Laughing Matters

Education / School Culture

Strategies for Building a Joyful Learning Community “The state of education today is no laughing matter. That’s why you need this book! It shows how laughter can create a more dynamic classroom, a more collaborative learning community, and, on a personal level, a healthier lifestyle. This outstanding book demonstrates why laughing really does matter.”

Laughing Matters

Laughing Matters

—Allen Klein, author of The Healing Power of Humor and 2005–2006 president of the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor

This engaging resource for teachers and administrators offers practical strategies for bringing fun and humor into your school’s classrooms, culture, leadership, and professional development.

Based on research that reveals humor’s physiological, psychological, and sociological benefits, Laughing Matters will teach you how to use the power of humor to:

Strategies for Building a Joyful Learning Community

Laughter can transform a learning community. Laughing Matters demonstrates how you can nurture and express a sense of humor to become healthier, happier, and more productive at school—and in your personal life.

Susan Stephenson, M.Ed., is a founding member and past president of the Staff Development Council of Ontario. A former teacher and principal, she brings her expertise in staff development to her consulting work with TNT Associates.

Paul Thibault, M.Ed., is an awardwinning educator with more than 35 years of experience. A former director of the principal qualification program at York University in Toronto, Paul is cofounder (with Sue) of TNT Associates, a consulting firm for school boards and staff.

Stephenson

• Enhance students’ learning potential.

• Make curriculum and assessment less intimidating and more fun.

• Create a collaborative school culture.

• Lead staff and students more effectively.

• Unleash creative energy in professional development activities.

Laughing Matters

Thibault

Cover art and design by Grannan Design Ltd. Text design and composition by T.G. Design Group.

www.solution-tree.com

Su s a n St e p h e n s o n Pa u l T h i b a u l t

Copyright Š 2006 by Solution Tree (formerly National Educational Service) 304 West Kirkwood Avenue Bloomington, IN 47404 (800) 733-6786 (toll free) / (812) 336-7700 Fax: (812) 336-7790 e-mail: info@solution-tree.com www.solution-tree.com

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction of this book in whole or in part in any form.

Cover art and design by Grannan Graphic Design, Ltd.

Text design and composition by T.G. Design Group

Illustrations by Tony MacKinnon

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN 978-1-932127-91-1

Table of Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 PART 1 THE PERSONAL BENEFITS OF LAUGHTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Chapter 1 Prescription to Laugh: The Medicinal Importance of Humor . . . . 5 Healing the Body: The Physiological Benefits of Laughter . . . . 6 Healing the Mind and the Spirit: The Psychological Benefits of Laughter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Forging Relationships: The Sociological Benefits of Laughter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Make a Healthy Choice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Chapter 2 The Happiness Factor: What It Is and How It Works . . . . . . . . . . 15 The Pursuit of Happiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 The Emergence of Positive Psychology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Can You Achieve Authentic Happiness? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Keys to Happiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Inauthentic Happiness and Faux Fun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 The Power of a Smile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Measuring Laughter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Real-World Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 An International Laughter Experiment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Seek Satisfaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

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Chapter 3 Nurturing Your Own Sense of Humor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Check Your Funny Bone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Be Yourself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Humor Temperaments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Think Funny . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Rediscover Your Inner Child . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Take Control of Your Attitude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Take Stock of Your Fun Quotient . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Search for Funny Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Write Your Own Sitcom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Tell Stories About Yourself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Collect Funny Stuff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Go Fun Places With Fun People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Keep It Clean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Keep Smiling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 PART 2 CLASSROOM STRATEGIES FOR TEACHERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Chapter 4 Learning Through Humor: The Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Why We Need the Ha-Ha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Learning Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Social Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 How Students Learn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Multiple Intelligences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Emotional Intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 The Playful Classroom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Creating a Safe Place to Learn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Building Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Learn to Laugh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

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Chapter 5 Learning Through Humor: The Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Give Your Classroom a Humor Tune-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 First Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Curriculum Strategies That Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Assessment Strategies That Reduce Tension . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Teach Humor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Laugh to Learn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 PART 3 THE LEADER’S ROLE IN CREATING A COLLABORATIVE SCHOOL CULTURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Chapter 6 Leading With Humor: The Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Inspirational Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Why Humor Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Overcoming Doubt and Fear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 School Cultures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Six Models of School Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 The Professional Learning Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Humor in the Mission, Vision, Values, and Goals . . . . . . . 83 Be a Positive Role Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 Chapter 7 Leading With Humor: The Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Start With Yourself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Ramp Up the Fun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 With Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 With Staff Members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 In the Faculty Lounge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 In Your Office . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 At Meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 In Staff Bulletins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 In Celebrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 In the Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Explore the Possibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

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Chapter 8 Professional Development With a Smile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Involve Staff in Planning and Leading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Unleash Your Creativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Use Cooperative Learning Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 Get Them Out of Their Seats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Act Out the Goose Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Show Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 Treat Staff Members With Respect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Plan on Laughing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 The Last Laugh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Appendix A:

LaughLAB Jokes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Appendix B:

Additional Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Appendix C:

The Goose Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Introduction

Having fun is not a diversion from a successful life. It is the pathway to it. —Martha Beck, life coach

IT IS NOT EASY BEING AN EDUCATOR these days. Many teachers and administrators work in competitive, isolated, and stressful conditions. Educators have spent decades trying to stretch dwindling resources. Newspapers publicize standardized test scores without any explanation of the complex factors involved. Administrative agendas conflict with union needs. Very little time is dedicated to professional development, and droves of teachers are retiring, leaving new teachers desperate for mentors. Collaboration is a commonly stated goal, but the culture and structure of schools often favor working alone. Creating an environment conducive to learning has become a much more complicated and sometimes daunting task.

