The original and complete story can be found on the Emmanuel College website.
Tyler Jackowski, a graduate of the English and Secondary Education programs at Emmanuel College, isn't your average literature teacher. He’s also a TikTok sensation – boasting just under 2 million followers on his account (fishin4clout) where he posts videos from the classroom – bringing positivity to his students and more visibility to the teaching profession.
Currently a teacher at Boston Public Schools, Jackowski taught for four years at Mission Grammar School and did his student-teaching at Boston Latin School. He credits his Emmanuel Education degrees with setting him up for success so early on in his teaching career, especially because of how the program prepares graduates to work in the city and equips them with strategies to support students of many different backgrounds.
Now he’s beginning to share his own insights on teaching and use his platform on TikTok to advocate for students and what they need to be in the best environment to learn. Last week, Jackowski was welcomed back to the Emmanuel campus to speak at the English department’s First-Year Writing Prize celebrations. Like the first-year students honored at the event, Jackowski pointed to coursework at Emmanuel as a source of his confidence in what he’d learned.
Many of Jackowski’s former educators were in attendance for the presentation, including Sister Karen Hokanson, SNDdeN, Dean of the School of Education.
“Classes like Sister Karen’s are where I learned the philosophies and practices that I bring into every single day of teaching. For me as an educator, it was those types of classes that gave me the confidence to act the right way in certain situations, do students justice and make them feel safe, comfortable and happy just like anyone does at Emmanuel.”
-Tyler Jackowski
“Tyler’s presentation speaks to the School of Education's vision that graduates are passionate teachers whose authentic practice is rooted in the principles of social justice. By using TikTok, Tyler offers a dynamic and engaging platform for educators to connect with students in a way that resonates with their digital mindset for creativity, collaboration and active learning,” said Hokanson.
“Classes like Sister Karen’s are where I learned the philosophies and practices that I bring into every single day of teaching. For me as an educator, it was those types of classes that gave me the confidence to act the right way in certain situations, do students justice and make them feel safe, comfortable and happy just like anyone does at Emmanuel,” Jackowski said.
His methods range from balancing social media stardom to teaching Shakespeare to high school seniors. Originally having started his TikTok account to create fishing related content in 2019, Jackowski observed a negative connotation in general towards education, and when videos from his classroom began to resonate with people, the page stuck.
What does he think is missing from the modern classroom? Fun. It doesn’t mean that there’s no learning going on in the class – Jackowski said it’s quite the opposite, his students get a lot of work done – but it means doing more as an educator to make sure lessons resonate with students.