I shared the last post “Can we be friends?” with the student in question. I was curious for his reaction. Even more curiously, he didn’t really have one. He said it was no big deal and went on to say that it was a strange thing to write about.
Because I over-analyze just about everything when it comes to education, I’ve been mulling over his reaction, or lack thereof. I have to say, I imagined a lot of responses, but apathy? What’s up with that?
When spotting me at Walmart my students positively freak out or run in the other direction. I’m either a movie star or a walking plague. So, it’s not my bruised ego playing into this interaction, I’m wondering how the modern friendship is viewed to children that have grown up online.
It’s a strange dichotomy to react so strongly when seeing me face-to-face anywhere other than the classroom, but not to consider seriously the access to my personal life that Facebook affords. Is the online friendship purely virtual?
Social networking provides a technology interface that could be enormously advantageous in keeping in touch with your students. That is, concerning their progress, upcoming assessments, missing assignments, and all that other “teacher” stuff. It’s a medium as comfortable to many teenagers as the telephone is to me. And in that way, I wouldn’t call a student to “talk”, but I might call them to conference on their success.