You'll be shocked at how much your students enjoy funny teachers. Let's talk about it will improve the education process.
You'll be shocked at how much your students enjoy funny teachers. Let's talk about it will improve the education process.
I taught high school students of all ages for three days this week, and none of them said I was the best substitute teacher. But several of them said I was their favorite teacher. And I haven't taught them anything yet. All right, I have to apologize to you guys for two reasons today. First of all, you can probably already hear it. My voice is shot. I guess for the first time since mid May. I talked pretty much all day long for three days. I guess I have to get my voice back into condition for that. So apologize for that. Last week, man, I messed up. I know what happened. I made a correction to the episode before I published it, but for some reason, I then published the wrong episode. So there was a bunch of you that downloaded the wrong episode. And I'm not even sure you realized it because it was an episode you hadn't heard in a while. So make sure to go back and look for Episode 117. If you're an apple person, or if you're subscribed on anything, it should have downloaded the new episode and actually said revised on it. And from the download. I think most of you caught up on it, but I apologize for that. It is Episode 117. I think I first published it under 116. I know that sounds a little confusing, but I was worried that if I didn't change the app, change the episode number that a bunch of you will not realize that you had missed the most current episode. So Episode 117, and has the word revised in the title right at the beginning. So make sure that you've listened to that one. This is going to be fun today. And I use that word on purpose. This, you know, as I get back into the school year, it's funny, I always keep a list of topics that pop into my brain on what to do the next episode about. But once we get to the school year, I often change that because something almost always comes up during the school week that makes me think, boy, that would make a good episode. Today. I know it may not be your personality, but I'm going to try to encourage you to be a funny substitute teacher. Now you heard my opening. If I think back, I don't think I've heard too often that I'm the best substitute teacher. I've heard that some from teachers to be honest, because they liked the way I'm organized. But I don't hear that from the kids very often. But what I hear all the time is that you're my favorite. Now I'm trying to think Thursday and Friday. I'd started teaching Wednesday this week, as you might expect and I assume it's the same at all schools. It's more of a get a get acquainted week we're doing fun things. We're playing games, maybe in the line of the class. I mean, I played biomedical Jeopardy and anatomy Jeopardy this week in class show it's games in line with class, but it's nothing too serious. And then we'll hit the ground running on Monday. So I really hadn't taught the students anything that they need to pay special attention to me at but yet, I had a bunch of them that told me I was their favorite. And I figured it out. I had one student that didn't show up the first two days for legitimate reasons. And that student was in my class on Friday. So I'm glad you're with us today. I made a joke with her. She laughed and she said, Yeah, I've heard you're the funny teacher and if they get Okay, I'll take that. Ad true tried to be funny. And I'll be honest with you, I have come to the conclusion that even if it is not in your personality to do that, do it anyway. Use not just humor humor sounds to formalize I like to use the phrase be funny. It's almost like entertaining. I mean, I only spend probably five minutes a class being funny, but it's items sprinkled in throughout the classroom. I'll tell you some of the Things that made them laugh this week, and we still did our assignment, we will continue to do that. I always look for ways to interject fun and being funny into the classroom material. I'll give you some ideas. I'll tell you specifically how I did that this week. And, guys, even if humor doesn't come naturally to you, Doggone it, go out and buy a joke book, personalize it, put names in it, make it your own. Most, I've done so many goofy things in my life, that most of the funny things I say are real. But I don't care if you have to make them up just to be funny. That's not a lie. That's just creating an atmosphere where the students are comfortable. Laughter I mean, I worked at a hospital positive attitudes, it's now documented, that helps the recovery process. So being funny is the way to go. When I'm a substitute teacher, and I'll be honest, if you work on being funnier in your classroom, it is going to pay off. I'll give you a for instance, you know, I am a volleyball official, I'm sorry to mention that every every week, but I do really love to do that. And some of the players in my classes, some of the players that I've had several times, and I know them well. So I know them well enough to just ask them a frank question. And I asked them this week, and I kind of knew what their answer would be. But I didn't expect them to answer it as quickly. I asked them, Do you think I'm tougher on your team, referee your volleyball games? And they actually said yes, immediately. And then they laughed, but they were telling the truth. And I reacted in this way. I said, You know, I suspect it you felt that way. And I don't do that consciously. But my subconscious might have tucked away somewhere that I'm always concerned about being impartial. And if people pick up that I've been I've substituted a lot of different places. So it's not as big a deal anymore. But if people pick up I've substituted in school, I don't want them to think that I'm showing favoritism to that school. And they answered right away, they did think I was tougher on them. One of them actually said, I'm glad you are I think it makes us try harder, or I shouldn't say try harder. She I think they actually said it makes us try to improve ourselves something along that lines. But at the same time, I think they enjoy having me as a teacher in their class because I make the class a class environment, a fun place to be in. And I hope they appreciate that. Even though they think I'm tougher on their team as a referee, I don't think I am. But I'm not gonna say I'm not either, even though they think that they still like to have me in there as their teacher. And I think it's because I'm a bit of a goofball around the times that I'm teaching. Let me tell you some of the things I did this week to get to that point. First of all, I always semi warn them that I have a sarcastic sense of humor. And I tell them that I will not joke with them in a way that will embarrass