A video of TCS Elementary School English Teacher Javi Velez singing to his K4 students went viral on Twitter in January receiving over 230,000 views. 

While in a distance learning session with his students, Velez was inspired to create a song to motivate the students. Without his knowledge, his son, Felipe Velez, TCS Class of ‘17, made a recording of his father, which he then posted on Twitter. 

“If I don’t have an impact on these kids, they are never going to learn from me or another teacher,” Javier Velez, K4 English teacher at The Columbus School, said.

Neither did he or Javier expected the video to receive much praise. People saw Javier’s energy while giving class and started commenting and liking the video, making it go viral.  After the video started becoming popular, Felipe told his dad. 

 “It was truly inspiring how people received the video. I felt a rush of happiness and honor that people feel this way about what I do,” Velez said.

The video blew up, with over 230k views, 16k likes, and 337 comments. People really started giving Javier appreciation and praise, he believes that for a student to respect and admire you, you always have to be in your best attitude in order to help their learning. For the whole school community, Javier Velez is truly one of the best teachers that have come across school history.

“Some of my students choose me for the significant teacher event, sometimes students I have never had contact with, this really makes me feel happy because I not only had an impact on my own students but on others as well, and it’s inspiring to see that even seniors still remember me and think of me as a significant teacher they had in their lives,” Velez said.

The school community reached out to Javier after the video, but unfortunately, when his video went viral, another one that harmed the school’s image did as well.

“Nowadays people are more interested in making negative comments and focus on the negatives when great things such as the video are ignored.”  Juan David Lopez, High School principal at The Columbus School, said.

Throughout school history, Javier Velez has been a very well-recognized teacher, making the whole school community really admire him. He has reached the heart of a lot of students not only by his classes but his positive attitude every single day with his students.

“When my teacher greets us with a big smile and a positive attitude I know it’s going to be a good day,” Alejandra Alvarez, third-grade student at The Columbus School, said.