At TeachersConnect, we value your expertise and honor your struggles.

The TeachersConnect community is intended only for educators. It is important to us that you feel safe, comfortable, and respected in the community at all times. To enhance the dialogue, we’ve put together some simple guidelines for engaging in the TeachersConnect community.

We know that discussions are a way for everyone to bring their experience, knowledge, and vulnerabilities to the table. At the same time, we realize there are many schools of thought within the field of education – some that transcend our political and cultural lives. We want to support this diversity of thought and encourage you to bring your true self to discussions while maintaining respect for each other’s differences.

When making moderation decisions, we will take these guidelines, as well as the context in which posts are made, into account and provide feedback to the contributor as needed. We wanted to make these guidelines public and be transparent about our moderation process and why certain posts are removed.

We also recognize that this is your community as much as it is ours. We want you to help us uphold a high standard of quality for conversation in the discussions. These guidelines can help you and the rest of the TeachersConnect community have an enjoyable experience online; however, should you ever encounter something that is negatively impacting your experience, please let us know by using our online form here.

In short

• Feel at home.This community is intended specifically for educators, so you are safe to ask questions and provide honest answers.
• Be a good citizen.Interact, connect, and treat others with respect.
• Stay on topic.Keep your content relevant, positive, and solutions-focused.
• Know the boundaries.Your activity on TeachersConnect is subject to these Community Guidelines and the TeachersConnect terms of service. If you stray away from appropriate usage, we may take action on your account, which could include deactivation.

What we encourage

• Have an authentic identity. People connect to other real, authentic people on TeachersConnect. When people stand behind their opinions and actions with their authentic name and reputation, our community is more accountable and so are your posts. Our real name requirement creates a safer environment for everybody.
• Be respectful.We’re a diverse global community of many types of people, with different beliefs, opinions, sensitivities, and comfort levels. Please be polite and respectful in your interactions with other members and consider your audience when posting publicly. If you’re unsure whether content is appropriate or consistent with the Community Guidelines or the TeachersConnect Terms of Service, please err on the side of caution.
• Engage thoughtfully.You have the opportunity to help shape your online community. Contribute thoughtful content, report abusive content if you see it, and encourage rich, fulfilling engagement and interactions with others.
• Share your expertise or ask for input.Encourage discussions and contribute original content, questions and thoughts to your community. Chances are someone else has the same question as you or could benefit from your knowledge, opinions, or personal experiences.

What we prohibit

• Bullying or harassment of community members. TeachersConnect isn’t a place to harass, bully, shame, impersonate, or intimidate others. This includes the use of hate speech, which directly attacks a person or group on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, disability, disease, age, sexual orientation, gender, or gender identity. We’re a global community of people with diverse beliefs, opinions, and backgrounds, so please be respectful and keep hateful and incendiary comments off of TeachersConnect.
• Obscenities.Sexually explicit and vulgar language and images are not welcome.
• Malicious behavior.Members of TeachersConnect must follow our Community Guidelines and the TeachersConnect Terms of Service. Don’t attempt to defraud, impersonate, threaten, harass or harm another member. Don’t invade another member’s privacy or spam another member or the community. Don’t try to trick people into sharing their personal information, steal anything (like copyrighted or trademarked material), or break into places you shouldn’t be. Don’t post links to sites that contain viruses or malicious programs or that interfere with the operation of TeachersConnect and its members.
• Using the community as a sales platform.Please do not solicit other members for personal financial gain. This includes selling or professionally promoting goods or services.Note: The Job Seekers Community may have sponsored job postings.
• Using the community to rant.We want to keep our community a positive, healthy environment primed for the sharing of ideas and information. While we all have “those days” that you just need to talk about, be sure to keep the conversation solutions-focused and certainly avoid calling out any members of your school community.
• Sharing personal information about students or colleagues.This community, while intended to be for educators only, is still a fairly public space. For that reason, it is essential that you avoid sharing any personally identifiable information about students or colleagues without explicit permission. Please see the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act for more detail.

What TeachersConnect will do

• Support the community.We will ensure that we promote community, collaboration, and discussion on TeachersConnect. We will provide assistance to individual member queries directly through the support section of our website. We will also listen to the ideas and suggestions of our community members to help us build and improve the functions and features of TeachersConnect where applicable.
• Maintain a safe environment.We care greatly about our members and their ability to have safe, rich online experiences. That is why we seek to ensure that this is a closed community specifically for educators to make those important connections and share ideas. While we cannot be present for every interaction and upload, we look to our members to report abusive and potentially harmful content. You can report content violations by using our online form here. After we are notified of a potential violation, we will review the content and may take action. We may make exceptions to these policies based on artistic, educational, or documentary considerations, or when there are other substantial benefits to the public from not taking action.

We do our best to ensure fair outcomes, but if we conclude that you are violating these guidelines, we reserve the right to suspend accounts, or remove content, without notice, for any reason, but particularly to protect our services, infrastructure, members, and community. We reserve the right to enforce, or not enforce, these guidelines at our sole discretion, and these guidelines don’t create a duty or contractual obligation for us to act in any particular manner. We also reserve the right to amend these guidelines using the procedures set forth in our Terms of Service.