A few weeks ago, our teachers were meeting with a language arts coach to provide guidance as we implement a new reading and writing curriculum. As I sat with teachers and the coach throughout the day, the coach repeated a similar phrase to teachers: “These are TikTok babies.”

Her point was that teachers should share lessons with the briefest of actions, stating their point in a few memorable words, repeating it, and using some hand gestures/dances if possible. The idea is to make our instruction as sticky as possible.

Some would describe this as our students having a short attention span. It seems as if students can’t pay attention for more than 2-3 minutes at a time. So, the TikTok babies need us as educators to present information in a different way. 

I’m not quite sure how I feel about this though because I’ve also seen kids who are focused on something that interests them, and will sit for hours on end (think video games or legos).

Maybe we do need to rethink how we teach. 

But instead of shortening the attention span of our “TikTok babies,” maybe we need to focus more on how to build our instruction around student interests and engagement. 

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