SENSE the humor
Laughing is a natural way of calling attention, if a person hears laughter they naturally want to know what is funny. I believe we have so many stresses in our modern life that there are to few true pleasures left. Laughing is one of them. When a student laughs he/she encourages the people around him/her to focus. This is a great technique for pulling the student interests back, the humor must be clean an avoid offense. If your timing is right you can cause time freeze in you classroom, it will appear that time has slowed. When the end of the course shows up and no one noticed it was the end of the day you have done the impossible, turned a learning environment into a fun zone. You will notice improvement in attendance and good scores
Ryan
I agree with your statement when your having fun time flies and the students usually comments on how the class flew by great job!!!
Humor may be injected into the lecture, I also use it when making a point that I want the students to take note. I say "there are things that I say are NEED TO KNOW, NICE TO KNOW, or NUTS TO KNOW. So when when I am discussing a subject a students may interject Need to know or nuts to know... all laugh and I will classify that nugget that I am discussing its proper rating and importance for the student.
Kristen,
So true & don't be afraid to laugh at yourself as this can help communicate that it's okay.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
I agree with this statement. I have attended classes and observed some classes where the teacher is very monotone and mundane. Try to have fluctuation in your voice or the students will fall asleep. Also, try to have a sense of humor, try to relate to the student and humanize yourself... you will get great results!
:)
Roger,
excellent point made here. And in this line of work, I'm guessing keeping a sense of humor is key for stress relief & keeping your sanity at times.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
I teach criminal justice, I can tell you with some of the topics that are discussed, having a sense of humor is imperative. You don't need to to be a comedian to be able to bring humor into the classroom. Often humor can be used as a way to introduce a not so humorous topic. It sort of breaks the ice per se.
I feel that humor is a key element to making most people more comfortable. When people feel comfortable and having some fun at the same time, they tend to be more engaged with the discussion and their learning process. A little humor lightens the mood and makes learning fun. I think most people learn better when they are having fun.
Russell,
and these help keep interest as well as highlighting important/key points.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Humor is a great tool that can use classroom discussion, activity, movement, actually anything that transpires during class time. Working in jokes and stories can be used to supplement all the material that is presented in the normal course of teaching.
Jacqueline,
this is an excellent point & a good one to highlight. We would not want to be goofy, but sometimes some well-timed humor can help to diffuse tense situations.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Laughter is the best medicine, in & out of the classroom. I have had times during business, law, & ethics where time seemed to be running backwards, however with humor I was able to get the students actively participating in the lecture. They became excited about finding out how to deal with tense situations in a professional manner.
Using clean, non-offensive humor in the classroom is an excellent teaching tool. Not only does it provide stress relief, it encourages the students to relax, lighten-up, and become a part of the learning community. It always makes my day when students bring in a silly joke. I love hearing students say that they cannot believe class is already over.
I agree. I utilize humor on a daily basis. It makes class more fun and memorable. I often reference humorous moments from when I was in the industry. Doing this allows me to tie relevent experience with our daily lessons and also creates a more relaxed environment for the students.
I agree with your findings, i am a massage instructor, and making learning fun is part of the job, I know that a student that is having fun retains more than a student that is counting minutes until the end of class.
