麻豆传媒入口

To improve her middle school students鈥� grammar skills, English teacher Claudine James started posting short YouTube video lessons linked to class writing assignments last fall. But most of her videos weren鈥檛 getting any views鈥攁nd her students kept making the same mistakes time and time again.

鈥淲hat I was trying to get you not to do is exactly what you did,鈥� James told them, frustrated.聽

As a solution, some students suggested that she upload her videos to TikTok, a video-based social media platform frequented by tweens, teens, and adults under the age of 30. Though James, 54, was reluctant, her students encouraged her to film her first video right then and there. On Nov. 30, 2020, she posted , and in less than a week, her account 聽was approaching 10,000 followers. Six weeks in, her account reached 100,000 followers; currently, she has more than 900,000 from all over the world.

James is one of the 65.9 million U.S. users of TikTok, nearly a third of whom are between the ages of 10 and 19. According to , American children are early adopters鈥攂etween the ages of 4 and 14, they use the app about 82 minutes a day鈥攎aking it an increasingly valuable technology platform for teachers to consider. Teachers making the leap won鈥檛 be alone. In less than 18 months, the number of adults using TikTok : from 2.6 million users to 14.3 million users.

But not everyone is a TikTok fan. In recent years, the app has been and has been accused of having vague Terms of Service and a flimsy age gate for users that allows young children to create accounts. Though media organizations , TikTok recently developed for the accounts of users ages 13鈥�15 that will allow parents or guardians to create paired accounts to monitor their child鈥檚 use.

Despite the concerns, the platform has many positives for education, says Shauna Pomerantz, an associate professor of child and youth studies at Brock University in Southern Ontario, Canada.

鈥淭he mistake adults make is they say TikTok is terrible鈥攖hey only see that negative side鈥攂ut it鈥檚 not a binary thing,鈥� said Pomerantz, who is to learn about youth culture. 鈥淭ikTok can speak to them in a way that other kinds of lessons haven鈥檛 spoken to them. I don鈥檛 think all education needs to be in a TikTok鈥� but I think there鈥檚 a pretty profound place for that kind of media.鈥�

So what does it look like to meet students where they are when that place is TikTok? According to members of the #TeachersOfTikTok and #learnonTikTok communities鈥攃ommon hashtags that educators use, with 7.6 billion views and 77.2 billion views, respectively鈥攖eachers are using the platform to craft bite-sized micro lessons , learn from colleagues, start , and connect with students.

#1: BITE-SIZED LESSONS

Though high school science teacher Winnie Sloan already used YouTube and Instagram to post science lessons, using TikTok offered a new way to approach and share her content, she said.

On TikTok, Sloan, or , as her 118,600 followers know her, posts micro lessons鈥攗nder a minute in length鈥攐n topics such as , , and , to help students quickly grasp key concepts. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about getting information out there in a voice that is understandable鈥攜ou really don鈥檛 need all the bells and whistles,鈥� said Sloan.聽

She also provides a Google document of all her videos, curated by subject, to help students access what they need鈥攅ven if they don鈥檛 have a TikTok account. 鈥淚 have always thought of myself as 鈥榯he sage on the stage,鈥欌�� said Sloan. 鈥淣ow I need to guide my students, but I鈥檓 not the keeper of the information anymore. I鈥檓 coming alongside them and helping them to understand it better.鈥�

Similarly, Jeremy Rinkel, a curriculum and instructional coach and former teacher, says he鈥檚 shared quick summaries of chapters of novels that his students were reading in class, like Of Mice and Men and The Great Gatsby. Along with the聽reading, students could glean some additional meaning from the 30-to-60-second chapter reviews, he said.

According to educators like Sloan and James, the platform is especially helpful for students who are reluctant to ask for help in class and need different entry points to the curriculum. TikTok videos鈥攍ike any video content鈥攇ive students the ability to access content asynchronously. Students can self-serve the gaps in their understanding and revisit these bite-sized lessons again and again until they understand them.

鈥淚 had one student who said to me, 鈥榃hen you explain something in class and I don鈥檛 understand it, I love the fact that I can go home and watch your TikTok on it as many times as I want to and nobody will know,鈥欌�� said James.

#2: INCREASING PARTICIPATION

When Covid hit and schools shut down across the country, Matt Head鈥攁n elementary school physical education teacher in Salem, Oregon鈥攏oticed that his virtual live class participant numbers were waning when the school made enrichment classes optional.聽

Head thought that using TikTok, a platform the students liked, could boost class attendance, so he started posting short, simple videos on , , and other activities he wanted to teach in class. His account, , is now approaching 221,000 followers. As he watched his platform grow, Head decided to launch a physical education livestream鈥攁nother feature of the platform鈥攁nd started running two sessions a day, twice a week, to help students work toward their fitness goals.

Rebekah Poe, a sixth-grade special education teacher in Alabama, says she鈥檚 also seen the power of the app in boosting class engagement. Recently, she posed a question: 鈥淐aleb wanted to make a TikTok that is 60 seconds long with five clips of equal length. How long will each clip be?鈥� She hoped that incorporating TikTok鈥攕omething her students were familiar with and enjoyed鈥攚ould alleviate the stress they often felt around word problems.

All of her students solved the word problem correctly. One of the kids told her it was easier to do the work because the problem was based around something they liked. As a class, they also made a TikTok about solving the TikTok math problem, though it was never posted to the platform. 鈥淚t was good for me because I was able to hear and watch their thought processes as they solved the equation rather than just checking their final answers,鈥� said Poe.

But not all engagement and participation is a good thing, warned Head. He actively monitors the comment sections on each of his videos and deletes inappropriate comments. 鈥淚鈥檓 having to actually work鈥攇oing through my comments, deleting people, deleting things, blocking people,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want my kids to be running through my comments like, 鈥極h, all of this is OK鈥�... you don鈥檛 have to be inappropriate on TikTok to go viral.鈥�

#3: CONNECTING WITH STUDENTS

When working as a high school English and social studies teacher at a rural school in Illinois, Jeremy Rinkel said, he was 鈥渟truggling to make connections with [his] students.鈥� But he noticed that when students spoke in class, they talked mainly about one thing: TikTok.

Though initially resistant, he decided to post a TikTok video about himself to see how students reacted. Surprisingly, the video gained 2,900 views, more than eight times the number of students he was teaching at the time. His second video, which poked a little fun at students鈥� views about snow days, gained 209,000 views, 12,200 likes, and 147 comments.

鈥淚 hit a wall in my teaching where I felt like the relationship piece was lacking a little bit, and TikTok brought that back for me,鈥� said Rinkel. 鈥淭here鈥檚 something there. The kids seem more engaged, and they want to know more about me.鈥�

Health and Kinetic Wellness teacher Andy Milne found similar success upon first use. One day in class, a student was dancing at her desk, and he asked what she was doing. she replied, and challenged him to learn it鈥攚hich he did. 鈥淭his was an opportunity to develop a relationship with students, show myself in a different setting鈥� I thought it was a great way to model vulnerability and to break barriers between 15-year-olds and a 50-year-old,鈥� he said.

According to Shauna Pomerantz, TikTok can help educators connect to students because it 鈥渋s a lingua franca for young people,鈥� and by speaking their language and even just talking with them about the platform, educators show that they are open to learning about students鈥� worlds.

鈥淚magine what happens to young people鈥檚 minds when they hear, 鈥楬ey, I鈥檓 here to teach you some stuff, but you鈥檙e also here to teach me some stuff, and I鈥檓 ready to learn from you,鈥欌�� she said.聽