Future teacher Jackson Graf walked away his from last semester at Northern State University with one of the most important tools of his training - the teacher code of ethics.

Times have changed in education, said Melody Schopp, director of the state Office of Accreditation and Teacher Quality, and new teachers need training in how to handle the ethical and legal pitfalls of the job.

"This is a whole new era," she said.

Teacher authority is questioned more, she said, and technology has provided more avenues for teachers to make errors in judgment that could cost them their careers.

"Kids are savvier; parents are more brazen. They know when things are inappropriate," she said. " … We've had to make policies we never thought we'd have to."

Which might not be a bad thing, Graf said. It will keep him in line, both inside the classroom, and out.

It's a lot of pressure, said Graf's fellow student Jen Erhart, but it's part of the job. There are no classes in ethics or professionalism; but it was something every professor included in the instruction.

"We know we have to be professionals; we know we're still a teacher on Saturday night," she said.

Tom Hawley, dean of the school of education at Northern, said the students are reminded they are "no longer students when they leave Northern, but professional educators."

"One of major theories of learning is modeling, and we teach them that even the littlest thing they do will be picked up by students," he said.

Hawley said the students are shown and then given the code of ethics, which lists the teachers' obligations to students, community and the profession.

"And then we talk about how might their behavior (be) viewed through the lenses of those areas," he said.

With the Internet and computers used as a tool in many districts across the state, students are specifically warned to be careful about what they post on personal Web sites and social networking sites.

The South Dakota Education Association recently released a report on educators communicating over the Internet and suggested that a good rule of thumb: "If your blog or Web page was a movie, it should be rated G."

The association also suggested to educators to never give a student access to their social networking site.

Hawley said he has had more than his share of calls from his students' potential employers worried about what they saw on MySpace, Facebook, or another personal Web site.

It could cost them a job, he said, and it's worrisome.

"We teach them to always maintain the utmost integrity in that fishbowl they are now going into," he said. "We try to talk to them about being a professional role model, theory and practice."

Steven Hengen, human resources director at Rapid City Area Schools, said he has also seen teachers disciplined for inappropriate use of technology.

"When technology surfaced, it was just one more venue for problems," he said.

Hawley said Northern has more than 500 students majoring in elementary education.

He said he's certain that the teachers who left his campus are well aware of their new responsibilities. "We believe professionalism is not something you inherit, it's something you have to develop," he said.

On the Web

Read the three-part teacher code of ethics online at http://doe.sd.gov/oatq/propractices/PTPSC/codeofethics.asp

Contact Kayla Gahagan at 394-8410 or kayla.gahagan@rapidcityjournal.com

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