In response to Angry Parents, let me share a story whereby most of my pupils and former pupils and students have added me as their friends on Facebook. I am proud of that. That is one beautiful thing being a teacher.

The kids remember you whether they've been good kids or playful ones. That shows that they were never being neglected in school. Now, back to my story. During this time being friends and updating status in the Facebook and comment from time to time, I am very much aware that some of the pupils had updated their status stating and expressing their feelings and emotions through it. They even swear a lot using bad words, rude statements and believe it or not, they were talking about their parents!!

As a facebook friend, I must listen to them, hear their burst of anger, sadness, frustration and boredom and read their status to make sure they are still on track where adults can reach out and bring them back to the safe track. As a teacher, I am obliged to advice them to understand why parents do that, act like that and how the children should behave and understand that it is mostly not their parents' fault. Besides that, as a teacher, we try to bring them in to a conversation after reading their thoughts from their status, we are even able to give them a lot to think in making the right and wise decision. Hence, why do you have to insult and reject that particular fact and the reality of teacher facebooking with their students?

Yes, I definitely don't agree teachers logging on Facebook during the lessons. However, I have never encountered an irresponsible teacher who is doing so as your ridiculous, unprofessional, invalid but un-proven accusations. Teachers are not robots. They are still human with certain capacity of working mind. They need time and some space in their tired-mind to settle down before the next lesson. Accept the fact.

Teachers have been so committed to their work compared to others who I need not mention as they went out during working hours just to have their tea-break outside in a restaurant in the town or doing other things besides hanging out in other people's offices. Can teachers do that? Like during break-time? Of course not!

Have you ever wondered that a teacher who is also a mother may be worried like other parents do and yet they are able to send food to their preschool children or kids except the teacher, who is a mother herself? So please, remember this, 'Not Guilty Until Proven' and please don't find other people's mistakes. If you can check your own children facebook accounts, you might be very surprised to find how much you need to know and find your own mistakes there.

Comments (23)

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From a Teacher to a Parent: Your Kids are talking about you on Facebook!
written by great teacher onizuka , February 04, 2010

well done! a reply post worth reading!

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..., Low-rated comment [Show]

comentku..aku punya pasal la.., Low-rated comment [Show]

adang2 tah.., Low-rated comment [Show]

:)
written by dayang senandung , February 04, 2010

bravo.. bravo.. *two thumbs up* i totally agree..

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sekadar!!!!
written by prejudis , February 04, 2010

kepada manusia biasa bah!!! bah awda yang mengucapkan skadar2 atu...hati2 sikit jua bercakap..cakap atu macam semua guru macam atu..ketulahan jua ko karang..inda pun arah anak2 mu karang nanti...jangan kerana nila setitik, rosak susu sebelanga!

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hmm
written by Love Brunei... , February 05, 2010

Inda pandai abis case ane...~~~ masing2 tunjuk gagah, msing2 tunjuk kelemahan org lain, msing2 kn tunjukkn siapa lurus, msing2 kn menyalahkan org lain, kesalahan urg lain diungkit, kesalahan sendiri inda dicari, msing2 kn bekasar... if kn mnagur pun biarlah cara lembut... Semua yang inda baik atu dtgnya dari kitani semua, dan semua yg baik atu dari Allah..so sama2lah tane perbaiki diri sendiri...

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enough is enough
written by aku ani pun cigu , February 05, 2010

what is the problem?? What I know is some parent complain about seeing an 'I'm teaching' status of some teacher on fb. Then assume that the teacher is updating status during teaching. So, what is the problem here?? It is INDEED WRONG for the teacher to do that! Why all these defenses from the teachers?? And why blame the parent for assuming the teacher did that during the lesson. He did say HE IS TEACHING didn't he? So, either he really is fb-ing during a lesson or his english is really bad.

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Astaghfirullah
written by Hamba Allah , February 05, 2010

Astaghfirullah..astaghfirullah..

bawalah beristighfar banyak2..
parents2 ada hak untuk ingau psl anak2..teachers2 pun ada hak untuk mendefend diri drg..
sebenarnya FB ni yg salah..cuba fikirkan..dari fb,bnyk masalah berlaku..

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most parents are that inconsiderate...
written by kutam , February 05, 2010

I notice complaints about FB being used during teaching lesson and so on. But does people know that not all teacher have classes 24 hrs straight. I mean, use your common sense, why not talk about yourself for once then you will feel 'terasa' where I even notice that working parents themselves go for shopping during office hours. I may not know their stories on why they are out during that time but can't you see that you people are 'makan gaji buta'. For god sake, change your attitude for once and probably we can move forward and not corrupting each other. No wonder we bruneians are moving backwards even showing new system and technologies, still find the time to say and backstab one another. Open your eyes people, we learn from our mistake, but in brunei, when you make a mistake, people will haunt your mistake for the rest of your life. When you do something good, it will short lived. So like I said... Change your attitude or we will not move forward.

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hey adang2tah..ur opinion is so crap..
written by adang2tah , February 05, 2010

ur full of crap

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...
written by Sudahlahko , February 05, 2010

Hahahahaha! Baru tdi ada parents marah2 arah my skulah n time ia marah she said " Update status kamu d FB ukan main rajin kamu ah pi homework langsung nda bgi rah anak ku!" Hehehehe, how i wish MOE read these comments. It a goona be a big blow for us teachers and can't wait for it!!!

