During this quarantine, I am exploring ways to marry my two professional passions: art and español. I have long been combining them on my Instagram (with which I have also made a free set of worksheets that you can post for your kiddos on Classroom like I am), but I have been wondering if Tiktok might be an even more effective tool for connecting–not only language with the visual, but also with the students who almost unanimously voted this app their favorite at the beginning of the year.

So, here are some ideas I had as I start to experiment.

Templates

Starting off, I found I could just add some of my photos to an existing Tiktok template and then pick a song! So my very first video, I just picked some photos from my recent trip to Chicago, and added, of course, some classic Álvaro Soler.

@sxtnimpressions

Me encanta la arquitectura de Chicago. Estas son fotos del último día de mi primer viaje a esta cuidad tan impresionante ##primertiktok ##viaje

♬ Sofia – Alvaro Soler

The Chicago pics were just some of the easiest to find on my camera roll, but I could definitely go back and combine some from Mexico, Perú, or maybe even some local sites (where I have already taken pictures, of course). If you are looking to get started, this is a quick way, and just maybe an excuse to get some of your favorite target language songs in students’ Tiktok feeds or to upload to Google Classroom.

Trending songs

Again, anything could be a vehicle to get the songs stuck in their heads. I experimented with some timelapse painting. Sidenote: the key is to match the length of the clip with the length of the video you’re going for–lots of 5-second clips.

Dude. What a great way to find new music in digestible snippets–AND WITHOUT BUTTS! You can also share songs that kiddos might hear around the way, plant some earworms, avoiding curse words and what appears to be an obnoxious “flicking” trend of late (looking at you, Ozuna, Lele Pons, and Lola Indigo–don’t click if you don’t like that finger). Just go to “Sounds” and “Discover,” and there’s a whole Latin category! And I clicked the little bookmark on all of them to save and use later, of course!

@sxtnimpressions

Preparando uno loto para ##wineanddesign ##wndgastonia ##canvaspainting ##artista ##speedpaint ##pintando ##acryilicpainting

♬ Blanco – J. Balvin

Uh…don’t mind the typo in the caption. But speaking of the caption, those are a quick way to get some key phrases or vocabulary in, too!

Lyric interpretations

I cannot tell you how tickled I am with Bad Bunny’s new videos, in particular “Pero ya no,” and the line “A mí ya no me cachas, yo no soy un Pokemón” (I giggle to myself just thinking about it) . Granted, the Sound offered on the Tikytoky doesn’t offer that particular line, but I can still demonstrate interpretation–kinda like coro snaps–by adding the words to the caption and/or textboxes.

I could send this out not only to introduce new music, but also to emphasize key phrases, and possibly to model for students.

@sxtnimpressions

“A mí ya no me cachas, yo no soy un Pokémon” ##badbunny ##pokemon ##peroyano ##letras

♬ Pero Ya No – Bad Bunny

Another idea for reverse interpretation is something TikTok teacher @SraKelley has been doing is taking the popular songs and adding timed interpretations (see “Renegade“). She shows how you can really use stickers to interpret too!

Lip syncs

I added this option to our coro snap rotation when our song of the week chorus was actually available on the Tiktok sounds! (Yet another indication I have been excellent taste.) Granted, it doesn’t actually demonstrate interpretation has taken place, but the idea is to help with fluency. The kiddos also pointed out that they could slow down their video as they recorded, so they could practice “speaking” at rates more appropriate for them and still get the desired effect.

(In-class hint: have students who already have TikTok pair up with students who don’t–my classes always had at least half with it, and it makes them feel more comfortable not to be alone.)

As for teacher lip syncs to send out while isolated? I could do songs, but I would LOVE to find a popular, *appropriate* funny sound in Spanish to lip sync. My son’s library science teacher is a MASTER of this in English…I must pick her brain…Maybe from #learnspanish? Or from my esteemed tweep @profedenham? I gotta tell ya’, a big chunk of the funny Sounds I am finding are riddled with profanity…kinda like my Spanish before I started teaching. If you have some ideas, let me know!

I DID just discover that there are a few hits available for lip sync on a Señor Wooly account, though!

Duets

I haven’t tried these, but what you can do is set up any videos you make so students, etc. could have your video on one side and add their version on the other. For the artistic side, the obvious choice would be to have me describe something I am drawing or painting and have them try to recreate it.

But while we’re brainstorming, here are some other possibilities:

• Teacher: Lip sync a song (maybe with two parts)
  Students: Join in or lip sync the other part
  
• Teacher: Record/find a conversation and only mouth one voice
  Students: Mouth the other person’s part
  
• Teacher: Name objects/animals/actions/descriptions with text
  Students: Hold up/dress up as examples
  
• Teacher: Narrate a short story–preferably funny or with a twist
  Students: Act out/illustrate
  
• Teacher: Explain a grammar rule
  Students: Add textboxes timed with the “duration” function to exemplify each step

PS Pretty much any of these would work as lip syncs, too!

So if, during this time of self-isolation, maybe you can try some of these out too and let me know how they go, share your links here! Or if you have some other #tiktokteacher ideas, share those too!