Teachers: Your e-mail signature

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m in local government and our signature block has to follow a set standard. No funky fonts or colors or personal or meaningful quotes. Some have put in pronouns - not required.

Larla P. Larlington
Program Manager
Widget Distribution Division
Municipal Park Drive, Suite 500

Then the whole privacy statement blah blah if you’ve received this email in error blah blah blah

+1 Keep it normal. Everyone trying to make their mark with cringey personal flair is just embarrassing themselves. People see a sig longer than the actual email and think you are unprofessional and not a person to go to for answers.

+2 Not a teacher, my email signature is company logo, name, pronouns (unnecessary imo but required by my company), title, phone, email. Why in the world would you clutter it up with unnecessary crap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why use pronouns if you (presumably) use Mr. or Mrs.?

I don't use Mr. or Mrs. My pronouns are she/her/hers and the titles Mrs/Miss are leftover from a patriarchal society in which women did not have their own name. I am most certainly not Mrs. DHFirstName DHLastName (a vestige of the days when women had no credit themselves and signed their DH's name, the name on the account, but with Mrs in front -- hard to believe, but when I was born in 1970, no women had credit cards), nor am I Miss FirstName DadLastName. I'm Ms FirstName LastName if forced into a title, but I prefer to avoid it all around. I prefer FirstName LastName -- no one needs info about my gender or marital status in my signature.

Even with my annoyance with the misogynistic origins of Mrs/Miss aside, "Mr. or Mrs." titles reinforce a binary that 1) doesn't exist, and 2) harms some of my nonbinary colleagues. So -- I support everyone normalizing the use of pronouns.

One time my non-binary colleague complained of a sharp stabbing sensation in her chest and we though she was having a cardiac emergency. Turns out someone in accounting had referred to someone else as "Mr." earlier that day.

Wow. If they read your post, they would really have a sharp, stabbing sensation in their chest for having been referred to as a her.

[Anonymous]

Please don't make it purple color and comic sans font.... It's just so unprofessional.

Larla Smith
1st grade
Eagle Elementary

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers, do you have these in your e-mail signature and why or why not?

Pronouns, degree(s), land acknowledgment, inspirational quote, etc

Land acknowledgment? Wtf? What on earth does that mean?

This has been huge in Canada and Australia for the past few years.

Yup - just got back from Australia. Every time we landed, the FA announced something along the lines of "we recognize we have just landed on XYZ indigenous land and honor the elders past, present, and emerging."
It was interesting, but not sure what the point was... how are they actually honoring indigenous elders? They aren't, of course.
I've heard it at a few conferences in the US in the last few years.
Again, interesting, but unless you are actually going to make some meaningful change or contribution in your life it seems... pointless.

It's required in Canada. Part of Truth and Reconciliation. Making the statement publicly honors them. I guess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m in local government and our signature block has to follow a set standard. No funky fonts or colors or personal or meaningful quotes. Some have put in pronouns - not required.

Larla P. Larlington
Program Manager
Widget Distribution Division
Municipal Park Drive, Suite 500

Then the whole privacy statement blah blah if you’ve received this email in error blah blah blah

+1 Keep it normal. Everyone trying to make their mark with cringey personal flair is just embarrassing themselves. People see a sig longer than the actual email and think you are unprofessional and not a person to go to for answers.

I don't really even consider the confidentiality notice part of the signature. It has to be there. Flags, quotes , degrees and whatever else? Not necessary. Who are you and how do I contact you besides email? That's all I want to know.

+2 Not a teacher, my email signature is company logo, name, pronouns (unnecessary imo but required by my company), title, phone, email. Why in the world would you clutter it up with unnecessary crap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers, do you have these in your e-mail signature and why or why not?

Pronouns, degree(s), land acknowledgment, inspirational quote, etc

Land acknowledgment? Wtf? What on earth does that mean?

This has been huge in Canada and Australia for the past few years.

Yup - just got back from Australia. Every time we landed, the FA announced something along the lines of "we recognize we have just landed on XYZ indigenous land and honor the elders past, present, and emerging."
It was interesting, but not sure what the point was... how are they actually honoring indigenous elders? They aren't, of course.
I've heard it at a few conferences in the US in the last few years.
Again, interesting, but unless you are actually going to make some meaningful change or contribution in your life it seems... pointless.

It's required in Canada. Part of Truth and Reconciliation. Making the statement publicly honors them. I guess.

With so many things Canada has gotten to the point where they should just permanently walk bent over.

[Anonymous]

I don't care what your signature has in it. Just don't use a wallpaper background in your email.

[Anonymous]

The land acknowledgment is purely performative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The land acknowledgment is purely performative.

It's worse than performative because the people saying it have no power to nor intention to give the land "back" to anyone nor pay anyone for it. Most of the people required to say as part of their jobs it are not rich, they work in service professions and probably don't even own their own homes. It's shameful farce for everyone forced to participate in it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Name, title, confidentiality notice, and directions on how to translate this email, because everybody forgets to incorporate those who don’t speak English. Tempted to add land, formally occupied by indigenous tribe, as well as land formerly farmed on by slaves to my signature.

I work in aerospace. English is the international language of aviation. If they don't speak it, it's on them to find a translator.

Next.

Okay? My students' parents work in various fields and don't always speak fluent English. Why is it on them to get a translator to translate the flyer on Spirit Week I sent home when I could just as easily provide them in my email signature with a way to translate it?

Next.

[Anonymous]

I'll admit if I see a pronoun after a name I think you're a vain and not very bright virtue signaling progressive and it'd definitely make me look down at you and very carefully scrutinize any teaching you do with my kids. Because putting pronouns after your name means I can extrapolate so much about you without even meeting you or knowing anything else about you. Thankfully we're at a normal prep school where pronouns don't exit, let alone inspirational quotes.

The funny thing is that we could avoid all the furore around pronouns simply by bringing back honorifics. Your email signature could then be Ms. Sarah Johnson, which is which is much better than "Sarah Johnson, female, she/her/whatever."

The confused would just be "Mx Sarah Johnson" and we can figure out what it means.

[Anonymous]

Name, pronouns, title, link to school website

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'll admit if I see a pronoun after a name I think you're a vain and not very bright virtue signaling progressive and it'd definitely make me look down at you and very carefully scrutinize any teaching you do with my kids. Because putting pronouns after your name means I can extrapolate so much about you without even meeting you or knowing anything else about you. Thankfully we're at a normal prep school where pronouns don't exit, let alone inspirational quotes.

The funny thing is that we could avoid all the furore around pronouns simply by bringing back honorifics. Your email signature could then be Ms. Sarah Johnson, which is which is much better than "Sarah Johnson, female, she/her/whatever."

The confused would just be "Mx Sarah Johnson" and we can figure out what it means.

Pronouns are ideally for people whose gender cannot be deciphered from the name. If your name is Maria or Juan, it's obvious. Adding she/her/ella or he/him/él is stupid. If you have gender neutral name or a foreign name that few people from outside your culture could confidently assign to a gender, it makes sense to include your pronouns. The ironic thing is that many foreigners take the conservative side in our culture wars and don't include pronouns, but their names are a total mystery.

[Anonymous]

Your signature definitely should acknowledge that your school is on stolen land with link to native tribe for more info. Raises awareness

[Anonymous]

Can someone explain why you need to add both the she and her? Is there ever a she/him? Seems redundant