Whitmer HS English teacher’s school day slice-of-life stories go viral on TikTok

TOLEDO, Ohio — A local high school teacher is going viral for her video in which she lists all the things she did for students in just one day.

Katie Peters is a 10th and 12th grade English teacher at Whitmer High School. Peters explains that in one day, she helped students in a variety of ways, including writing a letter of recommendation, giving one student some money for a haircut, retrieving a lost bookbag and consoling another student after their first breakup.

As of Thursday night, her video has close to 150,000 likes.

“My students were pretty impressed with the number of ‘followers,'” Peters said with a smile. “Apparently, that’s a really big deal.”

Peters also mentions in her video that she substituted for other classes during her usual planning periods. It’s a problem that’s become increasingly common for schools due to the shortage of available subs.

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“When you do that over many days, everyone begins to suffer. Our teachers suffer. Our kids suffer because they’re not getting the best from their teachers. Everybody suffers,” Washington Local Schools Superintendent Kadee Anstadt said.

Anstadt recently announced plans to release WLS students two hours early on Fridays beginning Feb. 4.

The extra hours are designed to give teachers like Peters the time needed to create lesson plans. Most importantly, Peters and other teachers will use the time to better support students during a time when they critically need it.

“We stand in front of them as the energy influencer in the room, and I absolutely know that my colleagues and I are aware of our role as influencing the culture of our classroom, and we have to be in a healthy space to do that,” Peters said.

The district is encouraging anyone to help as a substitute teacher. Anstadt says even if you’re only available a few times a month, it can be a huge difference.