I sent the following response to a classmate who was undecided about how much to be involved in SNS’s.

I was one of those people who said I would never get a social networking site. But once I set up my pages (MySpace and Facebook), I told my students about them and asked them to add me as a friend. I have gained a small group of students between both sites. My students have wonderful poetry, blog writings, comments, and pictures to offer in return. Yes, some of them are silly, too, but that’s okay. They come to my MySpace and Facebook accounts and look at my pictures and send me comments. The way I see it, my kids have a lot to offer, just as I have a lot to offer them. They have given me great advice about how to spruce up my pages, and it pleases them to be a part of my world. I don’t feel like I am giving up my privacy; I see it as sharing more of myself with them. If I do get to the point where it becomes too overwhelming, I can always disappear into cyberspace. I know that inviting students may not work for everyone, but teachers know their students and can gauge whether it is a good idea.

As far as renewing old acquaintances go, it is up to you. Remember that people do change, so people who were not very interesting ten years ago can be very interesting to get to know now. I say take the chance, and if you don’t like them, just delete them out of your cyberworld.

On Friday, I am going to a math leadership meeting in Lexington, and I am going to collect teachers there who have SNS sites and add them to my list. In order to build relationships, you have to put yourself out there, for better or worse, and see what happens. As the Kentucky lottery slogan goes, “you can’t win if you don’t play.” So I encourage everyone to get out there and try.