SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - A middle school teacher from San Diego has gone viral after joining TikTok, a video-sharing social media app.
Kevin McClintock teaches Bible History, English, and Freshman Speech at Rock Academy Middle School. When the coronavirus hit and all of his courses went online, he joined TikTok to try and engage his students at their level.
"I missed my students," he says. "I knew going home would be hard for them, so I decided that I'm gonna dive into their world and see if I can connect with them."
His videos are mostly self-deprecating, making fun of his teaching, the quirks of online learning, and the things he deals with as a middle school teacher. But one video struck a nerve with people well beyond his classroom.
"In one of my remote English classes, one of my seventh graders looks down and looks back up, and had this big bright smile. They said, 'McClintock! There are 30,000 views already! What is going on? You're going viral!'"
That video, titled "Teachers on Quarantine," now has nearly a million views. The number of people following McClintock's page skyrocketed from a few dozen to more than 53-thousand.
McClintock thinks people are responding to his overall message of positivity and fun.
"I want to make sure that people are encouraged and that they know that they matter," he says. "That's a huge one right now as a lot of people feel like they're insignificant, and they're not. Especially students."
His videos have now gotten more than 5-million views. He says the best part of all of his new internet fame is how his students respond.
"Seeing them light up was worth it for me," says McClintock. "I'm hoping that my TikToks can bring a smile to their faces and have them laugh. And then also, I always try to end my message by saying you're loved, or that you matter."
