‘You just have to laugh’: several UK teachers on handling ‘‘67’ in the classroom
Around the UK, school pupils have been shouting out the expression “sixseven” during lessons in the most recent internet-inspired craze to take over classrooms.
Whereas some teachers have chosen to patiently overlook the phenomenon, some have incorporated it. A group of educators explain how they’re dealing.
‘I believed I’d made an inappropriate comment’
During September, I had been addressing my year 11 students about getting ready for their GCSE exams in June. I don’t recall exactly what it was in relation to, but I said something like “ … if you’re working to grades six, seven …” and the complete classroom started chuckling. It caught me completely by surprise.
My immediate assumption was that I might have delivered an hint at an inappropriate topic, or that they detected something in my speech pattern that sounded funny. Slightly exasperated – but genuinely curious and conscious that they weren’t malicious – I got them to clarify. To be honest, the description they then gave failed to create much difference – I remained with little comprehension.
What might have made it extra funny was the weighing-up motion I had performed during speaking. I later found out that this often accompanies ““sixseven”: I had intended it to assist in expressing the process of me speaking my mind.
In order to eliminate it I try to reference it as frequently as I can. No strategy diminishes a phenomenon like this more thoroughly than an adult striving to participate.
‘Providing attention fuels the fire’
Understanding it aids so that you can avoid just blundering into comments like “indeed, there were 6, 7 thousand jobless individuals in Germany in 1933”. In cases where the numerical sequence is unpreventable, possessing a rock-solid school behaviour policy and standards on learner demeanor really helps, as you can deal with it as you would any different disturbance, but I rarely needed to implement that. Policies are important, but if students embrace what the learning environment is practicing, they’ll be more focused by the online trends (especially in instructional hours).
Concerning 67, I haven’t sacrificed any teaching periods, aside from an periodic eyebrow raise and saying “yes, that’s a number, well done”. Should you offer focus on it, then it becomes an inferno. I treat it in the equivalent fashion I would handle any other disturbance.
Previously existed the 9 + 10 = 21 craze a few years ago, and undoubtedly there will emerge another craze after this. It’s what kids do. Back when I was childhood, it was performing comedy characters impressions (honestly outside the learning space).
Children are unpredictable, and I think it’s the educator’s responsibility to react in a way that redirects them toward the course that will enable them where they need to go, which, fingers crossed, is completing their studies with qualifications rather than a behaviour list a mile long for the employment of random numbers.
‘They want to feel a part of a group’
Students employ it like a connecting expression in the recreation area: one says it and the others respond to show they are the equivalent circle. It’s like a interactive chant or a sports cheer – an common expression they share. I believe it has any particular importance to them; they merely recognize it’s a thing to say. No matter what the current trend is, they desire to be included in it.
It’s forbidden in my teaching space, nevertheless – it triggers a reminder if they call it out – identical to any different shouting out is. It’s especially challenging in numeracy instruction. But my students at year 5 are pre-teens, so they’re relatively adherent to the regulations, although I understand that at high school it might be a different matter.
I have worked as a instructor for 15 years, and these phenomena continue for a month or so. This craze will diminish soon – this consistently happens, particularly once their junior family members begin using it and it ceases to be trendy. Afterward they shall be engaged with the next thing.
‘Sometimes joining the laughter is necessary’
I began observing it in August, while educating in English language at a international school. It was mostly young men saying it. I taught students from twelve to eighteen and it was common with the younger pupils. I didn’t understand its significance at the time, but being twenty-four and I understood it was simply an internet trend akin to when I was a student.
The crazes are always shifting. “Skibidi toilet” was a familiar phenomenon at the time when I was at my educational institute, but it didn’t really exist as much in the classroom. In contrast to ““67”, ““the skibidi trend” was not inscribed on the board in lessons, so pupils were less equipped to embrace it.
I simply disregard it, or occasionally I will chuckle alongside them if I accidentally say it, attempting to relate to them and understand that it’s merely pop culture. In my opinion they just want to experience that feeling of togetherness and camaraderie.
‘Humorous repetition has reduced its frequency’
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