Earlier than her classroom fills up with college students, TDSB instructor Zahra Hassan will rapidly arrange her cellphone and use the empty desks as a runway to indicate off her instructor outfit of the week.
From sporting outsized sports activities jerseys and pastel fits to dancing to sped up throwback songs, the Grade 8 math instructor’s vibrant trend sense and character has captured the eye of 1000’s on TikTok.
“What if our lecturers had been slaying, we simply didn’t know?” reads one remark from a TikTok person.
On this case, Hassan’s college students acknowledge her iconic trend sense — they had been those who insisted she make a TikTok account two years in the past.
To her shock, her movies on her account @misswondroussoul picked up traction virtually instantly. Many have gone viral, she’s amassed over 82,000 followers and three million likes on the app, and commenters who’ve lengthy left center college moon over the truth that they didn’t have a instructor like her.
“Rising up, I didn’t have any lecturers that appeared like me,” the Etobicoke-based instructor stated. “So that is me, placing myself on the market … I wished to be my most genuine self, that is Ms. Hassan.”
Hassan says along with her social presence, different Somali of us have began to strategy her across the metropolis and reward her for being a supply of illustration for his or her communities on-line and within the Toronto training system.
“ … due to the techniques in place, there have been by no means alternatives for folks like us to take up area in such an genuine manner,” stated Hassan.
“When folks see illustration, they usually see themselves on platforms … They’ll relate simply off the bat. It’s such a stupendous feeling.”
Hassan takes the function an educator has in college students’ reside critically. She nonetheless recollects feedback from a few of her personal lecturers and steerage counsellors that made her really feel less-than, so she has made it her mission to be the other.
“I bear in mind telling myself if I ever turned an educator, I by no means ever wish to make my college students really feel small. I would like them to really feel as large as humanly attainable,” Hassan stated.
“I really feel prefer it’s vital to create an area that’s constructive the place college students could be themselves, the place they’ll deliver their identities, pursuits into the classroom and it’d be mirrored proper again via the curriculum that I’m instructing.”
Her content material is now a mixture of her each day outfits, day-in-the-life of a instructor vlogs and what it’s like being a brand new educator. Moreover, she posts about her passions outdoors of the classroom, talking about her involvement in neighborhood teams like Fikia Dada Rescue Centre, which raises cash for varsity tuition for women in Kenya and native non-profit Smile for Sache, which helps weak communities and people impacted by gun violence.
Hassan’s following is not only made up of scholars who discover her on-line; the neighborhood of #TeacherTok is crammed with educators who share each jokes and help with their friends within the subject.
The majority of Hassan’s full-time instructing profession was digital because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and although she provide taught in particular person earlier than, transitioning to in-person instructing along with her personal class felt daunting.
However the international neighborhood on #TeacherTok got here via with assets and encouragement.
The truth is, one other social app Clubhouse related Hassan with fellow Somali instructor Aya Jowhar, who now teaches Grade 6 on the identical college.
Of her pal and co-worker, Jowhar says Hassan’s “welcoming aura” shines shiny, noting that she usually retains her class open throughout lunch time, holds extracurricular actions for college students and cares about their psychological well being.
Jowhar additionally stated she admires that Hassan is breaking the stereotypical concepts of what lecturers ought to appear to be.
“Typically once you go to her feedback, there’s numerous positives … however there’s at all times a pair the place folks level out, ‘That’s not how a instructor ought to gown,’ however we’re all numerous proper? So we will specific ourselves via our clothes, which is one thing she does so fantastically,” stated Jowhar.
For different younger racialized lecturers or teachers-to-be, Hassan emphasizes the significance of utilizing their voices being unafraid to make a mark within the training system.
“If you’re main with good, solely good will come. If you happen to’re taking the time to know the college, the neighborhood and immerse your self and actually get to know your college students in each side, I believe you’re going to be superb,” stated Hassan.
“I really feel like generally we take it with no consideration, as a result of we’re simply doing a job. However illustration once more, does matter a lot.”
Madison Wong is a Toronto-based digital producer for the Star. Attain her by way of e-mail: madisonwong@thestar.ca
