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The serious role of laughter in learning.

“Of all the things which nourish the imagination, humour is one of the most needful, and it is dangerous to limit or destroy it.” – John Millington Synge.

Public conversation around what we need more or less of in schools is so predictable.  Whether we’re on the sides of coding, decoding and teaching emotional intelligence or whether we think we need to get ‘back to basics’ in schools – it’s always about content.

Let me tell you right now – it doesn’t matter what we teach!  That is, unless we can get the attention of our learners.

That attention garnering endeavour is, of course, about great pedagogies deployed consistently and creatively in the classroom.  But it’s also about creating the affects/feelings in our classrooms that enhance rather than diminish the current learning potential.

We all know that a student who is scared learns poorly – so what would the flip of that be?  To feel safe, would surely only be going half way.  What if our kids were smiling, giggling or even belly-laughing while they learned?

Think about your favourite joke or tall tale.  Is it not carved word-for-word in your neo-cortex due to the intense positive emotional affect you experienced when you first heard it?

The big question is then “Could we actually enhance the retainment of content through making it’s acquisition utterly hilarious?”

Today’s Teachers are told to be so much these days.  You need to be Teachers, friends, parents, psychologists, counsellors, coaches and first aid attendees.  I contend that you should just be a Teacher in the next week or so … just be a more funnier one!

 

Free WEBINAR – Disruptive Innovation in Schools

Disruptive Innovation in Schools Webinar

 

Ever felt like we’re doing a lot of work, making a lot of changes and deploying a huge amount of effort in schools … for just a little reward? There’s a reason for this and it’s mostly about the way we view innovation. Innovation shouldn’t be about making things better. That innovation, dubbed sustaining innovation, is all about adding an extra layer of planning or adding an extra program to an already crowded curriculum. In life, it’s like spending thousands on a 60-inch television when the real viewing difference from the previous 55-inch screen might not be much at all. Yet, for some reason, we just keep on sustaining. 

Disruptive innovation is about doing things differently – not better. It’s about saying how could we tackle things in a completely new way rather than toil away on making the existing a tiny bit better. This can apply to instruction, to administration, to leadership, to student behaviour and even to parent participation.  

In a nutshell, this is a thinking device that could entirely flip the stress levels and the effectiveness levels of your school. 

Disruptive innovation has proven to be a gamechanger for current and aspirant leaders and that’s why his FREE webinar is targeted at today’s and tomorrow’s School Leaders across all sectors and phases of learning. 

You really can’t afford to miss this one!