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As Nelson Muntz once said "Ha ha!"
Humor is vital for teachers for two reasons. First, because teaching is a sterssful job and a good sense of humor is a great antidote to stress. And second, because humor is an amazing tool in the classroom.
Kids love humor. The best classes are the ones where there is laughter and humor. One of the "magic" ingredients which kids constantly report as making a great teacher is a sense of humor. Another one is simply a smile. Humor can defuse a situation of potential conflict. It can illustrate a point memorably. It can give kids a sense that you are "letting them in" to your personality in the same way that relating true life stories can. The Dickensian image of the dusty school classroom where pupils are beaten for incorrect grammar is of a humorless place where education is a necessary chore rather than a privelege and a pleasure. Learning actually is rewarding and fun, and one way to remind kids of that is to set your sense of humor free.

The staff room is also the place for humor, and the tone there can be very different. Dealing with the politics of the school or the confrontations you've had with parents is often best done by laughing rather than crying. If people knew some of the things we said! But more often than not, they're better expressed than kept in.
Look for the funny side and it'll jump out at you when you're not expecting it.

Learn more about this author, Matt Carmichael.
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