The following questions were created to be thought provoking:
( you do not have to answer them all but they may aid you in your responses/reflections)
1) What were some of the AHA's that you encountered? (if any)
2) How can you utilize this information in your own personal life?
3) How can this information make you a more effective teacher/counselor/parent?
**Click on comments to read and leave
your personal ideas**
12 comments:
I agree with David Granierer we would all be a lot healthier if we spent more time having fun. My AHA was that I can’t remember the last time I was real sick during the summer. That is because I do all my favorite things then and have little pressure. The time of the year I seem to be the unhealthiest is at Christmas. I think I am having fun but I put a lot of pressure and expectation on myself.
One thing I do every day for fun is to read the comic Pickles on the internet. It is about an elderly couple. Some days it makes me laugh out loud. Today Opal tells Earl that she has a new outlook on life. Learn from the past. Prepare for the future. Live for the present. Earl asked, “Where are you going,” and she said, “Out to buy myself a present.” I agree with Opal. Sometimes it is fun to buy yourself a present. The presents I have bought for myself that have been fun are my kayak and a Cricket for scrapebooking. I had to think long and hard about spending the money for both items but I have a lot of fun with using them. The planning and spending was the adult responsibility part. Reading FUN AND THE IMMUNE SYSTEM has helped me to see the importance of doing fun things and not to fill guilty about them. This information is helpful in the classroom because it reminds me that if the children are able to have fun in school they will be healthy, have better attendance and be more successful.
I think it's definitely a teacher thing to be sick at Christmas and never in the summer. It's like your body knows it has those two weeks off to be as sick as it can be for the entire year. I absolutely agree that laughter helps the immune system. I rarely stay home when I feel a cold coming on. I always feel better going to work or carrying on with my normal routine and interacting with people.
Also, I think the older you get the more you can develop your classroom sense of humor. I make jokes at my expense almost on a daily basis. I'm not young and insecure anymore, and I don't worry about making an ass out of myself. The more laughs the better. Having preteen boys of my own, I get a lot of joy walking around Menards, singing the theme song, and substituting "My Nards". In fact, my boys have an awesome knack for substituting gross lyrics for the real ones. I think that's funny.
Right now I feel all MY fun is centered around my kids, which is OK I guess. They're all pretty funny, and we like watching the Simpsons together. My students are always amazed that I can quote Spongebob and other cartoons, but while I stayed home when my kids were little, I actually watched the cartoons instead of cleaning the house. My kids and I like to laugh together.
I agree with Rachel and Linda--I've never thought about the fact that I'm rarely sick in the summer. I suppose it could be the nice weather, but really I think it's because I'm having fun and my stress level is low. I think both articles are correct in saying that we NEED more laughter in our lives, but it's so often easy to get caught up in our adult responsibilities. I will be starting my seventh year of teaching in the fall, and I do think that every year it is a little bit easier to add humor to my teaching. My first year I was nervous and because I was fresh out of college, I wanted my students to see me as a teacher and not as their buddy, so I was hesitant to have too much fun. I'm much more laid-back now, and not only does it have a positive influence on my teaching, but also on my personal life. So, all in all, I think more people need to read these articles! And if laughing can help fend off heart disease, I think I'll keep that in mind the next time I don't feel like running...I won't: I'll just laugh instead!
If anyone is a Seinfeld enthusiast, you'll know what I mean when I say that I agree with Kramer's belief that "laughter is the best medicine." Whether it's summer, spring, winter, or fall, whenever you are having fun and enjoying life and the stress level is low, you feel the best. I think the summer is usually all of our healthiest time of the year because the stress level IS so low. I'm sure you all can agree that teaching is not an 8 hour day, none months of the year job. The school year is a stressful time and there are not enough hours in a day to get all he work done that needs to be done. Grading, planning, and all the other responsibilities that are placed on us throughout the school year really add to the stress. Sometimes we need to just get away and laugh. I have fun Fridays in my classroom every 2 or 3 weeks. My students and I take the last 20 minutes of the period and play games and have fun to forget about our stress and recharge our batteries. This not only helps me, but my students love it too. The next week really seems to go a lot better and everyone is refocused and ready to roll with whatever we are covering in class. We could all use Kramer's advise a little more often in our classrooms
Bill, great call on Seinfeld. That reminded me of a great story. About 7 years ago, we used to watch Seinfeld episodes at lunch. It was great. Everybody loved Seinfeld, it made us laugh and have a good time rather than complain about kids for 30 minutes. That bit of laughter in our days really helped. We haven't watched Seinfeld at school in a long time, but it sure was great while it lasted.
I'm a firm believer that the mind can do a lot of great things, including overcoming illness. Positivity, hope, and laughter can all aid in our physical and mental health. I feel much better about myself and my life when I'm having a good time and laughing a lot. My wife and I laugh a lot. We also take time for ourselves, away from kids to do something fun. It helps a lot. Humor, laughter, and fun can go a long way to reducing stress and making life better.
