A teacher urges colleagues not to post photos of trashed classrooms on social media. Before you share, ask yourself why: venting, validation, or something else. Every student, no matter their age or size, is someone's baby and deserves dignity even on their worst day.
Do not post pictures of your trashed classroom online. If one of your students had a really bad day, engaged in property destruction, knocked over a bookshelf, threw shelves, and maybe you're tempted to take a picture and post it online to vent about your bad day and find some connection or validation or commiseration, I want you to take a second and think about why you are doing that. I also want you to think about that the fact that that photo shows your really bad day, that that photo also shows your student's really bad day. That student had a really bad day. And that student, that child, is someone's baby. They're someone's whole world. Even if he's 15 and 200 pounds and 5'10", he's someone's baby. And I want you to always think about that whenever you talk about your students, even on their hardest days and your hardest days, that that child is someone's baby.
