One of the issues that has really become evident to me lately is that we have a lot of people, teachers included, who are posting onto blogs in a way that is not modeling what we would expect from students. We have educators posting rants and overreactions about topics where they may be misinformed or not have all the facts. They are posting comments that are harmful to others without thinking fully about the impact their words can have. They are doing this and getting rewarded by retweets and reposts. Yet all of that is for a behavior that we would not want to see in our students.

We need to make sure that as educators we are writing and posting in a way that we would want our students to. We want them to be responsible with their words and make sure they have all the facts before saying something that will not just show others in a bad light, but themselves.

While the news programs today live for sound bites and those stories that attract eyeballs by being sensational, that is not what we want our students to do. We want them to be responsible, much more so than what some of us are modeling.

Make sure you know the facts before you post. Be aware that a rant or overreaction may make you feel good for a second, but the harm could be longer lasting. It is good to have conversations but be responsible and do not just scream thoughts into the world, digital or not. Wait on those posts that may seem like overreactions or rants, make sure that is really what you want to say.  Think about what you would feel if others wrote that about you without being fully informed.  Make sure you do your due diligence before hitting that submit button.

Follow the rules that we expect students to follow. Ask yourself the following; does this post reflect who you are and would someone you really respect, respect what you wrote? Think before you blog, model that which we would expect to see in our students.