Did any of you have a student or parent ask you to add him or her on WeChat? - eChinacities Answers

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JohnsonZHANG6868

Posts: 16

Soldier

Q: Did any of you have a student or parent ask you to add him or her on WeChat?

Is there such a rule that foreign teachers cannot give the students or parents their WeChat at private insititutes or universities in China? If so, why is there such a rule?

25 weeks 3 days ago in Teaching & Learning - China

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sorrel

Posts: 3562

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I would set up a WeChat group for students only, and for class-room related messages only.

NOT your personal WeChat number.

Don;t allow parents to be part of this group - they will abuse this as soon as they can.

you don't want parents / students contacting you at all times, and asking you for extra 'help' - which from the parents could involve some 'bribes' to ensure their darling gets better treatment/marks - and could be open to allegations of abuse.

some Uni's have policies on this (and any interactions between students and teachers) you should ask yours. If your Uni does not have such a policy, ask them to write one up (in English) and sign it.

but manage such communication between you and your students (and their parents) in a controlled way, and don;t be afraid to disband the group if someone - anyone - oversteps the line into potential inappropriate behaviour that may be misinterpreted.

NO private messages to individual students.

and keep the online communication to a strictly formal footing - you never know who will be monitoring this.

Don;t give anyone any opportunity to abuse this - because someone will eventually.

imagine your grand-mother and mother can see all interactions in this group.

icnif77:

I don't have we-chat and I've never use it for classes while in China, but I was asked for my phone no. by the students.

I always told them, my Nokia brick is School's property and I have it only for the communication with the School's principal.

I can lie when pressed ...

Was using my email address with private students in China ... for HW.

You advice is spot on.

25 weeks 2 days ago

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Sandnose:

Secondly, if it is a group of adults it becomes a faunt of jingoistic nationalist virtue signalling where every person tries to demonstrate how patriotic they are by baiting you incessantly and trying to catch you in semantic word traps. Or for some weird reason, 20-something Chinese guys like to post animal cruelty or gay sex gifs.

It's not worth the trouble.

Other age groups don't interact very much.

All sorts of people randomly want to add my wechat. I don't care. Most will never talk to you. If they cross The Line in any way, there are no warnings. Immediate black listing.

When I was teaching I had a few groups for good kids who knew each other. About 4 or 5 maximum. They would send pics and some reading or ask a few questions. It wasn't a labour. Parents in the groups are generally quiet and it was good to have a way to contact them if you needed to but that is rare.

Take away from my experience is kid only, no adult group, don't be the owner and set it up so no one can add you personally from the group. And most importantly keep your own participation to set hours. They kids quickly figured out that I didn't answer after 8pm or if I had my own thing going on and were chilled about it. Adult group members don't have boundaries as the me me me me and f4ck you I'm rich, I'm bored you're a foreigner amuse me, I just want to hate on you, mentality kicks in.

25 weeks 2 days ago

Hi Sorrel, nice thought to start a group for this but it quickly becomes a nightmare. Firstly, as the group owner, YOU are responsible for what is said in the group, and the penalties are real world fines and detention. 
Secondly, if it is a group of adults it becomes a faunt of jingoistic nationalist virtue signalling where every person tries to demonstrate how patriotic they are by baiting you incessantly and trying to catch you in semantic word traps. Or for some weird reason, 20-something Chinese guys like to post animal cruelty or gay sex gifs. 
It\'s not worth the trouble. 
Other age groups don\'t interact very much. 
All sorts of people randomly want to add my wechat. I don\'t care. Most will never talk to you. If they cross The Line in any way, there are no warnings. Immediate black listing.  When I was teaching I had a few groups for good kids who knew each other. About 4 or 5 maximum. They would send pics and some reading or ask a few questions. It wasn\'t a labour. Parents in the groups are generally quiet and it was good to have a way to contact them if you needed to but that is rare. 
Take away from my experience is kid only, no adult group, don\'t be the owner and set it up so no one can add you personally from the group. And most importantly keep your own participation to set hours. They kids quickly figured out that I didn\'t answer after 8pm or if I had my own thing going on and were chilled about it. Adult group members don\'t have boundaries as the me me me me and f4ck you I\'m rich, I\'m bored you\'re a foreigner amuse me, I just want to hate on you, mentality kicks in.

