Make 'em Laugh

[H]umor is very important in the classroom: it can keep students’ attention, it can diffuse tense situations, it can encourage creativity, and it can call attention to absurdity (and sometimes absurdity deserves it, whether its a social phenomena or inherent to a student comment). I even make a number of wisecracks or sarcastic comments, which sometimes — when I hear what I just said — make me laugh out loud during lectures (this actually happened in my poetry class today…and the students kept laughing, which made me laugh even longer… you know how that goes). —Mike Arnzen —Make ’em Laugh (Pedablogue)