I think a challenge of marrying the personal vs the professional presence on social media is making sure nothing you post online could affect your career. Being a teacher and being so involved with social media is something I see to be quite scary, how one simple mistake online could be taken totally wrong and could have serious consequences for your career. I use a lot of social media and although i am happy and confident i have nothing to hide online, i still need to watch what i do. However i feel that making sure all your personal accounts are totally private is something that will keep your personal life separate from your professional career. One thing i didn’t know you could do was be in control of what you get tagged in on facebook, because although it may be something that someone else is totally fine with having on social media it could again be something that could be taken the wrong way and affect your career.

I think social media is something that can be twisted very quickly and teachers are often all over the papers for something negative they have done online, which sometimes tends to be an innocent mistake which is then published so publically. I feel like the way to avoid this is definitely thinking very carefully before you post anything on social media and if you have any doubt about it affecting your career then simply don’t post it.

Although this all seems so negative i think social media is a great way to further the education of children, and on things like twitter it can be very helpful in keeping parents and pupils up to date with everything happening in the school. As long as we as teachers show children how to be safe online and we make sure we are careful online then social media is definetly a great source in education.