Fourth grade teacher uses Beyoncé lyrics to maintain order in classroom: 'Everybody on mute'

Nowadays, teachers are using unique methods to connect with young kids. They are making great efforts in trying to find creative ways through which they can make their classroom more engaging. A fourth-grade teacher is doing this by using Beyoncé lyrics to connect with his students. Jeremiah Kim teaches at Frontier School of Innovation in Kansas City and posts videos of how the kids react to his Beyoncé-inspired technique "I had a lot of people like, 'Oh, this is great. This is awesome.' Or like, 'I wish my teachers did this when I was in school,'" Kim told KMBC.

The self-proclaimed lifelong fan of Beyonce believes it's important for teachers to find innovative ways to keep their students attentive. He added, "The old call backs, like 'If you can hear my voice clap once' it's boring, right?" Kim started doing Beyoncé callbacks with his students this past year and they have been a hit with his fourth graders.

It all started when social media users began taking up the #beyoncemutechallenge trend during the singer's Renaissance World Tour earlier this year. The trend typically involved Beyoncé singing the lyric "Look around everybody on mute" from her 2022 song "ENERGY" where fans would go completely silent for a dramatic pause before the performance continued. The Missouri teacher shared a video on Instagram, writing, "In honor of seeing Beyoncé in concert in Kansas City, I will exclusively be using Beyoncé-themed callbacks into the foreseeable future."

Kim told Good Morning America. "I've always been predisposed to callbacks that are a bit more interesting. And so, once I saw those videos from her concert of the mute challenge, I just kind of ran with it." The callbacks are often based on song lyrics that get all the students on board to pay attention. "We use a callback and it brings everyone back together because the expectation of a callback is once they do their part, they're supposed to stop what they're doing. They're supposed to talk with the speaker and they're supposed to keep their voice off so they can hear directions. We are using it all the time," Kim explained.

The 27-year-old teacher who has been teaching for six years said the kids really enjoyed the experience since the first day he introduced it and "it was partially because I was like, 'I'm a huge Beyoncé fan. This is just really fun for me. So let's make this fun for all of us,' and then they just got really engaged."

The young teacher also hopes other professionals will be inspired to try different ways to keep their kids engaged.  "I feel like [callbacks are] one of those things where it should be a standard teacher practice," Kim said. "No one wants to be yelling over a class of 30 because that's exhausting for you. That's exhausting for the kids. Using a callback is just an effective way to get attention and to bring it back."