The Importance of a Teacher's Sense of Humor in the Classroom
Sense of humor can be interpreted as the tendency of individual cognitive responses to evoke laughter, smiles, and joy. Medical and psychological experts agree that a sense of humor is a valuable and very important asset for a healthy and happy life, which every normal individual can have.Medically, a sense of humor can help with pain, and boost the immune system, and can even extend life. Socio-psychologically, a sense of humor can help reduce stress and anxiety, facilitate social interaction, and can help make better decisions in difficult situations. Mitchell Ditkoff said that humor is one of the characteristics of innovative people. Meanwhile, James C. Coleman said that arousing a sense of humor is one way to maintain constructive emotions.
For teachers, having a sense of humor is a very valuable personal capital as well as being a special attraction in the eyes of their students. The teacher's sense of humor is very useful in efforts to create a classroom climate and develop a healthier and more enjoyable learning process. In fact, Melissa Kelly mentioned that a sense of humor is one of the keys to being a successful teacher.According to Melissa, a teacher's sense of humor can relieve tension and prevent disruptive behavior from students in class, and can be used as a way to attract students' attention in class. And most importantly, with a sense of humor, a teacher will show that he is a person who has a healthy personality and mentality, can enjoy life, and is able to live his career life naturally without stress.
Even though in college there were never given courses that specifically studied the development of a sense of humor in class, it is clear here that teachers need to practice and get used to having the ability to develop a sense of humor in class.
In practice, developing a sense of humor in class cannot be done haphazardly but requires its own methods and tips. Here are some ideas that I often practice in class.Connect with the material being taught . Perhaps this is the most difficult idea to implement because not all of the material we teach students can be inserted with humor – especially for those of you who are not used to being articulate. But if you are able to do that, humor that is connected to subject matter can be believed to be a form of reinforcement that can help students digest and store information better in their long-term memory system.
Use relevant videos or images . For this second idea, maybe it's not as difficult as the first idea. Simply by using the services of Grandparent Google or other search engines, you can search and find various videos and images needed for the benefit of developing a sense of humor in class. Video or image content does not have to be exactly identical to the material to be taught, what is important is that the relationship can be found (connected). Next, present the video or picture in an attractive manner in class. Try after the show is over, ask students to reflect on the show, related to the material being taught.
Do it at the right time and situation . Developing a sense of humor doesn't have to be done all the time, because you're not making jokes in class. Serve your sense of humor when your students need it. For example, when students start showing signs of boredom or noise in class. Try not to repeat the same humorous topic in the same class. If you repeat it, it won't be the joy the students will get but instead it might become something boring and annoying.
Convey ethically and do not harass students . The interaction between teachers and students is educational interaction. Therefore, when you want to convey humor in class, it must be within the framework of education, both in terms of content and method of delivery. Avoid dirty and SARA-smelling humor, and avoid forms of humor that can hurt someone's self-esteem, especially students, even though humor is very funny and can invite most people to laugh and be happy.
Easy to understand and adapt to the level of development of students. One teacher tried to develop a certain sense of humor in class, which she found to be very funny, but the reaction from students was flat. It is very possible that this is caused by the humorous content that is too high so that it is difficult for students' minds to digest. Therefore, carefully choose humor content that is in accordance with students' comprehension and their level of development.
Those are my simple ideas and experiences on how to develop a sense of humor in class. Of course there are many other brilliant ideas and experiences from you, and let's discuss them in the comments space provided to enrich our understanding of how to develop a sense of humor in class and create a more enjoyable class.
Happy humorous and let's teach our students with joy so that they become happy people!
source:akhmad