Can Someone Explain Facebook/Twitter?

[Crankin]

Deeaimond, actually the new principal does know me. We were hired at the same time, in 1999, both being quite above the experience and age for new hires in teaching (that's what I loved about my last employer. They hired by need, not by how much they had to pay). He just forgot that I was in grad school, doing something else.
I was in your position once. I got involuntarily transferred from the middle school to an elementary school. Since I was a special ed collaborative teacher, the new principal wisely decided to assign me to work with 4th and 2nd grade. She took one look at me and knew it was best not to put me with first graders. The second grade was a learning curve of about a semester, but it was actually OK.

[OakLeaf]

Another example - not a new usage, but the first time I've seen integration with "old media:"

Late yesterday afternoon two local high school students were killed in a car accident. The newspaper's web report of the accident has a link to a Facebook memorial page. As of this morning the group already has 750 members.

Thankfully I haven't lost anyone close since adopting FB, but I can say that when I lost my dogs it was hugely helpful to be able to go to online pet loss support sites whenever I was struggling with the grief. I can totally appreciate how much comfort bereaved friends must find on these memorial sites. Not to have to call someone up and burden them without knowing their mood, but to be able to read and post pictures and memories, chat with friends who are already online, etc.

[Tuckervill]

Yes, recently a teenager in my town committed suicide. I found out about it on Facebook. We didn't know the boy, but many of my son's friends and our baseball friends knew him and were simply devastated.

It happened during the week before the date of an annual walk I participate in to raise money for research to prevent suicide; I was able to get a message across on Facebook about this important work to people who were in deep need of the resources this organization provides. I wouldn't have had that access to this family otherwise.

I can only hope that some of his family or friends found the information they needed through that organization. Certainly I hope it means there are no copy-cat suicides in his wake.

Karen

[NbyNW]

+1 re sharing news, mourning, and memorializing.

One of the longtime music teachers where I grew up passed away earlier this year. When I was going to school, the music program was such that many students who were studying an instrument might have worked with him from 4th grade all the way through high school, so he had a meaningful impact on a lot of students. A lot of kids where I grew up move away after college, like I did, so many of his students are far and wide. A couple of FB pages sprung up after the news circulated where people could post their condolences and memories of this wonderful teacher.