Group items tagged

"I don't use sarcasm and I don't resort to ad hominem attacks in the name of "humor." However, I joke around often in class. It might be a wise crack about pop culture, a musing on something ironic or the fun of wordplay. These uses of humor are intentional. I believe humor is a good thing in the classroom. Here are a few reasons why:"

"When we think about creativity and innovation, the words "humor" and "goofiness" don't typically come to mind. But I'd argue that this is a critical piece of what it means to cultivate a climate of creativity. "

"This Week's Education Humor A Weekly Update from the Learning Laffs Archives"

"Visualize this: A calculus teacher downloads an open-source digital calculus textbook. She deletes a chapter that isn't relevant to her class and replaces it with one from another open digital textbook that she's used in the past. She reads through the book, embeds several YouTube videos where relevant and an occasional humorous photo to keep students' interest, adds links to related websites and study aides, and uses a special app to create quizzes within the text that test the students' knowledge of the course material."

" "I've tried to get into coding but my cleavage is just so distracting," quipped one young woman in this provocative YouTube video. "When I'm not menstruating, I'm ovulating, so there's no time to code at all," lamented another. If this all sounds entirely ludicrous, it's supposed to. Girls Who Code, a nonprofit dedicated to bridging the gender gap in tech, created this satirical clip to feature in a three-part series that explores the ridiculous gender stereotypes that exist in the world of computer science. "We wanted to try something different and use humor and satire to question the stereotypes that tell our girls that coding is not for them," said Reshma Saujani, the organization's founder and CEO, in a statement. "Our hope is these videos will spark a much-needed conversation about the messages we send our young women and what we can do to create a more inclusive, well-rounded image of a programmer.""

"Do you sometimes find yourself thinking about how you can spice up a lesson with some engaging visuals, a pop culture reference, some humor or drama, or something else that gives it that extra "pop!"? Or … have you ever been watching a good movie and thought, "Wow! This totally relates to one of my lessons"? Well if you've experienced either of these notions, this site is for you (and even if you haven't, you'll probably want to check it out anyway). TeachWithMovies.org offers a collection of lesson plans and curriculum materials using movies to inspire, inform and motivate your students. There are subject-specific sections for English, Social Studies, Sciences, and Other Subjects (which include Math, Health, Music, and numerous other subjects). These subject areas are often broken down into sub-categories (for example, Social Sciences is broke down into US History, World History, and Civics)."

"Among the many ways to actively engage children in the learning process, educational games are one of the most fun. With so many award winning and cleverly designed games on the market, young children to teens (and even adults!) can develop new skills and reinforce other skills, without even realizing they are learning. Board, card, cooperative, puzzle games, and more encourage interactive hands-on learning in a humorous, light hearted environment. In a addition to math, reading, vocabulary, logic, problem-solving, and spelling skills regularly introduced by educational games, turn based and cooperative games foster with social interaction, communication skills, and self confidence. Consider adding one of these excellent educational games to your home or classroom collection."

"Need a little lift to get you through the day, the week, and propel you through to the end of the school year? I've so enjoyed the videos from Kid President, I wanted to check out some other content from Soul Pancake. I was not disappointed. These folks are putting out so many great, fun empowering clips! This is just a small collection of what they've produced. You and your students are sure to find some inspiration (and humor) in these videos."

Meet Ten Word Wiki, a Twitter style version of Wikipedia that only describes stuff in under ten words but they also add a pinch of humor to all their definitions. For instance, the definition of Google, in ten words, reads something like this: The Centre of the Internet. They can find you anything.

Humorous tips for better presentations

"As the beginning of another school year approaches, students face the dreading reality of putting the sunny, less-stress summer days behind and preparing for the next 10 months of deadlines, papers, homework assignments, tests, grades and teachers that seem to not understand what it's like to be a student in 2014. While some students anticipate the teacher that gives less homework, is humorous, easy-going and fair, other students cross their fingers in hopes of the teacher that will understand and accept them for being quiet."

"St. Stephen's Episcopal Day School hosted Miami Device, a conference held on their campus November 6 & 7, 2014. Felix Jacomino, the school's Director of Technology, managed to lead a team that pulled off an incredible learning event. The speakers, sessions, food, venue, and even the name tags surpassed all expectations. The opening keynote speaker was Kevin Honeycutt.  Kevin's wisdom, humor, expertise, kindness, charm, and wit set the stage for the two days. I had the privilege of being the closing keynote speaker. I had a great time encouraging educators to give students as much ownership over their devices and learning as possible. "

"When I was a Destination Imagination team leader, we had weekly challenges for our team to complete with minimal supplies, all found around the house. These fun building challenges were STEM activities on a budget! The innovation and creativity that came from the kids was phenomenal. It took practice, teamwork, strategic thinking, patience, and a sense of humor, but with practice my team grew together and became expert engineers. Here are 10 building, STEM activities you can do with materials you already have at home. The key to innovation and success is to repeat the activities several times, discussing strategy, what worked and didn't work, and how you will improve it next time. Remember to let the kids be in charge, and hold yourself back from interfering with their creative process. In all of the challenges, kids are invited to alter the materials in any way: tearing, folding, rolling, bending, etc."

"The Writer's Workshop is a playlist of twenty-two TED-Ed lessons. The The Writer's Workshop contains lessons on basic topics like how to use punctuation and videos on more complex topics like how to make your writing humorous."

"Listicles are a humorous way for students to condense and share information through text and images. But how do they work in the classroom? Here's why teachers and students can learn a thing or two (or nine) from BuzzFeed."

A funny blogger who exposes poor writing ability while attending to proper writing conventions.