Month: June 2025

Posted on

Humor in the Classroom

Teachers wear a lot of hats in the short amount of time they are with their students each day. At any given moment, they might be a teacher, a nurse, a disciplinarian, a peace maker, a counselor, or even a comedian or entertainer. This is only one of the ways that teachers are amazing. Elementary teachers especially find themselves switching hats frequently during the day. It’s quite the skill, and is very impressive. 

So often in a classroom, the need for humor or silliness arises. Obviously, teaching isn’t meant to be a comedy act every day, but when used at the right time, comedy can be a great tool. Think of the last time you laughed and how you felt afterwards. I’d bet that most people would say that they felt happier and less tense or stressed after laughing. 

Using humor in the classroom can do a lot for the overall feeling in the room, and can help put people at ease. Humor can be used in many ways and in many situations, such as using it to diffuse a tense situation, make a point, bond with students, or help students remember something you’re teaching. 

Saying or doing something funny can help students feel more at ease. I remember several times using humor to try help lighten the mood in the room right before I handed out tests. While I wanted my students to focus on the test and do their best, I also wanted them to know that the test wasn’t the most important thing in their lives. I also recall times where I was feeling grumpy, tired, or otherwise just not in the mood to be in the classroom. Those times were usually when a student would execute a perfectly timed joke or funny comment, and the result was almost always a happier mood in the room.

Using humor or silliness to illustrate a point or concept can be very effective. When there is an emotion tied to something, there is a greater likelihood that the brain will remember it. When my seventh graders were learning when and where to use each kind of punctuation mark, we watched a short video of Victor Borge, who had created a sound for each punctuation mark. Every time he got to a comma, he would make a specific sound, and would make a different sound every time he got to a period, and so on. (If you want to watch it, click here.) After watching the video, I had students create their own “punctuation sounds” for a reading passage and perform them for the class. The amount of laughter was great that day, and the students talked about it all year long. 

It can feel a bit vulnerable for some people to stand in front of a room and act silly or try to use humor. But, if students see you laughing and making the best of a situation, they are more likely to respond with the same vibe. So many students gather information on the mood in the room, and respond accordingly. 

While humor can be a very effective teaching tool, it’s important to keep in mind that it ought not be used to make light of a very serious situation or to ridicule or speak poorly of any group or individual. There is never a place for jokes, comments, or humor that targets a specific group or person, especially in a negative manner.

Silliness and humor don’t have to be used in every setting or situation, but when the time and place are appropriate, it can make a big difference for all involved. After all, laughter is the best medicine!

Posted on

Summer How-To List

Summer time tends to provide kids with ample amounts of free time, which can be a blessing and a curse. Some kids do really well with extra time, and are very creative in how they fill their extra hours. Others, however, struggle with imagining up ways to spend their days, which often leads to lots of, “Mom! I’m bored!” 

Many families create a summer bucket list in hopes of finding ways to reduce boredom over the summer months. It’s a great idea, and provides an easy answer to, “What should we do today?” I’m a big proponent of having the kids help create the list. Obviously, adults should over see the list making to ensure that the desired activities are within the financial, time, and logistical limits the family has. 

In addition to a summer bucket list, I’ve also heard of many families instituting a summer “how-to” list. Each family member comes up with a list of a few things they want to learn how to do over the summer break. Lists could include important life skills such as how to do laundry, cook a meal, tie shoes, mow the lawn, place and pick up a food order, and so on. Other skills might include new hobbies, such as learning to sew a pillow, draw, crochet, or code. Again, adults should guide list making to help kids set realistic goals and to ensure that goals are feasible. 

The idea of a “how-to” list is appealing to many, since it provides kids with something to do, but also gives them an opportunity to learn something and keep their minds active. It’s a win-win! 

To help you get started on your own summer “how-to” list, I’ve created a free download you can print off and use with your kids. Even if you don’t have kids, you can use this for yourself– there isn’t an age limit for learning new things!

** As always, this download is free, and should only be used for individual and classroom use. Please do not resell or claim as your own. **

My Summer How-To ListDownload
Posted on

Avoiding the Summer Slide

Just looking at the name, the term “summer slide” seems like it might be a fun thing! Summer? Slide? Wahoo! In reality, though, a summer slide in the context of education isn’t as fun as it might seem. When we talk about a summer slide, we are referring to what happens when students get an extended break from learning. Sometimes it is also referred to as the summer slump. Without constant practice, many students tend to regress and forget some of what they have learned during the school year. 

Keeping information fresh in their minds will help kids to more easily jump back into learning in the fall when school starts back up again. In addition to an easier transition back into school, summer learning practice helps kids’ minds stay active and growing. This can be done through various methods. Below, you will find a few ideas to help your kids stay on track during summer break and avoid the summer slide.