them because that's not my style. But since I am sarcastic, the better I get to know you, the more I will joke around with you. I'll give you a for instance of that. I actually mentioned this week that I have a substitute teacher podcast. And I had already joke with them enough that they didn't really know whether I was telling the truth or not. Some of the students knew about the podcast, though. And one of them looked at the other one, and the other one nodded their head. Yes, he's telling the truth. So I looked at the person that nodded their head and I said, Are you making fun of me? And they said no, not at all this and my parents listened to it and I thought that was hilarious. The kids in the class actually laughed at that they here I am this old man. He's got a podcast for substitute teachers. It's fairly popular. You're listening to these words so you have made it that way. I also I mentioned my book to them butterflies swag. I had bought some copies and I handed out some distance The way I did that is I asked them right at the beginning of the class, whoever in here really loves to read. And only a couple hands would go up in each class. And I said, Would you like, Would you do me a favor and read a book if I gave it to you? And they actually said, Sure. And they say, well cool them because I wrote it. And they thought I was lying again. And then I show them the book. And they thought that was funny. They thought that was cool. And then all of them wanted to a lot of them, I should say, maybe not all of them. A lot of them said, I want to read it too well, I gave it to the student that agreed to do it. In the beginning, we had fun with that. I actually had a couple of students say they bought it. So that was pretty crazy. I purposely wrote it so that it's only two or a two and a half hour read. So that would appeal to students, as well as adults. And I said, some of your all stories are in here, I folded them into the process. So they thought that was cool. That was a way they could laugh at me. I joke around now, I don't want to make light of the pandemic. It's currently August 22 2021. But I often make the comment that my wife doesn't mind me wearing a mask again, because the more of my face that I cover up, the better she thinks it is. Now, they think that's funny, they grimace, and then they see as the week goes on, that I make fun of myself all the time. And it keeps them in the class. If I can tell there's some eyeballs out there that are starting to maybe get a little light that they're closing. Well, I try to break it up, I start walking around, and I start trying to say a couple of funny things as I walk around, and it always works out well. I tell you one line that I used this week, we were playing a game about the human anatomy that the teacher, the regular teacher designed for the class, and I had already looked through it, I knew what was coming. One of the questions had to do with an old clip from not Miley Cyrus, Hannah Montana, the character that she played years ago, where she's saying in the classroom about bones. And the question was the fun question was, and I'm glad I have this teacher, I am going to brag about her. I won't call her by name, because I don't think that's proper. And I don't want to offend any other teachers. But I tell you what she's done that makes me think that if she's not the most organized teacher, and maybe the most the teacher that puts the most substitutes in a comfortable mood. I don't know who's out there. But she actually takes the time to post assignments into Google Classroom for each and every day that's coming up. And she schedules them at the time when the class starts, and she's got a baby at home. So she's doing all this in the background. I know that when I show up to teach the class, the stuff that they're going to need in Google Classroom is right there, and I can get going. And I bragged about her to the students. I've told her I have, I want the students to make sure I've been bragging about her. But my goodness, it's got to be one of the most organized teachers I've ever substituted for. So I'll be honest with you, it motivates me to present her material, and to do the best job I possibly can show. I hope that's one of the reasons they keep calling me back. Now that was a big digression from Hannah Montana. But the Hannah Montana song about bones, you can watch it. It's on YouTube everywhere in any versions from the whole episode until two minute clip. But after I said that I just jokingly mentioned that Miley Cyrus continues to sing about her body, but that's something we're not going to get into right now. And they thought that was funny. And it's something it it. It's almost at the edge, but not quite. And it's things like that, that they remember me by. I walked into a situation the other day at the end of the school. In fact, it was on the end of the day Friday a student that I knew from another school, and he was with his girlfriend, and he said yeah, she says you're already her favorite teacher. Now I knew her from before. And I haven't really taught them anything yet, but it's because I keep that loose environment in the class. classroom, they know that they're going to enjoy coming in there, it's going to be an environment that's conducive for teaching and learning, but yet light hearted enough that we can have fun in there and promote the process of learning in that way too. Now we've had specific episodes on personal stories, a lot of my personal stories that I tell they enjoy listening to, they're funny, I will tell them some of the stupid stuff that I didn't get in trouble much in. In school, I was a good kid, but I did some dumb things, used to be able to go into the boys restroom and use a nickel to turn off the wall units. I don't know why I did that. I guess I just saw some other boys in there. And they would think I was cool. Well, I got caught. And that was really the only trauma and that's disgusting getting it that that was the only trouble. I joke with them all the time that I'll say something like, I'm not the cool person that you see before you. Now I used to be a geek. And they think that's hilarious, because they can tell from my personality. And what I like that I've probably was kind of a geeky student. And that's funny to them. And it keeps them interested, it keeps them into the class, I tell the story. Now this isn't funny, of course, it's actually mind blowing to them. That we are studying when we talked about anatomy, we were talking about the brain, I share in my wife knows I do this, I share the story of her mild stroke from 2015. And how it caused her to lose her lower right peripheral vision, which she's actually regained some of there's there's some energy back there. So the way I use it in class, when we're talking about the brain is how the brain is