Strategies for Educators/Trainers

Strategies for Educators/Trainers

Questions and Suggestions from the Field:

HELP! I want to infuse some humor into my presentation!

Movement and Emotion are critical components for humor! These are quick strategies to get your audience to think creatively and integrate humor/fun.

Pair/ Share: This is my favorite strategy.Simply have the group talk with their neighbor about what has been discussed.
Top Ten: Have small groups come up with the top ten ways to solve a difficult issue or problem. Use humor and creativity!
Bumper Stickers: Share some bumper sticker sayings (list in my book or on line).
Analogy: This issue or problem is like a micro wave because....... (or like a lion, cell phone, rock group)
Group Work; Divide into groups and have the group share their ideas via symbols and text type shortcuts)

Can Humor Be Infused in Our "Back to School Program"?

In Ch. 7 you tell of the superintendent who had creative ideas to present bad news to the school board and you also discuss the importance of positive emotionality. So here's the question: Our back to school night is the evening of the 1st day of school, after a short day with only a few hours with the kids. Reflecting back, my 'speech' on that night is pretty dry and serious. I wondered if you had an idea of how to begin the year on a more 'light' note....we have 20 minutes to tell about our program.

From Lisa, second grade teacher: California

Ideas for Opening Night Presentations

Here are a few ideas for your opening session when you give details of your program. Remember that you need to feel comfortable doing whatever you choose to do. You can make the humor/fun as simple or complex as it fits your personality. You can also tell everyone that you are trying to bring more fun into your classroom as you know it is brain compatible. Let the parents know that your use of humor is purposeful and designed to maximize student learning!

do a top ten list --the top ten reasons that kids will have fun in my class this year-
do an analogy-- my classroom is like a roller coaster because I never know what questions are going to pop up when we do...thus and so ---or my class is like a micro wave--
bring a few samples of the funniest things that kids have done in your classroom during certain projects---in other words--when you share the programs include funny things that kids in your class have done during those projects in the past.

Clown

Linking the Arts and Humor

From Angela Kay Larson angela@act2plan.com

Hello, Friends and Artists!

Mary Kay Morrisson (education advocate and humor expert) posted a link to the article below on Twitter and I want to give you all a chance to read it, if you haven't come across it already.

http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=21768

In a nutshell: "In March 2008, the Dana Foundation’s Arts and Cognition Consortium released a series of studies conducted by leading neuroscientists from six universities across the country. The findings demonstrated a 'tight correlation' between exposure to the arts and improved skills in cognition and attention for learning."

Learn more about Mary Kay's work at www.questforhumor.com, or follow her on Twitter.

Please forward this to others in your organization who care about our schools and the arts. And, if you're so inclined, visit www.artsforeveryone.com to learn more about the Arts Council and to make a donation to support our work in advocating for arts in our local schools.

Arts for everyone!

Block

Effective Use of Toys in the Classroom

I often get questions about humor/fun causing disruption in the classroom. A specific question came from a elementary teacher about how to use toys so they were not disrupting the learning process.

Toys are a great resource for energizing students and nurturing creativity. As with any hands-on activity guidelines need to be set so kids understand the purpose and structure of their use. Here are a few examples;

Incentive Strategy; Toys can be used when student work is DONE as long as it does not disrupt other learning.

Play Breaks; Toys can be used for 3 to 5 minutes for a play-break and to energize the brain.

Classroom Energy Break; Let all kids play for 5 minutes. Review the guidelines that there will another play break the next day if they can all get the toys back and get back to work in one minute.

These are just suggestions. My favorite strategy is to ask the kids to set their own guidelines for use of toys in the classroom.

Each teacher will want to experiment with what will work in his/her classroom. All groups are different and schools are different. Please feel free to email me with what has been an effective strategy in your classroom! I would love to post your ideas here!

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Please feel free to e-mail us with your comments or questions.

E-MAIL Mary Kay

"Humor Quest" is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.