Humor Benefits Classroom Environment

One characteristic of effective teaching is maintaining an appropriate classroom environment.  There is no one kind of classroom environment that is correct.  The most appropriate classroom environment is crafted to meet the needs and interest of the students, the school, and the teacher.  Humor is both a part of the student-teacher relationship and a part of the classroom environment.  Humor is predicated on a safe comfortable atmosphere where it's acceptable to laugh and err.  Trial and error learning cannot exist if students don't feel safe enough to try.  I love humor because if used correctly it breeds positivity.  Even though teachers and students may have generational gaps complicating communication, humor is timeless and helps bridge that gap.

This dated video highlights a difference in communication between generations and also shows how humor and positivity can effect student efficacy.  Bad Grimes reminds me of some older control obsessed teachers I've witnessed.  He's intense and fixated on maintaining a stern and silent classroom environment.  Bad Grimes makes poor decisions when discussing students' scores on a recent test and certainly does not encourage students to succeed by highlighting their failures as students.  Good Grimes recognizes that if students are struggling that it's possibly his failure as an instructor to properly communicate or teach.  Good Grimes is encouraging and reestablishes student efficacy by helping them succeed and experience success. 

From the date of this video, it's no news that humor is effective in the classroom.  I tried to recall teachers from my past that employed copious humor in their teaching style, but I think it's hard to recognize a teacher with a sense of humor as a child.  I imagine that the teachers with humor were the ones that sent to the principals office less often.  I'm thankful that my teachers had a sense of humor, and I look forward to having an awkward and dated sense of humor that is hilariously out of touch with my keen groovy rad hip cool (is cool still cool?) students.