These articles reminded me of the movie "Patch Adams". If you haven't seen the movie, Robin Williams plays a doctor who uses humor and laughter as a strategy to help ill patients. Humor and laughter are easy to use when you are having a great day and things are going well. As the articles commented on, they can be great tools to destress and cope with challenging situations.
I think that humor is a great tool for teachers to use in the classroom because it makes students feel comfortable....shy students are more likely to participate and ask questions, students look forward to being in your class, they can focus on learning instead of feeling stressed (etc.)
I can relate to Kris's comments in that I just finished my first year of teaching. At first, I was hesitent to incorporate too much humor in my classroom, but as the year went on I became more laid-back. I needed to find the "balance" between authority figure and fun. The students really enjoyed hearing my funny stories and me making fun of myself. I think one of my strength's as a teacher is my ability to relate to my students and humor is one tool that allows me to do that.
My girlfriend Brittney and I have a lot of laughs together because we are constantly "picking on" each other for all of the quirky habits we notice in each other. All in good fun of course. I think it's interesting to note that most of my good friends have the same sense of humor as I do....obviously one of the reasons we get along with each other so well.
Like Rachel, I am never sick during the Summer, but I often get very ill in the middle of Winter. Perhaps the illness is related to the pressure from work during the Winter and the health is tied to my fun Summer activities. I also have a lot fun with my kids and they constantly make me laugh.
For skarolus
I was just at a conference where a woman was talking about laughter and our brains. She taught that the brain releases a chemical when we laugh, a very healthy chemical...sorry, can't remember what it was. But if you give a hearty laugh, it is very healthy. Not just in your brain but all over your body. Very cool!! It is amazing how our bodies work and that something that feels so good, like laughing is very good for it, for us.
In my classroom, I want the children to laugh and have fun. It should be a place where they feel safe to laugh at themselves and to grow in what they are learning. If I can teach children to laugh at themselves...maybe we should teach this to their parents...what a wonderful thing for them and me.
I have a favorite picture of my 4 children on my nightstand. I've had it there for 10 years and it still makes me smile. All of my kids are smiling and having a good time and there is such joy on their faces. I love that picure, just thinking about it makes me smile.
skarolu
Well, I took the advice of these two articles and had a lot of fun and laughs the last three days which is why I'm posting my comments now. :-) I love the idea of getting my sweetheart a funny video instead of chocolates (my girlfriend right now doesn't even like chocolate anyway - weird, right?). I can just give her a video and these articles and she will truly know that I care and it's original.
The shows that I like and recommend are Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Office, The Simpsons, and Everybody Loves Raymond (however, sense of humor varies). I'm glad I have this class as a good excuse to watch at least one of those everyday.
I also do include pictures of vacations with friends by my desk or even on my desktop and screensaver on my computer. One example is a picture of my friends and I at a golf course. As it mentions in the second article, it was a very humorous event because we were all terrible. We will actually be doing that again up in Door County next week!!
A sense of humor is a very important part of my life. I constantly tell stories from my life in class, most which poke fun at me. When I write my tests, my multiple choice questions or matching questions will always have a funny response to get a chuckle from the students. I also write humorous story problems, remember I teach Algebra. Hopefully this relieves some tension from the test.
As far as laughter is the best medicine, I agree. My father-in-law has had multiple heart attacks. He has done very well in the last 3 years. Why? First, he now is retired. Second, he has time to do the things he enjoys. And third, he has been laughing alot more because he has been enjoying life.
I too have noticed the correlation of sickness, stress and time of year. Only if the whole year was summer, none of us would get sick.
Humor is a great trait to pass along to your family. I have 3 sons. We were reading the jokes and stories from Reader's Digest. We just love them. We can't wait for the new copy to arrive each month. This month they have a great story about "America's Dumbest Criminals". My youngest son who is 9 is just starting to get some of the humor and has to ask about some of it and that makes it funny too!
There are times that my children will bring up the stories when we are doing things and we laugh all over again. It's good to just lol!
Well,I finally got to read the articles. I agree laughter does make you feel better. There are times when, I've laughed so hard that I cry and in the end I just feel better. I can take a deep breath and it feels great. Must have gotten the oxygen flowing more rapidly during the laughing.
Laughter when used correctly can lighten the mood in parent teacher meetings too. I try to keep the mood light during the P/T meeting because we are there to discuss a very important topic, their child. Then it can get tense when we discus possible issues. With some well placed humor it can lighten the situation. But you need to know the parents alittle before you can use humor. Just trying to keep things on the "bright" side helps.
I am also one of people the gets sick a few days before Christmas. December is my favorite month, but is is a very stressful month. Then sometimes I get sick a few days before school starts. Again, stressful.. back to school meetings, homevisits, any P/T meetings for LD students, not to mention bulletin boards, planning, etc. etc. etc.
But I wouldn't change it for the world!
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