For mid-upper grades:

  • Encourage daily reading. Most public libraries have a free summer reading program, offering prizes and other incentives as kids read books. You can also download my free summer reading tracker here.
  • Find and print some pre-made worksheets. The inter webs are teeming with options, many of which are free! You can easily find a plethora of downloadable worksheets for any grade or any subject. Some good websites to try include Pinterest, Teachers Pay Teachers, or Super Teacher Worksheets.
  • If you’d rather have a book of worksheets for your kids to work through, rather than printing off a bunch, there are many options for practice workbooks that can be ordered through Amazon or other retailers.
  • Print off or create some building block challenge cards and have your kids use their imaginations to create whatever the card suggests. Some ideas might be to use blocks to build a house, car, flower, animal, and so on.

For preschool-lower grades:

  • Incorporating learning into their play time is a great way to get them engaged and excited about learning practice. 
  • Puzzles are a fantastic way to keep young (and more mature!) minds active and engaged.
  • Cut out several paper shapes of varying sizes and colors. Have your kids sort them by shape, color, or size. You can even have them order the shapes from largest to smallest or smallest to largest. 
  • Practice letter and number writing using different mediums such as play-doh, pipe cleaners, string, etc. 
  • Do an alphabet search and match activity by writing all 26 letters (lower case) of the alphabet on a large piece of paper. Use 26 sticky note sheets and write all 26 letters in upper case. Hide the papers around the house and have your kids find them then match the upper case letter to it’s correct lower case partner. 
  • Using the same idea as the alphabet search and match, do a number search and match, where you have kids match the numeral form to the word form of a number (ex: 1 and one). You can also write numerals on a large piece of paper. On sticky notes, draw dots or shapes to match the numerals you have on the larger paper (ex: 5 on the large paper and five dots on a smaller paper).
  • Incorporate math into snack time by having your kids count out how many crackers, marshmallows, apple slices, etc. they have on their plates. 

The options are endless, and they don’t have to be expensive or fancy. Sometimes the best activities are the simplest. The goal is to provide kids with opportunities to keep their minds active and engaged during the summer months, with the hope that come fall, their minds will be able to more easily transition to learning mode.

Posted on

The Great Debate: Is End of Year Testing Worth It?

End of year testing. State testing. End of level assessments. Whatever you call them, students dread them, and most teachers do too. Across the nation, most schools administer some kind of end of year assessment to measure progress in core subjects, usually English/Language Arts, Math, and Science. 

There’s always been debate surrounding these kinds of assessments. Many believe they do not offer a truly accurate picture of progress and growth, while others see them as an effective tool for measuring progress. If you’ve been a teacher in any of the core subjects and have had to administer end of year tests, you can probably see evidence for both sides of the argument. For some students, the tests really do show the progress that has been made and do offer a pretty good picture of the knowledge that has been learned. For other students, test results are not an accurate picture of what has been learned— many students deal with test anxiety, simply don’t care and therefore give little effort into the test (were you one of the students who would use your Scantron sheet to make a picture rather than trying to find the right answers?), or perhaps are just having an “off” day for whatever reason. 

From a teacher’s perspective, I had a love/hate relationship with test days. By the end of the year, I was always physically and mentally exhausted, and test days provided me with a few very low-key days where I didn’t have to plan any structured lessons. I was able to catch up on grading, plan out the rest of the year, and take a minute to breathe. On the other hand, test days often proved to be a struggle, as many students would finish their test the first day of testing, then would proceed to cause problems or distractions for the students who had not yet finished. It became a game of “how do I keep these kids entertained” while also keeping the test-takers focused. 

And while I am all for seeing the improvement and growth that my students made over the course of the year, state tests didn’t provide an full picture of that growth. As their teacher, I was able to see their progress from month to month, and could truly see how far they had come. Since I was not the one who wrote the test, nor did I know what questions they would encounter on the test, I could only do so much to prepare them for the test. I would obviously teach the core standards that I was expected to teach, but as far as how the test was worded or the kinds of questions that were asked, that was out of my control. 

In order to decrease test anxiety as much as I could, I would always do my best to review core concepts in the weeks leading up to the test. I would assure students that their test score had absolutely no impact on their grade for my class. As long as they tried and put in effort (and didn’t bother other students during testing), they would get a participation grade. I would remind them that this was a test that they were required to take, and that they should do their best, but that their results didn’t indicate their worth. I would also usually offer some kind of “reward” day after testing to give them a chance to unwind. 

Though I’m not currently teaching, I am now seeing testing from a parent’s view. I’m always sure to let my kids know that they are smart and capable, and that as long as they do their best, that’s what matters most. My husband and I do our part to get them to bed at a good time so they are well rested, and make sure to feed them a good breakfast before they go to school. We don’t make a big deal out of it because we don’t want them to feel any extra pressure or stress about taking the tests. 

I don’t know that there are any easy answers to the testing debate. Will there ever be a day when state tests are not given? Maybe. There will always be need to measure progress, but what that looks like and how it is measured may change. Until then, we will continue to do our best and encourage our students and kids the best we can!