Where is the Line?

As everyone knows, or should know, the question about being Facebook friends with students is a touchy one. When it comes down to it, it should be known, as a rule of thumb, not to be Facebook friends with your students, even those that are pretty cool. But where is the line for regular friendships drawn?

In Mrs. Sandy's AP class, there is a kid named Evan who is one of the coolest kids I've ever met. Every day I think about how Evan is someone I would definitely have been friends with in high school. He is one of those kids that is adaptable to just about every different type of personality within the classroom. Especially in an AP class, where diversity can be, and often is, rampant, having the type of adaptable personality that Evan does is a great thing to have.

Just about every day, Evan greets me with "'Sup, Nolley" before heading to his seat. Generally that is all the conversation we have each day. On days where they are not having a regular lecture style class, such as when they are working on a paper and are, for example, peer editing or working with each other to attain different ideas, Evan will sometimes make his way over to my corner of the room so we can chat.

This is where I start wondering where the line is drawn. As much as I love talking to this student and picking his brain for different things (he is extremely intelligent and very witty), I often feel bad for talking to him too much because I do not want to distract him from his work, even though I know he will be alright in the end.

As the student teacher (especially as a male student teacher), however, I know that it can seem to be a very thin line between the teacher/student and friend/friend relationships, especially since we are fairly close in age to our students.

As a member of the Apple program at Lyon, Evan has told me about his extreme interest in the school and how much he would love to go there. I hope that he does end up going to Lyon because I know he would fit in there very well.