Update status. Click. Inbox. Click. Notifications. Click.
This is an everyday habit of most high school students.
Many Blue Valley teachers also have accounts on this popular social networking site.
Most students have Facebooks so they can put up pictures, send messages or communicate with friends from other schools.
Teachers don’t necessarily do those things, but they have their own reasons for having accounts on this site.
“The main reason I got a Facebook was to have access to information about other organizations who have groups on Facebook,” Social Studies teacher Mark Klopfenstein said.
Science teacher Charlena Sieve also has a Facebook account.
“I got one mainly because of the National Honor Society group,” Sieve said.
Sieve is friends with a few of her students, but Klopfenstein and science teacher Larry Hare said that they only friend their students after they’ve graduated.
“I like to check up on how my past students are doing,” Hare said. “I’m friends with a few students from the baseball teams I coached back in the ‘80s and ‘90s. I also like to check the Outdoor Education Lab group page to see all the former employees since I’ve worked at that camp for almost 30 years.”
Some teachers check theirs more often than others.
“I don’t check mine very often,” Sieve said. “Probably about once every week or two.”
Hare gets on Facebook two or three times a week.
“I communicate with some of my old friends from high school and college,” he said.
Many students think that teachers on Facebook will watch what they’re doing, but the truth is, teachers say they really don’t have any interest.
“I really don’t care much about what everyone is doing at every moment of every day,” Klopfenstein said.
Foreign Language teacher Jill Gouger doesn’t feel the need to have a Facebook.
“I don’t really care about other teachers having Facebooks,” Gouger said. “They might use them to keep in touch with old friends, but if I really needed to talk to someone, I would pick up the phone and call them.”
Students have mixed opinions on whether or not teachers should have Facebooks.
“I think it’s pretty cool that teachers are becoming more tech savvy,” senior Tyler Goff said.
While Goff thinks that teachers having Facebooks isn’t a bad idea, sophomore Annie Matheis thinks it’s a little strange.
“I just think of Facebook as a Web site where you talk to your friends and get away from school,” Matheis said. “So it’s just a little weird to see teachers on it. But I guess they have social lives, too.” by Jordan McEntee.