My Digital Footprint
Ruth Leong, also known by her maiden name as Ruth Cheng, is a high school math teacher who is currently teaching in the Coquitlam School District. In the past, she has taught in the Surrey and North Vancouver school districts. Before entering the teaching profession, Ruth worked as a statistical analyst at the British Columbia Dental Association.
Ruth graduated from the University of British Columbia with a Bachelor of Science (Mathematics major) in 2012 and a Bachelor of Education (Secondary Education Concentration) in 2013. Ruth is also fluent in Chinese.
Ruth is active on her Instagram account where she documents many of the events in her life. She mostly posts about her outings with her friends and her travels with her husband, Haymen.
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Being a high school teacher, I have come to be very aware of what I share and what is shared about me on the internet. In fact, there have been many times when I have purposely gone through and removed content online that I do not want others (mainly my students!) to see. An example of this was the website I created for my wedding a few years ago. While there was nothing inappropriate on it, it felt private and I did not want the information to be available online after the occasion had passed.
From my search, the only sneak-peek that was available into my personal life was the picture (seen above) from my Instagram page. Of course, it also lists my Instagram account name, which leads to more pictures from my day-to-day life. My Instagram account used to be private to the public. However, I recently consciously changed it because sometimes I like to share my posts with friends and family who do not have an Instagram account. When I was a new teacher, it was really important for me to keep my personal life private. However, as I become more comfortable in my profession, I realize that even if students stumble across my page, it would perhaps make me more personable and human.
I like to describe myself as candid and friendly. As such, I try to portray this through my posts on Facebook and Instagram. While my Facebook page is quite hidden and cannot be found through a simple search online, I believe that my Instagram account does show this if one really does spend the time looking through all the posts! Having said this, I am always mentally self-censoring, making sure that things that I post are not at risk of being taken the wrong way or out of context. I am always making sure that any posts I like align with my values and beliefs. Sometimes it’s easy to “like” a post on Facebook or Instagram because it is posted by a good friend. However, I understand that everything I do online can be seen by others and I want to make sure that it only adds positively to my online presence.
– Ruth
September 12, 2017 @ 8:57 am
Hi Ruth,
You clearly have good insight into your presence online and how to manage what other people can see. Teachers are often forced into being more private than public, just because of the nature of our job and the fact that we are scrutinized. This is especially true for high school teachers, who are serving a population that is so active on social media.
When I was teaching high school, I would accept friend requests from former students but rarely from current students. Even that became tiresome, not so much because they could see my life, but I could see theirs. I quit FB altogether during my MEd as it was such a time waster.
Thanks for your insight!
cm