I have had several people ask why I never blog about work. There are several reasons that a major part of my life is left out of my blog 99% of the time. I would love to blog about work and the trials, struggles and fun that I have as an employee of a high school in a small county. However, recently there have been several cases where teachers have been fired or are under investigation because of things posted on their blogs. In many of the cases I see nothing wrong with what the teacher wrote. However, parents of students and employers have taken issue with many of the situations that teachers blog about, even when identifying information is not used. For the protection of my family and my career I have made the decision not to blog about my work, which is sad because work is where most of my time is spent.
I do find it troubling that teachers are basically being told that if they want to keep their jobs they do not have the right to free speech. When I decided to become a teacher no one told me that I was giving up the right to freedom of speech. I also find it troubling that teachers are held to a much higher standard of living than any other profession and that we are constantly the butt of jokes and criticized by others who know little to nothing about the teaching profession.