Finding the Humor

"Humor is mankind's greatest blessing," Mark Twain

I really appreciate hearing from you who responded to my last few blog posts on being thankful. Here's an example of a reader's response: 

•  “WOW this (blog) hit me square in the nose......I have prayed a prayer of thanks now for the last few weeks (well, I always have, but more so now)....It’s been a difficult and emotional year… but the gift keeps on giving.. THANKS BE TO GOD, because HE is the only way I got through it all.I need to be quiet and trust......time for me to get on the saddle for my spiritual side to take over....a work in progress! THANK YOU GOD!”

As I continue to count my blessings and name the many gifts God gives me, I can't help but feel how much those blessings bring me joy, also make me smile, and yes even laugh.

I was out of town this week, at a conference on the new Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for our K-12 public schools.  For those of you who may not be aware of the new standards; 45 states are joining together to adopt them. The underlying ideas concerning these standards are to get our students to have a better understanding of content, to think more critically, do more problem solving and be able to apply what they're learning. The event was a blessing; such a fun get away for me and I learned a ton. My mind is swimming with all the new ideas I heard and how I can implement them into my teacher training college classes.   I also had some great chuckles while I was there.  The truth is, I don’t know what I enjoyed the most; learning a lot of new ideas or just having a lot of good laughs.

I thought I'd pass some of the humor on....Here’s one of the videos we saw: the comedian is Brian Regan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89frRi8GgGA

                                        

Like humor often does, it causes us to think.  It reminded me not only of how many of our students would be hard pressed to apply many of their math concepts, or be able to figure out the girth of a box.  But perhaps more importantly, it reminded me of the power of having a good laugh.

And speaking of applying content: have you thought lately about just how healthy humor is for you?  According to some quick research on my part; here are just a few of many physical benefits of laughter reported by doctors and health care professionals.

·         Decrease in stress hormone levels

·         Strengthening of the immune system

·         Muscle relaxation

·         Pain reduction

·         Lowering of blood pressure

·         Cardiovascular conditioning

·         Natural anti-depressant

And according to the best expert of all; “A merry heart does good, like medicine”,  Proverbs 17:22.  So what better reason then to get out their this week and have a great belly laugh!

I wonder... if we purposefully put more humor into our classrooms, would we see our students engaged in more higher level thinking?  It sounds like a hypothesis to me! Perhaps I should do my own experiment to find out.  Oh wait… I could get my students to do it instead...Sounds like a great critical thinking exercise, don't you think?

 

I'd love to hear from you.  Post on the blog or email me @ smallseps4bigresults@yahoo.com