‘Look Around, Everybody On Mute’: Teachers Using Beyoncé’s Mute Challenge With Their Grade School Students

Some teachers across America have been using a new way to quiet down their young students. According to a TODAY news report, teachers have started adapting Beyoncé’s mute challenge in their classrooms.

The coolest new way to quiet students comes straight from Beyoncé’s “Renaissance World Tour.”

The “mute challenge” from Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour has taken the internet by storm, with different tour stops fighting for the title of being the quietest during the challenging part of her song “Energy,” which features Jamaican rapper Beam. The challenge consists of Beyoncé singing the lyrics, “Look around, everybody on mute,” prompting Queen B, her dancers, and everyone in the crowd to freeze and go quiet. The goal of the challenge is to get the thousands of stadium fans to be “on mute.” After the extended silence, Beyoncé continues to sing, “Look around, it’s me and my crew,” as the crowd gets excited again.

Atlanta first-grade teacher Amber Drummond participated in the challenge during Beyoncé’s first night in Georgia while on tour. She told TODAY that she noticed a similarity between the call-and-response methods she uses in her classroom and the mute challenge, and admitted it inspired her to try a new way of getting her students to quiet down. A “call and response” technique is typically used in grade school classrooms when the teacher says a word or phrase, and the students will calm down and give their attention to give a specific response.

Drummond said that she explained what “mute” meant to her first graders and then began trying it out. Drummond was shocked at its success.

The teacher and Beyoncé fan shared a video on social media of her class doing the challenge.

She captioned the post, “I prepped the D-Hive section on a Monday, they had it by Tuesday. This is the most talkative group of kids I’ve had in my 15 years of teaching. The #teachermutechallenge worked…imma take my win for today like I took our win in ATL day 1 when the Queen said we won the #mutechallenge.”

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Since then, videos of teachers using the mute challenge have gone viral, and more and more classrooms have begun picking up unique and fun call-and-response techniques for the kids.

Fourth-grade Kansas City, MO teacher Jeremiah Kim speculated on why it worked so well in an academic setting.

Kim said, “Students respond better to people who are real. Human beings have a radar for when someone is being genuine or not. Kids — way more than we would expect.”