"Humor can act as a social lubricant or a social retardant in the educational setting. It can educate or denigrate, heal or harm, embrace or deface. It's a powerful communication tool, no matter which side is chosen."
--(Pg. 14 The Laughing Classroom)
--(Pg. 14 The Laughing Classroom)
Joy Master vs. Joke Maker vs. Life Mocker vs. Fun Meister
It is crucial for us to identify our humor style--it is such a powerful tool--we need to use it in an empowering manner!
Please discuss ways we can utilize this information to make our classrooms, colleagues, and schools better. Does your humor style bring you closer to your students? Does it enliven them or deaden them? Is it helping you reach your teaching goals? Is it enhancing and promoting a learning environment in your classroom?
5 comments:
After reading the four different types of humor styles, I thought I knew what style I had, but to be on the safe side I shared with my husband the four humor styles and asked him what his opinion was. He agreed with me! I am the "JOY MASTER." I have always been told that I am a warm and caring person with such a humorous side to me.
If teachers would do this self-examination of their humor style, they would be able to identify ways to make their classrooms more enlivened. Today in the business world I remind myself that I am modeling the behavior I want in my own staff. This translates in the teaching profession as well. One thing I always "wear" into the office is my smile in the morning. This simple facial expression can evoke such a warm and inviting environment to my staff members. I tried to do this as well when teaching...I would stand in the door and greet the students with a smile. What a great way to start the day! This simple technique was one way my classroom (and now my agency) was enlivened. My teaching always went more smoothly on days when "the laughter factor" was high! The kids had more fun and the retention was higher and I was having more fun! The learning that occurred in my classroom was not only hands-on, but laughter-filled as well.
I enjoyed learning about the four learning styles in chapter five. I believe that depending on my company, I am a "Joke Maker" or a "Joy Master." When I am with my family, I am definitely a "Joke Maker." I believe that I am more of a "Joke Maker" when I'm with my students.
My family has always been known for our entertaining dinner table discussions. We often still get together for Sunday dinners and spend our time laughing about old times, doing impressions for our favorite movies, and laughing through rough times and joyous times. This attitude has helped us deal with much heartache and made us closer as a family. I feel that it is really easy for me to become a "Joy Master" when I'm in a comfortable setting where I am not in charge.
At school, I tend to be more of a "Joke Maker." I love to tell fun stories (while using different voices) to my kids and incorporate creative movement into our learning. My students perform much better when they are relaxed and happy. Their attention spans are also much longer when I keep the material fun and interesting.
I really enjoyed reading about the 4 different humor styles. It was interesting to put a name to the different styles. My humor style is mostly a joy master, though I do have a few fun meister and joke maker qualities as well.
As I was reading the different styles I realized that I have had teachers that would fit the 4 humor styles. The comment in the book, "The farther other people are from your style, the more likely you are to experience conflicts with them." was very eye opening to me. After reading that I realized that some of my acquaintances have a completely opposite humor style than I do. I have experienced conflict with these acquaintances and realize a lot of it has to do with our humor styles and how we look at the world.
It would be interesting to see the humor styles of all the teachers in a district or of all employees working together. If people took the quiz and then made sure to focus on the positive parts of their humor style, I feel a lot more could be accomplished. I am going to share this quiz with my fellow preschool teachers. I am guessing that we would all be very similar. We tend to get a long very well with very few conflicts.
I thought about these 4 styles for a while and I believe and hope that I'm a joy master. I would hope that most people would fall under this heading. I mean humor should not in any way harm an individual. Sometimes I think we as people don't think before we speak and this leads to misunderstandings between people. I feel that humor should and does bring people together and allows us to enjoy one another a great deal. I know using some of the ideas from the book has allowed me to look at humor in the classroom in a different way.
I read about the 4 humor styles and believe I fall into the Joy Master category. I love my job as the kids PE teacher. One of the things I started doing a few years ago was to make up dances to holiday songs that I would get from the music teacher. The dances would be used as a warm up at the beginning of class and would also incude good moves like swinging your partner, or a good TA DAH! move at the end. We did the Turkey Gobbler, and many others. The kids loved them because they were silly and fun. Another thing I try to do is put holiday twists on favorite games. We play Pirates of the Caribean where some students are Pirates (complete with great pirate hats that the art teacher helped me with), some are explorers, and some are country leaders. They are all on scooters and trying to get treasure. I changed that game to the Grynch who stole Christmas and the pirates became grynches.
As to how to make my school more of a playful place, at the most part, it is. When it gets negative, I try to make jokes and see the light side of things. Mostly, though, I end up avoiding those who start on the pity path. It gets tiresome to listen to complaints each time you meet with them. But really, I usually find a way to make light of things and laugh. Then I go back to my planning space and start creating a better class for the next time the kids come in. I love to see wonder on their faces. Sometimes I set up the gym so elaborate that they are amazed. And you know those classes go smoothly from start to finish because they are so interested in what they are doing and what is coming up next.
Post a Comment