Exploring the World of Teachers on TikTok

There is no doubt that TikTok has turned us into human beings ridden with obsession, succumbing to doom-scrolling since it was launched in 2016. Our fingers swipe the phone screen for hours on end, but believe it or not, this addiction has its benefits on the education profession. Teacher influencers on the app are making great impact on their viewers, many of which are aspiring educators.  

One in three U.S. adults use TikTok, the majority of which are under 30 years old according to Pew Research Center. The platform appeals mostly to young people, but only 52 percent of all users have posted a video. In fact, the most active 25 percent of users on TikTok make 98 percent of the public videos on the platform. Among those users are teacher influencers who use their platform to educate, entertain, and inspire.  

Jessica Hawk, also known as @myteacherface on TikTok, has been creating videos on the app since 2019. As a former Vine user – a now nonoperational app focused on humorous short clips – Hawk was intrigued by TikTok. Her content did not gain substantial attraction until the COVID-19 pandemic, when a group of teachers took to the platform to share some connection while everyone remained in quarantine. Now, Hawk has nearly 700,000 followers.  

Connection through Creative Content 

Hawk’s content consists of funny skits and advice for teachers, along with specific series that have gained a lot of traction on her profile. She calls one of her series “Teacher One, Teacher Two,” where she explains the differences between her teaching styles when she first started as an educator compared to her later years of teaching. In another series, “Teaching Seniors,” Hawk records a couple of minutes at the beginning and end of each class period to show what it is like to teach senior students. 

“I find that so many people who follow me are teachers themselves and they are always looking for advice, especially from older, veteran teachers,” Hawk said. “They're looking for reassurance. They see my experience, which happens to be a very pleasant one, and they want to know how they can have that themselves.” 

Hawk doesn’t like to leave her followers questions unanswered, but that can become daunting as sometimes her viral videos get thousands of comments within just a couple of days. She says she often gets messages from people saying her videos clarified their desire to become a teacher.  

“I do give them the caveat that I am in a wonderful school district where I feel incredibly supported and that makes a big difference in the way that I feel going into work each day,” Hawk said. “So, when they tell me, ‘I want to be a teacher because of you’, I'm definitely excited, or ‘I've changed my teaching practices watching your videos,’ I take that to heart.” 

One teacher influencer on TikTok, Amanda Ramirez or @amandamonroee, started out as an aspiring teacher who enjoyed watching videos about the profession. She is going into her third year of teaching 4^th grade in the Phoenix area. The videos Ramirez watched gave her invaluable guidance on how to run her future classroom. Because of this, she decided she also wanted to make a positive contribution on the app.  

“Once I was starting to graduate, I knew I wanted to also create content focused on teaching just because I knew how much it was helpful to me being able to get advice from other teachers, and I want to do the same based on my own experiences,” Ramirez said.  

Today, Ramirez has about 34,000 followers on the app, many of whom message her about her impact on their lives. Ramirez said that with so much negativity online about the teaching profession, she believes it is important that there is a corner of the internet that teachers can go to that uplifts them.  

“You can post videos all day long, but what's important is building a community, and especially within the teacher profession,” Ramirez said. “I think we all need each other so supporting each other and engaging, either through comments or direct messages, it’s important because you feel connected to those people.” 

Sharing Authenticity  

Hawk said that she makes sure she is creating authentic content because of the positive impact she has made on so many aspiring educators.  

Another teacher influencer on TikTok, Chris Campbell or @neuro_d_teacher1, is very intentional with the type of content he produces and shares on the app. Campbell is a third-grade teacher in St. Louis and has been teaching for 11 years. He said that when he first entered the professional world after graduating college in 2012, he was told by his mentors to not have a public presence on the internet because people would “assume and conflate things” about him and his character. After the pandemic, Campbell said his perspective seemed to change.  

“We can form a community here online and connect with each other. So that was like, a big part of why I got into it,” Campbell said.  

As a role model for his community, he ensures that his content is clean and family-friendly. “I make sure that if [my content] does stumble upon a student's desk, parent’s phone, or anything like that, there is nothing that poorly represents myself, myself as a teacher, or the school district I'm affiliated with. So, I'm not swearing. I'm not doing things that are inappropriate,” Campbell said.  

Being an Example 

Campbell first joined TikTok during the pandemic as he thought the app could be an opportunity for him to meet his students where they were -- online. He said that the digital landscape is where most kids exist today, so he knew that if he wanted to connect with his students, he needed to keep up with their interests. 

His content slowly evolved from content for his specific students during the pandemic to content for his new, mass following. Currently, Campbell has approximately 90,000 followers on TikTok.  

“So, then the next phase was like recognizing the importance of humanizing teachers because it was also during that time that a lot of our education systems were falling under attack [with] claims of indoctrination and grooming,” Campbell said. “So, I'm like, hey, if I can exist here on the internet, maybe people can see that teachers are just normal people teaching normal jobs, doing our best to kind of make it a great experience for the kids.” 

Campbell also said that the platform has allowed him to go beyond the school walls in being an example of a black, male teacher with ADHD. He said that people on the internet can see that there are different types of people assuming the educator role.  

One reason that Campbell became a teacher was that he recognized firsthand that not all students learn the same way. As a neuro-divergent teacher, he uses his platform on TikTok to share ways in which other educators can be the most helpful to their neuro-divergent students.  

Campbell explained one instance where he had a student fidgeting by tapping his foot during a test. He thought about how his third-grade teacher would have responded to him in the past. “It'd be a very simple ‘stop tapping your foot,’ but I've learned through my education that you just can't take things away if somebody's using it. You have to learn how to replace it. So, instead of telling the student to stop tapping their foot, I simply ask them just take off your shoes,” Campbell said.  

Campbell said that sharing out these tips and tricks doesn’t just help students, but the advice helps teachers too.  

“Finding those different ways, and just kind of like sharing out these ideas that I'm growing in the classroom has been a great way to help other teachers that are neuro-typical to say, ‘Oh, these are some very simple natural adjustments I can make in my classroom that I don't have to spend money on or go to an extra training; it's just like a quick 32 second video from some random guy on the internet.’” 

Because of Campbell’s unique experiences, he said he feels that the platform he has built on TikTok is an opportunity that he doesn’t want to squander.  

“It was never really one of my goals, but I had to recognize the gift that was given to me,” Campbell said. “Like people started following me -- I have like 90,000 followers -- which may be small in a lot of spaces, but that's a sizable platform to be able to reach out and help.” 

Change on the Horizon 

Despite the possibility of a ban on TikTok, all three teacher influencers are not worried that it will hinder their ability to reach their audience. A bill to ban the app was signed in law in April, which gives the TikTok parent company, ByteDance, nine months to sell the company with a potential three months if a sale is in progress.  

“Good things sometimes come to an end,” Campbell said.  

Hawk, Ramirez, and Campbell have worked to build their following on other social media apps as they recognize changes could happen.  

“But I'm also realistic in saying we don't know what the political climate is going to be or what's going to happen,” Hawk said. “So, I am branching out onto YouTube. I'm trying to get more of an Instagram presence. And I'm trying to diversify as much as possible.” 

Hawk recently retired, so she said her content will have to be a bit different from what it consistently has been. She said that she still has so much to say about education and wants to continue sharing her knowledge of the profession on her social media.  

“The education profession, unfortunately, has been under a lot of pressure to change in ways that I don't necessarily feel are benefiting our students or putting our students first,” Hawk said. “I'm concerned about voucher programs that are coming out. I'm concerned about overreach. So, I want to continue to be a voice for things that I see that are going on in education that are not benefiting our students in the best way possible.”