Teacher guidelines for student safety and privacy
Our foremost concern is student safety, and we approach this in several ways as described by our safety policy. This article describes your responsibility for safety as a teacher on EduMEE.
Teacher responsibility for safety
Regardless of the topic you are teaching or the age group you are working with, you have a responsibility to create a safe online classroom environment. For this reason, teachers are required to teach all live classes Minecraft Education Edition and Microsoft Teams.. While parents are responsible for supervising their kids, we expect that you teach your classes in a way that encourages physical safety, mental wellbeing, and online privacy for all students. Poor judgment on safety and privacy can result in teacher restriction and removal.
Classroom Safety Basics
- As the teacher, you should be present and supervising your meeting at all times. Please make sure you are able to be at your computer for the entire time your class is on Minecraft and your class is running.
- Before running your first class, be fluent in the basic Minecraft Education Edition and Microsoft Teams features you’ll use to manage your classroom and respond quickly if safety or behavior problems arise.
- Ensure that all students have interacted with you at least once in Teams video to verify their identity. This can be a quick check-in at the beginning of the first class meeting. Students should also enable their audio/video during the rest of the class to create a more social experience for all students, but it’s not required (some students feel safer with video off). If you’ve never before seen a student on video and they’re unable or unwilling to enable their video, please: (1) gently explain our policy, (2) let them know you’ll follow up after class, and (3) remove them from class.
- If a safety-related incident occurs during one of your classes, contact EduMEE support immediately to let us know: safety@52.15.157.111
Sensitive topics
We encourage you to take the time to anticipate potential issues that may arise proactively. This could range from emotionally-difficult topics you might discuss as a part of the lesson, to follow-up questions your students may have. To ensure student safety, discussions related to personal mental health issues – like depression, suicide, or abuse – are
not allowed on our platform. If a student initiates a conversation about a sensitive topic, please gently explain that EduMEE classes are not the appropriate venue for these discussions and redirect your students to a new topic. If you are concerned about a student’s safety, contact EduMEE Schooling Inc.: safety@52.15.157.111
Student behavior
As a teacher, you may encounter situations in which a student’s behavior merits special attention. It is your responsibility to address student behavior as part of classroom management and to ensure a safe and welcoming environment for all students. We ask that you share any concerning incidents with
EduMEE Schooling Inc. support (safety@52.15.157.111), and we will work with you to resolve them. That may involve helping to contact the student’s parents, or just in helping you decide how to proceed.
Here are some helpful articles and trainings from Minecraft Education Edition on Managing Student Behavior
Classroom Management Tips from Minecraft Mentors FIRST WEEKS WITH MINECRAFT | CLASS MANAGEMENT Responsibility to report
If you believe that a student’s safety may be in immediate jeopardy, you should first encourage the student to call 911 and you should simultaneously report the situation to EduMEE Schooling Inc.’s safety team (safety@52.15.157.111). In addition, if you either see evidence of or hear your student describe abuse or neglect, EduMEE Schooling Inc. requires that you immediately report what you have witnessed to our safety team. For U.S. teachers, please review this
site to determine whether you must comply with your state’s mandated reporting requirements.
Student privacy
As an EduMEE Schooling Inc. teacher, you are also responsible for maintaining student privacy online. As a rule, you shouldn’t reveal or encourage students to reveal any personal information about an individual student or a student’s family. Personal information can include, but is not limited to, a student’s full name, birthdate, personal email address, address, or phone number. Asking students to share their location at the country, state, or city level is OK, provided you give students an option to not share if they prefer not to. In addition to not sharing personal information about your students, you also should not share any private information about your classes outside of class. This includes student voices (audio), student first names, or student faces. For example, you should not share a photo or video of you interacting with your students on your social media page. If you would like to share any completed student work, such as a student essay or art project, you will need to first obtain parent permission.
In general, you should keep all communication on EduMEE Schooling Inc. platforms (Minecraft, Teams, school email). students may want to keep in touch with their classmates after your class ends and may ask to exchange contact information in Minecraft chat or the Classroom Teams page. In order to protect student privacy and continue to ensure they have a safe experience; parents should give consent before students share this information with each other. We also ask you not to share your personal contact information with parents or students.
When choosing other third-party tools to help run your class, please consider their approach to student privacy and safety. If you would like to use another site that requires signing up for a new account, make sure you go through the complete sign-up process ahead of time to find out if that site has any age restrictions in place. If there is a minimum age requirement, do not encourage students to lie about their age. You should instead disclose this in the parental guidance section of your class listing and explain that the parents will need to create an account with their students.
Substitutes, guest speakers and co–teachers
Regardless of whether the individual is an approved EduMEE Schooling Inc. teacher, we do not allow substitutes of any kind. We understand that unexpected emergencies or illnesses may occasionally arise at the last minute, preventing you from teaching your class. When this happens, you should cancel the meeting and communicate with the parents to arrange a makeup meeting. The EduMEE Schooling Inc. support team is happy to help when emergencies arise. If you would like to bring on a guest speaker to help enhance your lesson, you are welcome to do so! This individual does not need to be an approved EduMEE Schooling Inc. teacher, but we do require that you be still present at all times. If you have a specific situation that you are not sure about, contact our support team and we will help you navigate this situation.
Other resources
Parents and students also have a role to play in student privacy and safety. See this article for resources that provide more education on this topic: student Safety and Privacy: For Parents
