Ms. Schutte, do you have TikTok?
Technology has always been evolving in my thirty years of living and my eight years of teaching. Keeping up with the times has been something I strive for as a middle years teacher. I use technology in my day-to-day life in many ways some that overlap between personal and professional and others that only work best when trying to engage 30+ grades 6/7 students at a time!
In my personal life, I try to stay in touch with my friends and family that I do not get to see every day. Most of the time we use Zoom or Google Meets. My best friend and her husband live in Calgary, so we have game nights virtually and my dad lives in Moose Jaw and sometimes it is just nice to enjoy a happy hour beverage with him too!
I started post-secondary in 2012 and spent four years finishing my Bachelor of Education degree in 2016. I took a short time off to start my teaching career but began my Certificate of Inclusive Education in 2018 and finished it during the height of the pandemic in 2020. During this time, I experienced my first online learning classes. I became quite familiar with URCourses, Canva, and Jamboard. Now, I am in the eighth course of my master’s degree in education for teaching, learning, and leadership. I have been able to advance my technology skills, make YouTube videos for presentations, and feel very comfortable researching through the University of Regina’s online library.
As Ms. Schutte, I try to stay “in the know” and keep up with the trends my students are following. I am teaching grades 6/7 where it is pretty obvious what trends are in or out just by listening to them for a few minutes. My students do love to learn with the use of technology, and I have used quite a few programs over the years that I am comfortable with. My notes, student resources, and some assignments are done through Google Classroom. Students in my classroom use the WeVideo program to make videos and commercials, and most recently I finished this school year by creating podcasts! Minecraft Education is an excellent cross-curricular program that engages my students in many different ways. Finally, Kahoot and Blooket are crowd favourites for studying, test-prepping, or downtime students have. Through the 2023-2024 school year, I tried to get more comfortable with coding and had EYES and SaskCode come in and do workshops with my class. When I am teaching, I rely heavily on my projector, Microsoft OneNote, and Edsby to get me through the workday.
My personal life and classroom would look very different without the use of technology, and I will continue to strive to learn more and adapt to the changing times. Finally, I think I am one of (maybe) very few middle years teachers who do NOT have a TikTok account. My students always ask and never believe my response because “everyone has TikTok”. Does anyone else not have TikTok either out there? Catch y’all on the next one!
18 thoughts on “Ms. Schutte, do you have TikTok?”
Hi Ashlyn! Awesome blog post, I also teach middle school students so keeping up with the trends is a survival skill for navigating the big classes! I too believe that because of Covid I have grown in my understanding of how to professionally use technology in the classroom, mainly because that was our only option at the time. Since gaining those skills, I find it very beneficial to continue using different technologies in the classroom. As for TikTok I do enjoy watching the short videos, however, the students don’t need to know that! HA! Thanks for your post.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on my post Sydney! It is good to hear that the craziness of the pandemic brought some positives to your professional development.
I also teach middle years and can relate to this on so many levels! I am not very “techy” and my students love that they get to teach me new things they have discovered but then they are mindblown that I have a tiktok and snapchat.
Although they ask me what kind of videos I post and I have to admit I only watch videos- not post!
I agree with Sydney that prior to covid a lot less technology was used in my classroom. I also went from teaching grade 6 to grade 6 and so that made a big difference as well!
Thanks for your thoughts on this Chloe! If I ever made a TikTok account, I would be in the same boat as you, watch only and not post!
Hi Ashlyn!
I never even thought about life during Covid as apart of my daily life for learning. I graduated during that time and did my final semester of my bachelors online. Crazy how I just blocked that out. In terms of TikTok, I do use TikTok and my students do know – I have two accounts (one they can follow and my own private account) and I think they are both surprised that I understand what they are saying (which helps cause they know they ain’t gonna get away with anything inappropriate) and they are shocked that I know and understand. Which again, was something I completely forgot about when I wrote my post!
Thanks for jogging my memory (hahah!) and for the great read!
