As educators, we know that our students cannot be the most successful version of themselves if their basic needs are not being met. As health educators specifically, I’m sure we are often asked by our students if we have different hygiene-related items that they can have, whether it be lotion, band-aids, hair ties, deodorant, pads, etc to help meet those basic needs. Over my 8 years of teaching, I’ve kept some of these items in my classroom for students, but have always thought about having some sort of hygiene drawer or station for students to have consistent access to these kinds of items. However, I never knew if it was something I’d be able to keep up with physically or financially, so I just let the idea go.
It wasn’t until a few months ago when I saw two teachers I follow on TikTok have Student Hygiene Drawers in their classrooms. They created restocking videos that went viral with hundreds of random people in the TikTok community purchasing items off of their Amazon wishlist to help stock their hygiene drawers. On top of that, they also had companies (and we’re talking big companies, from Suave, Purrell, Liquid IV, SuperGoop, Belvita, Aussie, just to name a few) reach out and offer to help them by donating items for their hygiene drawers.
I thought to myself, “Why Not!?” I’d make an Amazon wishlist, buy a cart from Michael’s, decide on a name for my project (Student Care Cart), buy some items to get started, and make a few videos. I don’t have nearly as many followers as these teachers going viral, but you never know how the TikTok algorithm will work and I quickly learned that I was right..
So far, because of TikTok, I’ve had several companies (listed below) and a few generous people in the Tiktok community donate to my Student Care Cart (including 1 person who purchased over $100 worth of items off of my wishlist!) I’ve also shared my wishlist with some friends and family who have also donated some items to my classroom.
Every video I make, whether it’s an unboxing video or restocking video, I tag a variety of different companies in the comments, just in the slight chance that one of them will see it, comment/message and offer to help. I have also reached out to some companies via e-mail that are not on Tiktok to see if they’d be willing to donate any items to my Student Care Cart(SCC) or if they have any items they’d be willing to sell to me at a discount. So far, here are the amazing companies that I’ve had support me and my SCC:
It’s been exciting to see what companies will respond back to my comments or reach out via my Tiktok DM’s. It also fills my heart to see my students visit the care cart before and after class time or ask me privately for something they need (I put SCC expectations in place for using it and so far, so good). I’ve also had former students and students in my building I don’t personally know stop by my room asking for items from the cart because they saw my TikTok videos or they heard about it from other kids in the building.
If you are on TikTok, feel free to find my videos @miss_healthteacher and follow along on this fun journey! Feel free to message me on any of my social media platforms or email below if you have any questions!
My socials:
Twitter: miss_sjoblom
Instagram: miss_healthteacher
TikTok: miss_healthteacher
This microblog post was a featured post in #slowchathealth’s #microblogmonth event. You can search for all of the featured posts here. Please do follow each of the outstanding contributors on social media (including Melanie Sjoblom, the author of this post) and consider writing a microblog post of your own to be shared with the global audience of slowchathealth.com
Pair this blog post with the following:
Advice to a New Teacher by Renee Reedhardt
Ensuring That All Students Feel Included by Rachel Hervey
This Is Not Your Parents’ Health Class by Andy Milne
Have you read the latest Book of the Month recommendation?
#slowchathealth 
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