Recently, I accidentally e-mailed all of my current students with my online screenname instead of my real name. The reason is because I had tried to sign up for Google Plus with my screenname, except it kept my screenname in my account once I e-mailed my students. Once I realized what I'd done, I screamed so loudly that the mirrors in my apartment almost cracked.
Most people in my "offline" life do not know that I have a blog or a Twitter page, even though I've been blogging and Tweeting for years. Most people don't even know that I want to be a writer. They think I'm just this over-caffeinated English teacher who freaks out over grammatical errors and students who think it's okay to show up to class forty-five minutes late and still expect to be counted as present (insert head exploding here).
Some teachers blog about the misbehavior of their students, like students who don't turn in their work on time or the ones who keep their headphones on during class. Then the parents who raised the "everybody gets a trophy" generation come out in full force to bring the teacher down, because God forbid anyone should point out that their kids have EVER done anything wrong.
I'm lucky to have a full-time teaching job, even though it's in a small town where country music is played everywhere, to the point that I want to find a banjo and smash it over the loudspeakers. But I'm not a tenured professor, so my job security is far from certain. I've been hired on a year-to-year contract, which means that I'm still not sure whether they'll renew my contract for next year and I won't find out for months (that's why I'm applying to other schools in the meantime).
Since I'm still applying for other jobs, I know that search committees may Google me, though several of them will never admit to this. They won't necessarily find anything bad, like pictures of me getting drunk, since if anyone tried to make me drink alcohol I'd immediately spit it out. They might find reviews of my teaching on one of those awful Rate Your Professor sites, where there are positive reviews of me but also negative ones that say stuff like, "She's so unfair. She makes us show up to class every day."
If I put my real name or pictures of my face on my blog, those search committees (as well as the school that currently employs me) might not appreciate my posts about teaching. I never named any of the schools that employed me, and I never named any of the students either. But I did describe some of their bad behavior, like the volatile student who screamed at me for twenty minutes because I dared to give him a B, or the disrespectful student who almost drove me to tears in front of my class several years ago.
When I realized that I'd sent my screenname to my students, I was worried that they might Google it out of curiosity, since it is an unusual name. Then they would find my blog and my Twitter page. They'd read what I wrote about them, and they'd read about my personal life. It was one of my biggest nightmares. All it takes is one disgruntled student upset about his or her grade to
find my blog or my Twitter page and send it to my bosses.
I debated deleting both accounts altogether. I also e-mailed several of you in a panic, asking for advice. You were all kind enough to respond promptly, and I appreciate your feedback. Ultimately, I decided to make both of my accounts private and (mostly) stay offline for a couple of weeks. That's why I haven't been blogging lately, and that's why you may not have been able to find my blog the last couple of weeks. I wanted to play it safe.
I couldn't bring myself to delete my blog. That's five years worth of writing, and I couldn't give it up. I gave up or lost almost everything else because of teaching: almost all my friends, romantic relationships, my twenties, and the city I loved. I couldn't deal with the idea of giving up my writing too.
So for now, I'll keep the blog and the Twitter page up. I'll still write about teaching, but I'll be more cautious now. Fortunately, none of my students said anything about my screenname. Hopefully, no one ever says anything.
What about you? Do you keep your blog or Twitter page a secret? Would you have deleted your accounts, if you were in my situation?
P.S. I might be taking a risk by stating this on my blog, but I couldn't e-mail everyone this since not everyone has their e-mail address listed. I'm going to change my URL to weirdworkaholic.blogspot.com starting next week.
Co-Hosting IWSG Day! Plus OFMD Airport Con and Sauti Poems of Hope
-
[image: W]
welcome to the final *Insecure Writer's Support Group Day* for this year!
Happy to be co-hosting today!
Look at this adorable reindeer!
*Image...
2 days ago
And there you go. One of my writerly friends asked in a writing group if anyone knew what had happened to you. I suppose that was my first hint that something was up. (It wasn't a Wednesday.) Here's hoping you can remain anonymous!
ReplyDeleteHi Crystal,
DeleteI hope I can remain anonymous too; I was so afraid that all my students (and my colleagues, as well as my bosses) would start reading my blog and Twitter page, which is why I seriously considered deleting both. But so far it seems like none of them have (I hope so, anyway). Fellow blogger Theresa Milstein suggested that I go offline for a while, just in case, so I did.
Theresa, eh? Probably some okay advice. I'm glad you went undetected though. It's not like anyone is going to go scouring back through old communications just to find your info, but when it's fresh, there's a chance.
DeleteI understand you wanting your privacy. I would probably have deleted everything too, because I'm paranoid. But, I hope none of your students report you. I don't think you have anything to be ashamed off. Also, schools shouldn't judge you on your social life, but rather how great a teacher you are. Students take your classes. If nobody showed up, that would be bad, but that is not the case. Wishing you the best.
ReplyDeleteHi Murees,
DeleteNice profile picture by the way! Technically, the students are required to take my classes; I generally teach classes that are required for graduation. The tenured professors are usually the ones that get to teach the more advanced classes.
Hopefully none of the students report me. I really didn't want to delete my blog, though I might have if I could have figured out some way to email the entire thing to myself. It definitely taught me to start saving my blog posts in a separate file, just in case. But anyway, thank you for your support and advice!
I've never needed to hide my identity to this extent, but I have seen how teachers have gotten nailed because of things they wrote on their blogs, and it's often not pretty.
ReplyDeleteHopefully it ends up being nothing, but rather be safe than sorry.
Hi Misha,
DeleteSo far, I haven't been "exposed" further, thank goodness; hopefully no one will find out and I won't get in trouble. I've worked so hard, and I'd hate to lose it all just because of my blog or my Twitter page.
Eep! Hope you get to keep your privacy. I'd better remember to update the blog roll on the side of my blog :-)
ReplyDeleteHi Deniz,
DeleteI'll change my URL within a week or so; I didn't have time to write a new post for this week, but when I do I'll change the URL. Let me know if you can't find my blog at the new address!
Thanks for the heads up on the URL :-) I was wondering why what I had on the side of my blog wasn't working. *lightbulb*
ReplyDeleteEvery once in a while, I fear something like this happening to me though. I try to keep everything private if possible. This is is also why I sometimes think about starting over with an anonymous blog. But I feel like that would be a lot of work (and I am bad about updating the one I have as it is). Ah well.
Hi Catherine,
DeleteActually, I've decided to keep my old URL, at least for now; I changed it for a while, just to play it safe, but I decided to change it back. The reason is that it felt like too much of a hassle to contact everyone and let them know about the change.
I thought about starting a new blog, but I've kept this blog for more than five years. So I've grown attached to it.
I'm glad you got through this whole saga without a problem. So scary. I love your blog. So relieved you don't have to delete it!
ReplyDeleteWhen I used to blog about subbing, I had to be careful about what I said since I use my real name. I think it would've been a lot more fun if I'd used a pen name.
Hi Theresa,
DeleteThank you for your advice about the whole situation; I followed it. That is, I changed the URL for a couple weeks, and then I changed it back. I just couldn't bring myself to delete the whole thing. And I love your blog too; I like being able to communicate with you and the other bloggers online.
I thought about using my real name when I first started blogging, but I liked the idea of using a pseudonym. If I ever get published, though, I'll use my real name.