– Kelsey
Hey Kelsey, thanks for sharing your thoughts on this! It sounds like you also have similar experiences to those who have commented here. I appreciate hearing that you utilize two different accounts one for professional and one for personal!
TikTok! What is that? I’ll take my old fashioned Facebook reels! I didn’t realize how out of the loop I was until a kid caught me watching some during my lunch break. Why go on TikTok if they get cross-posted anyway?
My thoughts exactly! My students will also say, “Oh you don’t know because you don’t have TikTok” and I will always respond with “I see them every day reposted on Facebook”! And the eye rolls I get from that because apparently, it is just not the same!
Hey Ashlyn!
I really enjoyed reading your post and found myself thinking, “Oh yeah, I do that too!” as I was reading. I feel like technology has become so engrained in our daily lives that there are a lot of things I do that don’t even register for me anymore. I crossed over to the dark side the summer before last and got a TikTok account, and I actually find it quite entertaining and useful, which really surprised me. While I refuse to connect with any student on social media, I have found the platform really helps me to understand some of the weird things that my middle-year students do! Like walking down the hall saying things like “Skibbidi ohio rizz!!” or “That’s so sigma!” While the app usually makes me shake my head when it comes to what kiddos are up to these days, I really feel like it gives me an advantage in knowing whether or not what they are saying and doing is truly harmless, or if there is an underlying meaning that is dangerous and needs to be addressed.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on my post Amy. After reading your comment, I can see the “pros” of understanding the language students use in the classroom! It is nice to hear that it can be useful in ways I did not necessarily think of before writing my post!
Hi Ashlyn!
I teach high school and I get the same question “do you have TikTok?” I always respond yes, I do. And then I usually try to say something like “I’m hip with it you know..” which usually gets a few laughs. Many students will ask me “well can I have your TikTok?” and the answer to that is always “no.” I think that social media is great, and at times I can laugh about memes with the kids, or I know the lingo from TikToks so I know when kids are doing something that might be a bit scandalous, but there is always a separation of “while we may be on the same things, we are not friends”. It is hard to maintain that professional separation on social media – the kids love trying to find me on everything they can, haha!
Thanks for sharing your perspective on how you navigate that Savannah. Your insight is much appreciated!
Great post Ashlyn. It sounds like you have adapted well to using technology in meaningful ways to capture your students attention and interests. Well done! As for Tik Tok, I created an account in hopes to make fun videos as a teacher for my students to watch. Long story short… I created one video that my “6 followers” watched and then I never made another one. It is not as easy as they make it look! Maybe I will try jumping on the bandwagon again sometime soon!
I appreciate you sharing your trials with TikTok Sarah! Best of luck if you decide to start back into it again!!
Great post! I feel the same way about staying up on the social media trends. I am an avid user of almost every social media platform except for BeReal, which seems pretty popular among my high school students. I just don’t get the hype and half the time when I was prompted to post the picture I was in bed, but maybe that says more about me than anything.
I have to admit that I am a chronic TikTok user. I downloaded at the height of quarantine in 2020 and I have never looked back. I have to agree with Amy that I have learned so much on the platform.
But I am glad to hear (not glad but you get it) that others struggle with keeping their personal and work lives separate on social media. My students are constantly trying to follow me on Instagram. In fact, I have 13 follow requests as we speak.
Thanks for sharing your experiences Mariah! I have some things to learn with social media and I am open to trying it and hopefully seeing the benefits like some of you guys have!
I had to laugh when I read that you have 13 follow requests at the moment. Not because the situation is humorous but because I think more of us, especially the middle years and high school teachers, struggle with this reality than we’d like to admit!
Thank you for this engaging post, Ashlyn! Your experiences with technology in the classroom, especially the interactions with your students regarding social media, are both relatable and insightful. The way you balance the integration of technology while maintaining a professional boundary is admirable. Your honest reflections on the challenges and benefits of using tech tools in education provide valuable perspective for fellow educators. Keep sharing your experiences and tips!
Thanks, Allysia, there is still a lot to learn! I appreciate your comment!