Excerpts

An excerpt from the latest board policy updates regarding employee use of technology that the principal emailed to all of us teachers:

Employees shall not develop any classroom or work-related web sites, blogs, forums,
or similar online communications representing the district or using district equipment
or resources without permission of the Superintendent or designee. Such sites shall be
subject to rules and guidelines established for district online publishing activities
including, but not limited to, copyright laws, privacy rights, and prohibitions against
obscene, libelous, and slanderous content. Because of the unfiltered nature of blogs,
any such site shall include a disclaimer that the district is not responsible for the
content of the messages. The district retains the right to delete material on any such
online communications.

And

An employee shall not use a cellular phone or other mobile communications device for
personal business while on duty, except in emergency situations and/or during scheduled
work breaks. Any employee that uses a cell phone or mobile communications device in violation of law, Board policy, or administrative regulation shall be subject to discipline and may be referred to law enforcement officials as appropriate.

Of course, this set off a firestorm of reply-to-all emails from disgruntled teachers pointing out the hypocrisy of having an admin that focuses intently on using technology in the classroom and making oruselves available outside of the classroom. I can see both sides of the story. I understand that the district has to protect itself from litigation-happy families. Yes, we should not be putting copyrighted (la la la...) or pornographic material on our school-related websites. And yes, we should be role models in the classroom and therefore should not be using our cell phones while we're teaching. Most other jobs restrict employees from using their cell phones while at work. It's common sense, if you're an adult.

And I guess that's what bothered me (and, maybe, most other teachers) about this email and the board policy itself. We are adults. We know not to text while we're in the middle of a lesson. We are fully aware by now that it's not a good idea to put kiddie porn on our classroom website. Many of us quit our jobs and went deeply into debt so that we could engage in rigorous credentialing programs so we could become teachers, so we get it. Do you really have to threaten law enforcement action to get your point accross? If individual teachers are violating either rule, can't we just be adults and address the issue on an individual basis?

But the longer I teach the less I surprised I get at how rarely we are treated like competent adults. For instance, it's January and some of the classrooms on campus have just barely gotten the heat turned on. The AC still turns on in my classroom sporadically, even when it's 40 degrees outside. Each classroom has thermostats with little control-levers that hint at better days, days when teachers could be trusted to regulate the temperature in the room in which they spend over 8 hours a day. But the district has the idea that it's wasteful to let teachers regulate their own room temperature. We can't be trusted to do this effectively. So instead, we open up our doors and windows to get the AC to turn the eff off...even though it's only 50 degrees outside. When we can't take it anymore, we email the secretary who emails maintenance who eventually comes to our room and proclaims that everything is working fine, who then emails the district, and so on. It's a joke how inefficient and wasteful the district's policy is.

When it comes down to it, sometimes it feels like we have more responsibility than the parents of our students. If there is an emergency on campus and our kids are in danger, we're legally responsible for maintaning their well being. At our school we actually have gigantic buckets in each classroom so that if an emergency keeps our classes in lockdown for a significant period of time, the students can use the gigantic bucket as a toilet. If a kid is getting beaten or neglected at home and we don't do something about it, we're legally responsible if that kid ends up dying or attempting suicide or something else along those lines. And then there are the mundane, daily responsibilities. We provide our kids with band-aids and kleenex and ridiculous amounts of hand sanitizer. We often feed them when they don't bring lunch. We get to school early and we go home late and we work through our lunches and we hold our pee. Can't we, for once, be spared the "reminders" of these asinine board policies?