Jeremiah Kim brings his love of Beyonce to the classroom.
A Missouri teacher has found a fun and engaging way to connect with his fourth grade students by using classroom callbacks that feature lyrics from superstar Beyoncé.
Jeremiah Kim told “Good Morning America” that he was inspired to start using callbacks when he noticed social media users getting behind the #beyoncemutechallenge trend during the singer’s Renaissance world tour earlier this year. The trend usually involved Beyoncé singing the words “Look around, everyone’s silent” from her 2022 song “ENERGY” and the audience falling silent (or failing to shut up) for a brief and dramatic pause before continuing with the performance.
“I don’t want boring callbacks like, ‘If you hear my voice, clap once,’” said Kim, who teaches at Frontier Schools, a charter district in Kansas City. “I’ve always been predisposed to more interesting callbacks. And so as soon as I saw those videos of her silent challenge concert, I just kind of dealt with it.”
Callbacks, often based on song lyrics, have been an effective way for Kim to keep students engaged during the school day, and his TikTok posts about callbacks have gone viral.
“We use callback and it brings everyone together because the expectation of callback is that once they’ve done their part, they should stop what they’re doing. They must talk to the speaker, and they must not talk so that they can hear the instructions. We use it all the time,” Kim explained.
The 27-year-old teacher said his young students enjoyed the energetic exchanges this school year.
“The first day I pitched it, I played bits and pieces of school-appropriate roles and got them involved that way, and then they got into it,” said Kim, who has been teaching for the past six years. “We really like it. Part of it was because I thought, “I’m a big Beyoncé fan. It’s a lot of fun for me. So let’s make this fun for all of us,” and then they just got engaged for real. “
His favorite callback is the “silent” call, which has become something of a classic in his class.
“I really like the song ‘Look Around, No Sound,’ because it feels so powerful,” he said. “I know why Beyoncé does it in concert now, because when you say it and it goes from loud to quiet, there’s a palpable energy to it and it really gives us the momentum to move on to the next thing.”
For other teachers of young students, Kim said he strongly recommends using upbeat callbacks that children can understand or relate to.
“I think callbacks are one of those things where it should be standard teacher practice,” Kim said. “Nobody wants to yell at a class of 30 people because it’s exhausting for you. It’s tiring for children. Using a callback is simply an effective way to get attention and get it back.”