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BruneianNeedMindsetChange
written by BruneianNeedMindsetChange , February 06, 2010

kepada urg2 brunei sekalian...all of you need mindset change,thats why brunei ndakan maju psl pikiran drg belakang and not depan like negeri2 yg maju.stop tia tabiatkan cakap atu ane and people's crap....nada bawa faedahnya.shut up and focus on important matters like corruption,drugs and etc...iatah membarinya belia2 tane mudah terikut berfikiran negative instead of positive.

sekian terima kasih

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gagagaga
written by tupai sepet , February 06, 2010

psl fb pn kelaie. haha,relax sha,lama2 biasa tu. haha=D

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bukumuha
written by hijau , February 06, 2010

i would recommend ketua kampong, penghulu or menteri2 di brunei ani ada account di facebook supaya sanang dicari atau sanang menghadapkan komplen, kalau tah dapat semua yang keraja ani ada facebook ikut jabatan dan kementerian masing2 supaya sanang di pantau atau dicari. lets be general and open, comment disini ani focus nya arah guru saja, why not as a whole? maklum just because sorang saja kedapatan then the whole guru kamu blame, people, aku ani befacebook jua, kontek2 ku ani banyak jua keraja di kerajaan mau pun private regardless of their work or jobs, still durang kadang2 update status durang inda kira masa mau pun bila2 masa jua. facebook punya pasal pun mau gaduh kah? yeah, i'am already a fan of H M on facebook. so?

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...
written by rasyidah , February 06, 2010

1) judging by your topic title, who are you to blame these parents for becoming 'bad' parents?? Kids complain. Kids rebel. Hormones. Peer Pressure. Facebook is a mean of attention seeking. and its normal. Its the number of comments that counts. I could say " I hate my parents" then 30 people will comment on it. Its a popularity contest!

2) I think a line should be drawn between a teacher-student relationship. Teachers teach fullstop. because.....

3) does the word pedophile ring any bells? I know you will get defensive on this ( as any person would) but consider the roots of such actions.

4) CONFIDENTIALITY! PRIVACY!! dont they teach you on that???

5) I think its sad u mix your social life with your students. I really do. which brings to the point....

6) You are not oprah winfrey nor superman. Stop getting into other people's cases. They are students for godness sake. Cut some slack, will ya???

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lol
written by sawan , February 06, 2010

antam kamu kan bekelaie saja

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Facebook is not safe
written by Iza , February 06, 2010

Nobody seems the know in Brunei that facebook is created by Jewish. Mossad the Jewish KGB or CIA love Facebook because the get lots of free information from our kids and adults. STOP using facebook.

Maybe you not noticed but even the Brunei Government have facebook accounts. For what????

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Saja kan share
written by another story , February 06, 2010

Assalamu'alaikum.

Aku ani seorang anak/student. Mother ku teacher. So aku faham jua lah sikit2 cana rasa indung ku. Apanya pepatah, "Barat mata memandang, berat lagi bahu yang memikul"

Of course lah ah, masing2 keluarga lain yang tani hadapi hari2.

Macam mother ku, gajinya berapa jua ganya. Rasa kan bekeraja untuk menyediakan makanan di meja atu, apa saja tugas kana bagi oleh orang atasan, buat saja. Cemana pun ngalihnya tu.

Kami sebagai anak, inda dapat buat apapa selain dari mencuba untuk meringankan beban di rumah.

Masing2 parents sama anak ada peranan yang berlainan. Satu saja yang sama. Which is, "to understand".

Communication sesama keluarga atu penting. Parents bekeraja (sama ada sebagai seorang guru atau apapun) demi keluarga. So, anak2 jangan lah memberatkan lagi parents ketani.

Parents inda minta apapa dari seorang anak selain dari kasih sayang, kesolehan & kejayaan anak2.

Semua pun parents mau anak2nya berjaya. Dalam kes cemani ani, nada yang salah, nada yang lurus.

Sebelum ketani kan meluruskan kelakuan diri orang lain, luruskan tah dulu dari ketani masing2. Manusia tidak akan lepas dari melakukan kesilapan. Apa yang tani dapat buat cuma memperbaiki diri kitani.

Apa pun yang tani percakapkan, semua atu mcm doa. So, lafazkanlah kata2 yang baik2. Apapun kesalahan orang lain atu, doakan saja supaya durang akan sadar apa yang durang buat atu salah. Mun durang melakukan perkara yang baik, Alhamdulillah.

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FB
written by jimmy , February 06, 2010

Oh that "kids" yang complain and exposing their parents' personal matter must be a lame kid. Kan share masalah tu share lah but don't buruk-burukkan someone dear to you. I like to help my friends yang sharing their emotion but if yang over terlabih atu, membari gali jua. If you think hell is your place, then go there now.

About the teacher FB-ing during their teaching time, inda jua all the time kan FB. Updating status can be like few seconds. Have you heard anak mati pasal cikgu FB or buat other stuff for just 10 seconds?

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one way one solution
written by one way one solution , February 06, 2010

block facebook throughout country.. all of these wont happen

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...
written by Dean , February 07, 2010

The Ministry must ban facebook in Schools , this is causing such an outrage. Shame on you teachers

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...
written by just saying , February 21, 2010

u should reconsider the title of your post..it sounds a bit negative to me..after all, u are the teacher

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