Wednesday, October 27, 2010

The perils of facebook

Today we faced an issue I wasn't expecting: Our students wrote about their Baseline ACT scores in their facebook statuses. I think the most damaging post was the one from my high achiever who got a 28. Without him in the mix, my cohort's average is a 14.1-HALF of his score. He has every right to be excited about this baseline score- I'm sure that we can help him so much and that he can apply to some of the most competitive schools in the country with that score, but I cannot imagine being a student who scored an 11 and saw that status. What's even more surprising is that some of my students who scored between 13 and 15 also facebooked about their scores- something I'm not quite sure they should be proud of...

After a serious talk I think that all of my students have agreed not to post about their scores anymore, but it's interesting how much this shows that facebook is a huge part of my student's lives and they regularly share the most personal details of their lives on it.

1 comment:

  1. Hmmm . . . remember when a certain group of Juniors at an unspecified East Coast prep school all received their PSAT scores? And they were told to keep their scores to themselves, for all of the reasons you just mentioned? Yet, when polled, were honest enough to admit that it took them approximately 3.5 seconds upon leaving the Study Hall to share their scores with at least one (if not several) friend(s)? OH, LIFE'S CIRCLE IS SWEET!! And a lesson in human nature is learned ~ xo.

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