When the world shut down in March of 2020 and schools went remote Joshua Monroe, a 5th-grade teacher at Bryan Elementary in Omaha, NE, saw a huge drop in attendance. Students simply weren’t coming to Zoom meetings and he wanted to do something about it. Joshua decided to turn to TikTok as a way to engage his students.
Joshua started by creating videos that included the class therapy dog, Nala. He would show students these videos if they stayed for a whole lesson. Soon enough, student attendance started to rise.
Once school was over, Joshua decided to continue making silly videos and make the account public. He began making videos featuring teacher-student scenarios and how he would handle them. The first video took off. It received more than 10 million views. Josh gained national attention as news outlets reached out to him about the videos. He received countless questions from students and teachers about how he would handle different situations. So, he decided to start making videos on things he’s encountered in his career and how he would handle those moments to answer these situations.
Josh’s videos have sparked a lot of dialogue around how to handle difficult situations in the classroom. He gets feedback from both students and teachers from across the world. His ability to pivot during a tough year turned out to be fruitful for his class.
@mrmonroeandnalaI’ve only had to buy 9 new badges ? #teachersoftiktok #fyp #ItWasntMe
