Rooted in REAL: Culturally Responsive Practice – Thursday Edition
What We Don’t Say About Urban Classrooms Series
Behavior #2: If You Keep Teaching While They Talk, You Trained It
This series lives inside the work I call the REAL Authority Vault.
Not authority as control, volume, or intimidation, but authority rooted in clarity, consistency, and follow-through.
Everything we’re about to unpack over the next few weeks—behaviors, patterns, hesitation, and expectations—connects back to how authority is built or quietly lost in the classroom.
The REAL Story
You give directions. Clear ones. Not confusing. Not rushed.
“Take out your notebook. Title the page ‘Multi-Step Equations.’ Copy the problem on the board, show every step as you solve, and box your final answer. You’re working independently for the next five minutes. No talking.”
And while you’re still standing there, three students are finishing a story that clearly matters more than what you just said. Two are laughing. Somebody says, “Wait, what are we doing?” even though you literally just explained it. A kid in the back is still turned sideways in their chair.
You repeat the directions while somebody is still finishing their sentence. You explain the example while two students are still talking through whatever they were saying.
And at that very moment is when you lose your mind. You raise your voice 3 octaves and repeat the exact same directions with way more bass, animation and attitude.
If that’s the cycle, then the problem is the room never fully stops.
Because in many urban classrooms, energy is high. Voices are layered. Conversations are constant. Students are used to adults talking over noise. They’re used to instructions coming while life is still happening.
If you don’t deliberately build a hard stop into your transitions, the room will default to overlap.
So instead of holding them to the standard of listening, you make the decision to keep teaching.
The issue is not that they didn’t understand. The issue is that nothing structurally required them to stop.
If your voice does not immediately override side conversations, then your instruction is competing. And in a high-energy room, competition loses.
When you keep teaching while they keep talking, you teach them something far more powerful than the math, you teach them:
They can get on track when they’re ready.
They can finish their thought first.
They don’t have to move when you move.
If they’re still talking and you’re still teaching, you just told them they don’t have to stop for you.
Not later. Not eventually. Not when you raise your voice.
And once they learn that, you will spend the rest of the year trying to get back a pause you never required.
This isn’t about being tougher or more controlling. It’s about being clear earlier than you’re comfortable with. Clear about what starting looks like, and clear that sitting there is not one of the options.
💕 3 Moves That Actually Change the Pattern
1️⃣ Stop mid-sentence. Immediately. And hold it.
The second you hear side conversations continue while you’re giving directions, you stop talking. In the middle of your sentence if you have to. You don’t repeat yourself. You don’t raise your voice. You don’t “guys” the room. You just stop and let the silence sit there until the last voice drops. And if someone still doesn’t shift, you say the name and wait. If it becomes a pattern, you mark it. Students need to know the pause isn’t random. It’s recorded. Noise does not get to talk over you and disappear.
2️⃣ Don’t restart until the room actually shifts.
“Voices off” is not enough. You are looking for bodies turned, chairs squared, pencils up, eyes forward. If someone is still sideways finishing their story, you don’t move. You wait. And if the delay eats into work time, you say it: “Your five minutes starts when the room is ready.” Now the overlap costs them something. When transitions have no cost, they stay loose. When they cost time, they tighten.
3️⃣ Stop rescuing students who miss directions.
If someone says, “Wait, what are we doing?” after you clearly explained it and it’s written on the board, you do not perform it again for the room. You say, “Read the board,” or “Ask someone who was ready,” and you keep it moving. If it keeps happening, you address it privately: “Talking through directions and asking me to repeat them isn’t going to work.” When repetition disappears and responsibility shifts back to them, attention improves fast.
Close
I know some days you don’t feel like correcting every single side comment when you give directions, especially when the room already feels loud and layered before you even open your mouth. But if you let conversations continue while you’re speaking, you’re teaching them they can finish their thought before shifting to yours. When they eat up instructional time with chatter, it comes out of their work time, not your patience.
Set it once. Hold it there.
And you won’t spend your day performing “I’ll wait” like it’s part of the lesson plan.
New and Early Career Teachers Navigating Urban Settings Group
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been reminded how rarely teachers are given space to slow their thinking down and talk through the work without being handed another strategy. Because of that, I opened a free, private LinkedIn group for new and early-career teachers navigating urban classrooms.
This is not coaching or PD. It’s a reflection space — a place to talk through what you’re implementing, hear how other teachers are thinking, and not feel alone in the work.
You can request access here:
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/16349025/
(Manual approval is on to protect the space.)
Tiffany Smith, Ed. D., Culturally Responsive Math Specialist
Founder, Education Evolution, LLC | Creator, The REAL Framework™ | Creator of Mind the Gap Curriculum™
Know someone who’d find this helpful? Forward this email to a colleague or friend who’s passionate about creating real change in the math classroom.
Or tell them to sign up with this link: https://education-evolution.kit.com/a3118d8126