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sorrel:

@Sandnose.

i agree.

I did not have a WeChat group,

it was bad enough staff contacting me at all hours and times through email (and those who managed to get my phone number would phone me), and 'getting upset' when i did not respond immediately.
i kept a very strict line drawn and clear boundaries after a lot of hassle.

the bottom line is that people will abuse this.

yes, you want to help, and i often did - but on my terms.

you need your own time away from work for your sanity, and allowing people with no sense of boundaries access to you 24/7 is not a good idea,

25 weeks 2 days ago

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Sandnose:

I have my phone set so that all alerts are switched off at 8pm and turn on again at 8am. It's enough and the pavlovian response training kicks in quickly ;-D

25 weeks 2 days ago

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25 weeks 3 days ago

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sorrel

Posts: 3562

Emperor

Comments( 4 ) Add Comment

I would set up a WeChat group for students only, and for class-room related messages only.

NOT your personal WeChat number.

Don;t allow parents to be part of this group - they will abuse this as soon as they can.

some Uni's have policies on this (and any interactions between students and teachers) you should ask yours. If your Uni does not have such a policy, ask them to write one up (in English) and sign it.

NO private messages to individual students.

and keep the online communication to a strictly formal footing - you never know who will be monitoring this.

Don;t give anyone any opportunity to abuse this - because someone will eventually.

imagine your grand-mother and mother can see all interactions in this group.

icnif77:

I don't have we-chat and I've never use it for classes while in China, but I was asked for my phone no. by the students.

I always told them, my Nokia brick is School's property and I have it only for the communication with the School's principal.

I can lie when pressed ...

Was using my email address with private students in China ... for HW.

You advice is spot on.

25 weeks 2 days ago

Report Abuse

Sandnose:

It's not worth the trouble.

Other age groups don't interact very much.

All sorts of people randomly want to add my wechat. I don't care. Most will never talk to you. If they cross The Line in any way, there are no warnings. Immediate black listing.

25 weeks 2 days ago

Report Abuse

sorrel:

@Sandnose.

i agree.

I did not have a WeChat group,

the bottom line is that people will abuse this.

yes, you want to help, and i often did - but on my terms.

you need your own time away from work for your sanity, and allowing people with no sense of boundaries access to you 24/7 is not a good idea,

25 weeks 2 days ago

Report Abuse

Sandnose:

I have my phone set so that all alerts are switched off at 8pm and turn on again at 8am. It's enough and the pavlovian response training kicks in quickly ;-D

25 weeks 2 days ago

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25 weeks 3 days ago

nashboroguy

Posts: 428

Governor

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I used to have kids add me to the QQ account, never to WeChat. This seemed to work well. All this changed when we began online classes during the virus outbreak and shutdown. QQ does not allow me to receive files for some reason. It also does not allow me to translate any longer. I am not sure why. So, this past year I have added students to my WeChat. So that they do not muddy my contacts list, all students are listed with in this manner... 16James19-20. The 16 is the class number as I have four classes with the kids. Of course their name. And the year I had them in class. This way, all class 16 is grouped together, not only by their class homeroom number, but also alphabetized by name. It works well. I have also found that once you add Chinese to your WeChat, you seldom hear from them, unless they are seeking something from you.

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25 weeks 2 days ago

Scahtz

Posts: 63

General

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I give students an email address -- one that is rarely used. I don't give them my WeChat info (or respond to students or strangers who try to connect with me on WeChat). Anything I need to say to my students, (as a group) I say in class. If I ever had anything to say in private, I guess I'd say it after class or in my office -- but I don't ever have anything to say in private.

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25 weeks 1 day ago

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