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And yet we still want to make our schools more effective for students—our hope and optimism continue. Without laughter and a culture of good humor to make continuous school improvement an enjoyable process, rather than an exhausting chore, we have little chance of achieving success—let alone sustaining it.

Collegial, positive relationships among administrators, teachers, students, and parents are essential to securing collaboration and support from all stakeholders in the learning community. We must not assume that these relationships already exist. Rather, educational leaders must build and nurture those relationships, and humor is a valuable—and fun—way to establish connections.

The professional learning community approach to school improvement, for example, focuses on accountability, measurable results, and interventions, but a culture of distrust, low morale, and resistance to change often blocks teamwork and collaboration.

The first step toward developing strong schools, therefore, is to create an atmosphere of hope, joy, and pride in one’s work.

It is worth reflecting on what really lies at the core of the metaphor of “learning community.” Consider these descriptions of communities: The PLC [professional learning community] framework can be grouped into three major themes . . . (1) a solid foundation consisting of collaboratively developed and widely shared mission, vision, values, and goals, (2) collaborative teams that work interdependently to achieve common goals, and (3) a focus on results as evidenced by a commitment to continuous improvement. (Eaker, DuFour, & DuFour, 2002, p. 3) A learning community consists of a group of people who take an active, reflective, collaborative, learning-oriented and

Introduction

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growth-promoting approach towards the mysteries, the problems and perplexities of teaching and learning. (Mitchell & Sackney, 2000, p. 9) [A community is a] group of individuals who have learned to communicate honestly with each other, whose relationships go deeper than their masks of composure, and who have developed some significant commitment to rejoice together, mourn together and to delight in each other, make others’ conditions our own. (Peck, 1987, p. 59)

The work that has been done to improve school effectiveness in recent years is impressive. However, we have never found any direct mention of humor and laughter in these theories. Almost 4 decades of working with educators in professional development workshops have convinced us that the use of humor and laughter heightens participants’ attention, opens their minds, and increases their receptivity to change. Laughter opens the door to learning in large staff training sessions, in individual coaching, and in the daily life of a school.

This book is not intended to be a scholarly dissertation, but rather a practical, solution-oriented compendium of ideas gathered from our experience as teachers and principals. We do refer to a number of experts and current research, and we urge you to read further on the topics that intrigue you. From our experience, it is far easier to proactively create a collaborative culture than to reactively try to repair the damage of distrust and negative relationships—but it is never too late to build a joyful learning community.

We have always believed that leadership is an activity, not a position. Often, when people see the need for change in any school system, they focus on trying to change others. In our experience,

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however, the place to start is with yourself! Improved learning for students is the ultimate goal, but results for all staff, both individually and collectively, are equally important. Accordingly, this resource is intended for teachers, teacher-leaders, collaborative school teams, principals, assistant principals, staff developers, system-level administrators, and superintendents—anyone whose educational vision includes shared leadership.

The book is structured to examine how humor and laughter can create a healthier personal life, a dynamic classroom, and a stronger, more truly collaborative learning community. Feel free to jump to chapters that apply to your immediate needs.

Part 1 outlines the physiological, psychological, and sociological benefits of laughter, explores the connection between laughter and happiness, and provides examples of how you can nurture your sense of humor on an individual level.

Part 2 discusses the role of laughter and humor in learning and outlines practical ways that teachers can include humor and laughter in the classroom.

Part 3 shows how laughter and effective leadership fit together, provides specific strategies administrators can use to model good humor and joy within a learning community, and examines ways to use humor in professional development to increase the probability of true implementation.

As you read, share your reactions with colleagues. Reflect on how to apply these ideas to your own life, your classroom, your school or work setting, and your school system. Make a dedicated, conscious effort to promote the sound of laughter as a healthy sign of creative, eager minds and a strong learning community.

Education / School Culture

Strategies for Building a Joyful Learning Community “The state of education today is no laughing matter. That’s why you need this book! It shows how laughter can create a more dynamic classroom, a more collaborative learning community, and, on a personal level, a healthier lifestyle. This outstanding book demonstrates why laughing really does matter.”

Laughing Matters

Laughing Matters

—Allen Klein, author of The Healing Power of Humor and 2005–2006 president of the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor

This engaging resource for teachers and administrators offers practical strategies for bringing fun and humor into your school’s classrooms, culture, leadership, and professional development.

Based on research that reveals humor’s physiological, psychological, and sociological benefits, Laughing Matters will teach you how to use the power of humor to:

Strategies for Building a Joyful Learning Community

Laughter can transform a learning community. Laughing Matters demonstrates how you can nurture and express a sense of humor to become healthier, happier, and more productive at school—and in your personal life.

Susan Stephenson, M.Ed., is a founding member and past president of the Staff Development Council of Ontario. A former teacher and principal, she brings her expertise in staff development to her consulting work with TNT Associates.

Paul Thibault, M.Ed., is an awardwinning educator with more than 35 years of experience. A former director of the principal qualification program at York University in Toronto, Paul is cofounder (with Sue) of TNT Associates, a consulting firm for school boards and staff.

Stephenson

• Enhance students’ learning potential.

• Make curriculum and assessment less intimidating and more fun.

• Create a collaborative school culture.

• Lead staff and students more effectively.

• Unleash creative energy in professional development activities.

Laughing Matters

Thibault

Cover art and design by Grannan Design Ltd. Text design and composition by T.G. Design Group.

www.solution-tree.com

Su s a n St e p h e n s o n Pa u l T h i b a u l t