Teacher left in tears over students' Zoom message
A university class has gone viral on TikTok after their heartwarming stunt over Zoom left their teacher in tears.
The video shared by Lauren Herrle on the video-sharing app has more than six million views and shows one of her teachers, identified only as Dr Brown, speaking with his students, all of which have their cameras turned off during the Zoom call.
“Is it the cool thing to do, not turn your camera on?” Dr Brown is heard saying in the video.
“I’ve heard that, I’ve heard that in some classes nobody turns their camera on, including the instructor.”
Dr Brown chuckles, but then he questions whether it was his fault all the students had their cameras turned off.
“Seriously, is it my fault that you have your cameras off?” he says.
But one of his students responds, saying: “So, Dr Brown we actually kind of wanted to do something.”
“With your cameras off?” Dr Brown says before the student prompts their peers to turn their cameras on.
As the students turn their cameras on, it is revealed everyone of them is holding up a sign, expressing their gratitude for their professor.
“Thank you for a great semester,” one sign says.
“Thank you for making a difference every day,” another read.
“Oh you guys,” Dr Brown responds.
“You’re going to make me cry.”
Dr Brown then takes off his glasses to wipe his eyes and cries, while thanking his students.
Professor ‘one of the sweetest teachers’, student says
Ms Herrle is a freshman at Chapman University, in the US state of California, and she has Dr Brown for a class called, ‘Lies you learned in school’.
She told Yahoo News Australia Dr Brown was her favourite teacher.
“We all have like a special place for him like he's easily my favourite teacher,” Ms Herrle said.
“He just comes to class with such good energy and he is always singing and humming and talking to us throughout the class and checking in and asking how our day was and making sure that everyone's alright.”
The Covid-19 pandemic has forced students across the world to turn to remote learning, something which has been challenging for students and teachers alike.
However, during this trying time, Ms Herrle said Dr Brown made the effort to make sure his students were doing okay.
“He really makes us feel like he cares about our personal life and our mental health and everything, and I just think as a teacher like that's really important to do and we all get that same vibe from him,” she told Yahoo News Australia.
“He's one of the sweetest teachers.”
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Ms Herrle said the support Dr Brown had given to his students hadn’t gone unnoticed because everyone felt similarly about him.
Though what the students did was a simple gesture, one TikTok user pointed out it would have definitely made an impact on their beloved professor.
“Teachers don’t get enough appreciation especially the amazing ones, guarantee he told everybody he knows about this and how much he loved it,” they said.
Ms Herrle said though it was not shown in the video, at one point Dr Brown had to get up and get a tissue.
The video had since been shared on other social media platforms like Reddit and Twitter.
“We must protect Dr. Brown at all costs,” someone said on Reddit, where people were praising the students.
One person said it was “a wonderful act of respect, thankfulness and kindness”.
“This pandemic has changed the way we live, work and communicate,” another person wrote on Reddit.
“Such times have been challenging to millions. What a kind gesture to appreciate such efforts.”
As it turns out these sorts of videos seem to be doing the rounds on TikTok.
A week ago, a user named vizzywap shared a video of her class revealing signs of appreciation to their teacher.
“During these tough times it’s important to show extra appreciation,” she wrote on TikTok.
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