Archives for November 2016

Learning students’ names and pronouncing them correctly is one of the easiest ways to create a climate of inclusion and improve student learning.

Source: www.facultyfocus.com

I sometimes struggle to pronounce names correctly. When I fail I usually poke fun at myself and my inability to get it right. But when we talk about building a safe environment in our classrooms that are all about collaboration, getting students’ names right is that first step. It shows that they matter to you.  The strategies listed in this article are very helpful and can help you set your classes up for success.

Humor doesn’t cause learning, but it does help create conditions to help it along. Humor tends to put students at ease, which may encourage engagement.

Source: www.facultyfocus.com

Dr. Weimer brings up some interesting points about the role humor can play in the classroom.  The one that stood out to me was toward the end. “Humor connects teachers and students. It creates that sense of of community, how we’re all in this together, how we all make stupid mistakes and need to laugh at our foibles.” Creating community in a course can be one of the harder parts of teaching. Yet we’ve seen research that says building community can lead to student success. Appropriate humor may be one way to build that community.