These from a page in the Spring Branch School District’s employee handbook

Teachers who blog are encouraged to publish information including, but not limited to:
• Weekly reports on what will be taught during the upcoming week, how it will be taught and why.
• Background information on topics currently being taught in the classroom, creating a context for students and for parents.
• Homework assignments.
• Descriptions of projects, including procedures, expectations, suggested parent involvement, assessment rubrics and links to last year’s projects.
• Achievements of students in the class, students in other classes, and other teachers, school support and administrative staff.
• Pictures may be inserted into your blog. Make certain that the image is appropriate for use in a school document and copyright laws are followed. Photos of students MUST be accompanied by a signed release form provided by the district. This signed form should be kept on file with the teacher. Under no circumstances should identifying names or other personal information of any kind accompany the photos.

District Teacher/Employee bloggers will not use their blogs to:
• Conduct or promote outside business activities.
• Promote or advertise for commercial products unrelated or related to instruction.
• Defame or cause defamation of the character of any individual, organization or institution.
• Divulge any personal information about students, or jeopardize their safety in any other way.
• Link to their own personal blogs from their school blog, or vice versa.

Hmmm…

As one of a handful of known adult bloggers on my K12 campus, I’ve been asked by my Upper School Principal to join a few other 2.0-savvy members of the staff in “seeding a conversation” about the challenges of managing one’s online identity as an educator.

I’ve found some terrific resources on acceptable use policies, but it seems that we’ve spent more time dictating to students than we have figuring out what’s acceptable adult behavior.

As the benefits of participating in social networks become increasingly obvious, so too do the challenges of making sure we’re not opening ourselves up to censure. Just ask Jabiz Raisdana, who lost his job when he crossed a line he was trying not to.

What is an appropriate “rule of thumb” when posting in a non-school-affiliated space that is nonetheless open to the public? I have moved from imagining posts appearing on the front page of the New York Times (an old dean’s recommendation) to imagining posts taped to my office door the next morning. If that makes me uncomfortable, I don’t post.

I also like Pamela Livingston’s idea of LARK.

Your thoughts? I hearby nominate you, dear reader, to join my personal learning network.

Update: Here are my notes for the meeting, complete with excerpts from the comments below and a Diigo list of some items that I found helpful. Thanks so much to everyone who pitched in!