As educators mark the beginning of another school year, Education Week marks the beginning of our venture into TikTok.
Today, EdWeek鈥檚 social team posted its debut video on the social media platform asking teachers to show how they鈥檙e setting up their classrooms for the 2023-24 school year. We want to use TikTok to highlight educators鈥� voices in a dynamic way.
Why TikTok?
It鈥檚 no secret that the video-sharing platform is many teachers鈥� best friend.
Education Week staff writer Elizabeth Heubeck wrote about a recent study that found that teaching is the second most popular profession on TikTok, according to the number of views associated with the profession鈥檚 hashtag. Videos 鈥渓inked to the hashtag #teacher garnered 61.3 billion views鈥攕econd only to those labeled with #doctor, which edged out those from educators with 61.5 billion views,鈥� Heubeck reported.
奥别鈥檝别 written about the creative ways that teachers use TikTok, from connecting with other educators to sharing lesson ideas to documenting their OOTDs (鈥渙utfit of the day鈥�). And it鈥檚 not just experienced educators who have flocked to the platform: Many preservice teachers also use TikTok as a professional development tool, which offers them an extensive video repository packed with ideas and approaches that are specific to the subject and grade they teach.
We also know there are big security and privacy concerns about TikTok, especially for younger users, an issue we鈥檝e also reported on in recent months.
We鈥檙e eager to tap into conversations and trends within TikTok鈥檚 vast community of educators, as well as to share our journalism with our educator audience in a new way鈥攐ne that will continue to inspire and empower them to build a stronger tomorrow for all students.
We hope you will join us on the platform! Click to follow our account, and let us know how you think we can best contribute to the TikTok conversation by emailing us at community@educationweek.org.
