Humor is a very powerful educational tool when it is used in the correct way. Many teachers over the years have used humor to keep their kids interested, and that is a powerful thing indeed. Keeping the kids into what you are teaching is a wonderful way to ensure that they get a great education. For every teacher that successfully uses humor, there are others that fail. Why is this? What is it about some teacher’s humor that clicks with students? The answer to that question is a rather easy one, but only if you are able to see it. This article will help you to see how humor can be effective in teaching your students.
I had a teacher in the seventh grade that every student hated. He was a short man, and looked rather like Hitler. He had a pudgy little mustache, and greying hair. He also was considered one of the most hateful men in the school. He would show up to class every day with a sneer on his face, and was short and terse with everyone that he came into contact with. Why was it that he was so hateful and jaded? It was because he had been called Hitler every single day since he had started at the school, and he was fully aware of the kids in the class snickering behind his back. In short, they had gotten to him.
Ironically, he was a social studies teacher. Here he was, standing up at the front of the class looking completely like Adolf Hitler, and teaching the class about Hitler and his atrocities. I must admit that it led to some comical situations simply because of the visual. One of our class projects was to re-enact some of the situations from the World War, and we were supposed to create costumes and the like.
The day of the class project, we all showed up to class in our costumes and sat down. This teacher had not yet shown up for class, and we all were kind of doing as we pleased. A few minutes after the bell rung, the classroom door flung open. We all scattered to our seats, waiting on the teacher to walk through the door. Instead, Adolf Hitler himself walked through the door. The teacher had dressed up in full uniform, and even had on a black wig to mimic Hitler’s hair. As he stood there, their was silence across the classroom. Everyone was blown away at the costume, and a bit weirded out. Then his fake mustache fell off his face, and the entire room exploded with laughter.
The teacher himself broke up at situation and he got caught up in the laughter of the moment. After everything calmed down, “Hitler” participated in the class projected and played the role of Hitler of course. He seemed to relish laughing “with” his students for a change, and the class was one of the best I had ever seen. When the next day rolled around, he was a brand new teacher. Instead of being angry, he learned to laugh at himself. This was a big step in humor being successful in that classroom and it teaches a valuable lesson. Learn to laugh at yourself.
Another key to humor being effective as a teacher is to make sure it is not at the expense of other students. If you can only get a laugh while making a student look bad, then you should not be trying. Humor should always be easy for the students to laugh at. If you are being laughed at, you are succeeding. This means they are listening, and that is a good thing. Do not be afraid to be the butt of the joke. Your students will love you for it.
