupils and former pupils which discuss school life in blunt terms.

True, there are many flattering comments for some teachers who are considered a "laugh", but the Facebook pages are also littered with rumours about staff affairs, staff-pupil relationships and former pupils harbouring grudges years after they left school.

On www.ratemyteachers.com pupils score their teachers on categories such as popularity and helpfulness.

Again, many teachers are praised by pupils and some of the comments are surprisingly constructive, but how would the a certain Carlisle teacher feel if she read a string of damning comnments such as this: "All she does is shout and cry in our lessons and the only way I get any work done is picking random pages in the text book and working on them. Should be fired"?

A west Cumbrian teacher is described as "an awful teacher. He always speaks in the same tone of voice which makes lessons boring, he never helps people who are confused and he always forgets what hes supposed to be teaching."

Clearly Facebook and such sites are a minefield for teachers who seem pretty powerless to control what is being said about them.