Earlier than her classroom fills up with college students, TDSB trainer Zahra Hassan will shortly arrange her cellphone and use the empty desks as a runway to indicate off her trainer outfit of the week.
From sporting outsized sports activities jerseys and pastel fits to dancing to sped up throwback songs, the Grade 8 math trainer’s vibrant vogue sense and character has captured the eye of hundreds 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 vogue 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 trainer like her.
“Rising up, I didn’t have any lecturers that seemed like me,” the Etobicoke-based trainer mentioned. “So that is me, placing myself on the market … I needed to be my most genuine self, that is Ms. Hassan.”
Hassan says along with her social presence, different Somali of us have began to method 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 methods in place, there have been by no means alternatives for folks like us to take up area in such an genuine approach,” mentioned Hassan.
“When folks see illustration, they usually see themselves on platforms … They will relate simply off the bat. It’s such an attractive feeling.”
Hassan takes the function an educator has in college students’ stay critically. She nonetheless recollects feedback from a few of her personal lecturers and steering counsellors that made her really feel less-than, so she has made it her mission to be the alternative.
“I keep in mind telling myself if I ever grew to become an educator, I by no means ever need to make my college students really feel small. I would like them to really feel as massive as humanly attainable,” Hassan mentioned.
“I really feel prefer it’s essential 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 by way of the curriculum that I’m educating.”
Her content material is now a mixture of her day by day outfits, day-in-the-life of a trainer vlogs and what it’s like being a brand new educator. Moreover, she posts about her passions exterior of the classroom, talking about her involvement in neighborhood teams like Fikia Dada Rescue Centre, which raises cash for varsity tuition for ladies in Kenya and native non-profit Smile for Sache, which helps weak communities and people impacted by gun violence.
Hassan’s following isn’t just made up of scholars who discover her on-line; the neighborhood of #TeacherTok is stuffed with educators who share each jokes and help with their friends within the subject.
The majority of Hassan’s full-time educating profession was digital because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and although she provide taught in particular person earlier than, transitioning to in-person educating along with her personal class felt daunting.
However the world neighborhood on #TeacherTok got here by way of with sources and encouragement.
In truth, one other social app Clubhouse linked Hassan with fellow Somali trainer Aya Jowhar, who now teaches Grade 6 on the similar college.
Of her pal and co-worker, Jowhar says Hassan’s “welcoming aura” shines vibrant, 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 mentioned she admires that Hassan is breaking the stereotypical concepts of what lecturers ought to appear to be.
“Typically whenever you go to her feedback, there’s a variety of positives … however there’s at all times a pair the place folks level out, ‘That’s not how a trainer ought to gown,’ however we’re all numerous proper? So we are able to categorical ourselves by way of our clothes, which is one thing she does so fantastically,” mentioned 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. When you’re taking the time to know the varsity, the neighborhood and immerse your self and actually get to know your college students in each facet, I feel you’re going to be superb,” mentioned Hassan.
“I really feel like typically 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 electronic mail: madisonwong@thestar.ca