such an amazing thing. In that they could show us the MRI, medical paper, I'm sorry, if I'm saying the wrong thing, I think it's called an MRI. They showed us her brain on that and how the dead cells that we could see, I guess they weren't completely dead, or she wouldn't be getting some of them back. But you could see the darkened cells that was causing the part of the brain that was causing her peripheral vision to go away. It's pretty amazing. And I made the comment, I hope this is true. I heard it on a medical show. And I use it all the time that there's brain surgery all the time now. And we're sophisticated, sophisticated enough about our knowledge of the brain that a doctor can actually they know what part of your brain to touch and make your left foot go up. It's crazy. And we know what I mean, who would have ever thought that we could figure out what part of the brain controls our emotions. But we do that now. That's why you know, it's great that we're I'm teaching a biomedical class because I lead that into say, That's why the biomedical world can create drugs and prescriptions to help even with emotional issues. And it's really amazing how much we know about the brain now that we didn't know, I actually shared some of the things that was going on back in the 60s, I've listened to a podcast about the history of the lobotomy. So you can just search for that in podcast if your interest in the doctor that was doing those. And of course, we know just from econ find old TVs, I shouldn't say old TV shows but TV shows about back in the 60s when they used to use shock treatment. And that was terrible. But stories like that. Folding into class makes the class more interesting. I would encourage you to do this. Share your personal stories, I will tell you the funnier the better embellish if you have to borrow someone else's stories. If you have to. Those students love it. When you make fun of yourself. They laugh. Maybe the best part about laughter is they then stay with you. I know that some of the things I had I give you for instance, we had to go through syllabus identity again, I am supposed to say syllabi by if I talk about more than one that's an old Latin term. And you pluraleyes you pluraleyes us by making an AI. I had to read through all of those. And I can tell especially late in the day, some of them were tuning out and I could see some eyelids closing so then I started to walk around and make some funny comments, talk about some things that I've done in the past and they appreciate that and I noticed those same students that were struggling While I was just reading from a paper, they all of a sudden were alerted again and paying attention. So work those stories in, be funny. Here's what I want you to do. If you want some of my thoughts, my funny stories, I don't mind sharing with you Mew, sharing them with you. So email me, Greg Collins substitute@gmail.com, I'll give them to you. But set down right after this podcast is over, make sure you're home. I know a lot of you listen to this while you're working out or in a car. So when you're in a safe situation, sit down, wrack your brain, make a list of the funny situations you have been in in your life. It's not long enough, make a list of funny things that you know about. from others, you can use their don't use their name, use a fictitious name, but tell stories about others tell things that are going to keep those kids laughing and alert and interested laughter will lead to alertness, laughter will lead to learning. Make sure you do that. So make a list of all those funny stories. I would even you know you could do it in an organized fashion. I joke with my with my class. Now since one of the questions I always ask them early on is that, guess how many decades I've lived in. And some of them know that I'm in my 60s. But they will guess either six or seven? Well, it's actually eight because I was born in 58, which was the end of that decade. And we're now in 2021, which is the beginning of that decade. And if you count them up, it's actually eight decades, they remember that about me. And it's hilarious to share stories like that. Think of some funny stories about yourself, make some up if you have to. It's a way to keep their thoughts interested. It's a way for them to think you're funny, but yet you will assist in the learning process and make sure they learn what they're supposed to do. I have I will brag on my kids, I hope some of them are listening to this. I have the luxury for the first time ever teaching for a couple of months in a career pathway class, a class where they take class one one year class to the next year in class three the next year because they are interested in the biomedical pathway. And it it's a lot of fun because all the students, most all of the students unless they were just placed in there as a filler. Most all the students are in there because they have chosen to be in there. You know, that's probably the coolest thing about high schools, they're starting to think about their career path. I'd tell them that I think the world of accountants, but as I look back and realize how much more I love the educational the last three years, one of them asked me this week, what was your most fun year of your life. And of course, you always think about your marriage in your kids and things like that things advanced that were special to you. But I'll be honest with them, the last couple of years of my life have been extra special because of my grandkids. And because I've met these students, and I tell it Tell them I would not come back in this room. Time after time. I would not miss you guys. Two weeks into summer break and and wish I could see you again. That doesn't happen unless I realized that I have a passion for the education field. So give that passion. Make your list of funny stories. Don't hold it in your hand walking around like you're doing a comedy routine. But have them in your mental back pocket. have them ready to tell them those funny stories when the time seems appropriate. I am organized enough that I have already looked through everything that I am teaching next week. I know I've already got all my materials ready. I already know what I'm going to say per the script. And I already have an idea where I can nonchalantly interject some funny stories in there to keep them motivated, keep them into the class and keep them enjoying coming and having me as a sub as a substitute teacher. I don't mind I don't feel that arrogant. I just I don't mind students telling me that I'm one of their favorite teachers. I One thing that I want them to enjoy when they come into their class, but I think they will tell you too that I'm fair with everybody. I am not in any way at least consciously showing partiality in those classes. So work on your funny side be funny. It is the way to go.