Do You Laugh Enough With Your Students?

Teenagers love to laugh. Sadly, the school environment of late has been riddled with fear and heartbreak. Despite our efforts to create normalcy in the wake of mass shootings and teacher strikes, students’ school days can be completely void of laughter except for during class changes or lunch break. To me, this seems like a dismal way for teenagers to spend the majority of their time. And it certainly can’t be good for their development.

Think about it. All day long they are required to behave, be quiet, be compliant and work hard. Luckily, many have great teachers who encourage and enlighten them in some way. But many are criticized and evaluated for hours straight. And unfortunately, some teachers have absolutely no sense of humor and their classes are BORING. This is reprehensible in so many ways, but honestly, I don’t want to spend most of my day like this. I want to have fun and enjoy the teenagers in their most precious years.

Maybe I’m selfish. Perhaps I should have chosen another career, but I’m no comedian. I just like to laugh! In class I mostly laugh at myself or at the absurdities of life. And there is certainly no lack of inspiration in my life. With a little effort, a personal bad hair day can be turned in to a funny story to start off a dull class. The funny thing is that the more I laugh at myself, the more my students laugh. Then I laugh some more. It’s a vicious circle that only leads to good things.

Laughter creates positive vibes.

It’s not hard to laugh when you are surrounded by teenagers if you let it happen. They are a funny bunch. You just have to listen to them. If you are always talking, then you never give them a chance to express their humor. I’m not saying you should turn your classroom into the Late Night Show, just lighten up a little. Start each class off with a silly joke or a funny story about your dog or your grandmother. Add humorous clip art to your slides. Dance a little. Use a picture of yourself as a kid with the mullet/bad perm/self-cut bangs for an activity. Teach them how to say fart in another language. Teenagers LOVE to laugh at stupid stuff like this.

If you’re really good, you can come up with silly rhymes and puns on the spot to facilitate retention. I’m not always quick enough for that kind of humor, but again, teenagers themselves provide enough material for a full comedy show if you let it happen. My favorite thing is to make them squirm with endless (curriculum-relevant) clips of my hot Latino idol, then bust a gut at their squirming. In turn, they laugh at me getting such a kick out of them. Crazy how that works.

Get them laughing and lower anxiety.

When I first started in this profession, an ancient teacher advised me not to smile for the first month so the students would respect me. I pondered that advice for a very short time and quickly decided that if I couldn’t have fun doing my job, then the job wasn’t right for me. As long as the students are not the butt of my jokes, having a little fun makes teaching much more pleasurable. The learning environment becomes a very welcoming place for both of us and anxiety levels will be much lower. With eased tension, my most withdrawn students tend to be more inclined to give more of themselves, and ultimately, that’s what we all want.

Don’t lose control.

Laughter is good for the soul and for the students, but some worry that it may take away from the teacher’s authority. I have found that the bottom line for maintaining control in the classroom is R.E.S.P.E.C.T. If you are kind and courteous while being silly, authority shouldn’t be an issue. This means avoiding sarcasm (really hard for me) and inappropriate humor. If your jokes are always on yourself, though, no one gets hurt. There is no need to be insulting to be funny.

There is a mountain of research out there (for those who need convincing) that suggests laughter is beneficial to student engagement in the classroom. That’s a no-brainer. I am convinced it is even more beneficial to the teacher. What can it hurt?

You just might end up loving your job. No joke.