For most of us, it’s been a while since we’ve been inside a school. And it’s safe to say that being a teenager has changed drastically in the last few years.
While we may hear drips and drabs about the school day from our kids, it’s hard to know what really goes on inside the walls of a secondary school. Enter Virgin Media’s new series, A Rebel Education, which premiered this weekend.
TikTok teacher Mr Tadgh O’Donovan is one of the teachers working in the school. Apart from enriching the minds of young people, he also shares science tidbits on TikTok where he boasts over 400k followers.
We sat down with the Cork man to chat about life online, being a teacher and what advice would he give to today’s youths.
Tell us a bit about A Rebel Education and getting involved in the series.
It’s a lovely four-part series that hopefully captures all the madness and mayhem and all the amazing things that happen inside our school here in Carrigaline. I’m looking forward to seeing it now myself. It’s been a privilege to be a part of the series, but I really hope that it captures how amazing our staff are and how amazing the kids are. I hope that it captures how amazing everyone else is.
It definitely will remind people what school is like!
It’s interesting and it’s an eye-opener. When people leave school and they forget about it, this is their first time looking back and seeing how different school is and how different the kids’ lives are. The world has moved on so much even since the last five years, since COVID and how education has changed. It’s absolutely phenomenal, it’s a real eye opener and I hope it’s something the audience realises when they watch the show
Not only are you a teacher, but you have a huge platform on TikTok. How did you decide to start posting on social media?
It happened during COVID. I was teaching over in the UK, and at the time, I was in the old school way of thinking of teachers like, stay away from social media, it won’t do any good, kids are always looking for your social media anyway. I didn’t really have anything, I didn’t have a TikTok, I didn’t really use Instagram, I barely had Facebook! When COVID hit, I was involved with the school delivering food out to the families that were struggling financially. I was chatting to the kids and I was saying “I see you haven’t really been involved with any of our online lessons you haven’t been uploading your class work on Google classroom. What are you doing with your day?” and they were all saying the same thing, spending six to eight hours every day on TikTok, and that clicked with me. Then I was watching my own housemates making silly TikToks at home. So I thought maybe I should just make a couple of TikToks at home about school life, about science, about funny bits and pieces, but try and bring a bit of education there for them and remind them about school. I wanted a place where they can learn on TikTok, and it took off from there to be honest.
@teachwithtadgh The end of the week ‘Run for Revision’ update, but this time with special guest @Niall McNamee 🙌🏼 If you’re going for a run anytime soon, make sure and throw on his new Album, ‘Glass & Mirrors’👌🏼 worth the listen. 🎧 #irish #ireland #irishmusic #teacher #run ♬ original sound – Tadgh O’Donovan
It’s safe to say we’re all spending about six hours on social media a day. So it’s great to see an actual teacher sharing information online!
[Laughs] There could be an argument made that at some stage I should be doing a lot more teaching on there than the skits! I’m teaching in real life, and that’s the big thing, as long as they are enjoying it inside the classroom in front of me that’s all that matters. I can have my creative spot then on TikTok after that other day of the week.
As you said, a lot of people think teachers shouldn’t be online. Have you had any issues yourself having such a presence on social media?
It’s a funny one because people say teachers should be doing this, they shouldn’t be doing that, but every other career is allowed to, it’s a very strange, weird, grey area. I came back from the UK in the middle of the lockdown, I moved home, and I was sat at home waiting for the teaching council to clear my paperwork. I was sitting here with this teaching degree in science and I’m not teaching anyone, I’ve nothing better to do so I came along and started teaching science through live lessons on TikTok. When I got the job at the school, I had the guts of 100,000 followers. I was lucky that when I spoke to school I said, “Before you hire me ye have to be aware this is something I do, something I’m known for, ye can look at the content, ye can tell me what ye think, if you’re happy with the style of content I make or if you think it’s too controversial, I can change bits and piece. But I want to be upfront with ye.” I am really lucky the school I’m in Carrigaline, are very accommodating and that what I’m trying to do isn’t trying to be controversial. I’m trying to be educational and remind people with the show of the fun side of what teachers can be as well. I’m lucky in that sense that everything is above board in terms of child protection and everything, which is obviously a huge area in terms of this online space.
Yes, there’s been some controversy about other teachers, mostly in the States, having their students included in the video. You obviously don’t do that.
No! And if I was a parent, I’d be fuming! This isn’t the platform for putting kids on to it, my platform is about teaching and you shouldn’t have the kids in it, even if they have consented to it. I like to keep the kids separate, let them do their thing, and I’ll do mine over here for safeguarding!
@teachwithtadgh For the first time ever, I feel sorry for the English teachers who have to mark this year’s paper. 🙈😅 . #leavingcert #irish #ireland #teacher ♬ original sound – Tadgh O’Donovan
Obviously, with A Rebel Education and your TikTok, we’ve really entered a new era of teaching! But social media can have it’s downsides as well, of course.
There are very grey areas that are in there. You can have some real positives and some real negatives I’ve seen so many schools in the last few years creating their own Instagram page, we have one where we post our content about the school open day and the sports going on and the likes. We did a little video of the school for our open day and our TY lads did it, they had some terrible dad jokes that I gave them to say [Laughs]. So hopefully that impacts how many kids want to come to the school and it is a nice little marketing tool for school is well.
You spend five days a week with teenagers, so what advice would you give to the teenagers?
The biggest advice I would give is there are so many kids scared to do the things they want to do because of what other people might think of them or how they would appear to their peers. My biggest advice is if you want to do something try it, give it a go, no matter what it is if it’s a particular sport, activity, hobby or interest or subject or anything you are thinking of doing just give it a go. You never know how much of a difference it would make to your life if you try it, if you are afraid to try to because of what others might think. You will never grow as a person, you should not be afraid to stand out!
A Rebel Education: Inside Carrigaline Community School continues on Sunday at 8pm on Virgin Media Play and Virgin Media One