A Few Thoughts About Humor in the Classroom

"Why do elephants paint their toenails red?  So they can hide in cherry trees!"
"If your son flunks out of school and is illiterate and anti-social, what can he grow up to be? A Ma'ani policeman"
"What is gray, has four legs and a trunk? A mouse on vacation"
"Why did the cookie cry? Because his mother had been a wafer for too long"

The above are examples of jokes that illustrate a few elements of humor.  There has been a lot of research done on humor, and you would be very surprised at the results!  The most common element of a joke is that it first creates an incongruence, then it fixes it.  Look at the first joke, who could imagine an elephant painting its toenails any color, let alone red. A strange situation is created, and the punch line later ties it together.  The first joke has a silly, almost nonsense tie-up.  The second has an aversive (a bit aggressive, against something or someone) tie-up.  The third has a twist (unexpected, you thought you knew the answer - elephant) tie-up. The fourth joke has a "semantic" tie-up - it is a play on words (wafer, at type of cookie, instead of "away."  These jokes illustrate just a few elements of humor, there are many, many more.
One consequence of using humor in the classroom, is discovering that different people respond to the same types of jokes differently.  Therefore, if you tell the same joke to enough people, some will love it, some will be confused, some will be irritated, and some will be very upset. I learned this when I did research with a university professor who wanted to discover what the best predictor was to determine how well students would rate their professors at the end of the course.  We tested a lot of variables, including what grade they thought they were going to receive.  His research showed that the best predictor of how well the students either liked or disliked the professor was how they related to the humor of the professor.  Professors who used a lot of jokes often ended up getting "bimodal" evaluations - lots of positives and lots of negatives, almost like it had been two different classes!
This is not intended to be a dissertation on humor, just a short discussion on some variables that affect our perception of humor - I will leave the subsequent discussion about how to use it in classrooms to you all!
As you can guess after looking at the jokes above, some people may not like them because they don't understand the tie-up, or that it takes them longer to make the connections. And when they are in a social setting, and many people are aware that they are slower, you can see why they may not like to hear jokes too often.  To add to this problem, there is another type of joke that also starts as an incongruence, but the punchline doesn't tie it up - these can be very frustrating for some folks.
Throughout history, humor has been used to serve at least four major purposes - 1) As a relief, a defense mechanism, as a means of detachment (giving us a little bit of distance from something painful), 2) A source of superiority, aggression, even hostility (a tool to be used against others), 3) A benevolent mechanism (a way to show tenderness, affection, or affiliation), and 4) A philosophic tool to get us to speculate about an idea or concept playfully.
I suspect that many of our students have been on the wrong ends of jokes, and try to avoid them, maybe even trying to use them against others sometimes to deflect attention on themselves.  We all know about bullying, and humor is simply the most deadly weapon in that ugly game.  Don't get me wrong - I love to use humor in the classroom (those of you who know me know this :), but I have learned to create trust and some supportive dynamics before I engage my students.  As I said, this is just a bit of fuel for a larger fire - I can't wait to hear from you all..............
Thanks Bassam for this idea, now I expect to hear from you first!

A Dialogue

A Dialogue

"Complete this table, Read this text andanswer the following questions, Listen and follow in your book, raise your handbefore you speak …………".
"Teacher, what are you talking about?  Why do I have to learn? Why do I have tolearn a language other than mine? Is it important to study? What is the finalresult of education? My sister studied nursing and what? She is washing dishes!My brother studied computer science and look at him, he is selling cigarettesto earn his living! Stop teaching me, I don't want to have a headache! Teacher,look at us! Understand WHO we are and what do we WANT? What do we NEED beforeyou teach us?"

Shocking questions, for the first time I lookeddeeply into their eyes. How come I didn't see them wondering these questionsbefore?  I said to my self yes, I have toknow my students before I tell them about the British Museumor Global Warming.
A tear dropped from my eyes when I walked throughthe narrow paths of the camp. Two room houses, metal roofs, broken windows, andwhat am I teaching? Countable and uncountable nouns!
Stop!!!
I have to build a culture of motivation, desire, positivismand necessity to learn. I searched my memory for quotes I believe in and foundmy Malcolm telling my students:" education is your passport for the future,for tomorrow belongs to people who prepare for it today"," you willnever leave where you are until you decide where you would rather be".
 And I saidlook at Miss Halimah, She's your neighbor she believed in education and hereshe is, teaching you science. Look at Sana'a she believed in knowledge shestudied nursing and there she is giving you medicine tablets at the clinic,look at Ahmed and …..and ……..and ………………!!!!!.

Motivating students is a struggle we face everyday, building a culture of believing in education and knowledge, is the roadmap that will guide our students and show them what is possible in life.
Teacher: Yara Amr Al-Laqta

ACTFL Annual Convention - Call for Propsals

Deadline for Submission: Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Many Languages – One United Voice

The 2012 Annual Convention and World Languages Expo of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) will be held Friday, November 16 through Sunday, November 18 (Pre-Convention Workshops scheduled on Thursday, November 15) in Philadelphia, PA. The ACTFL Convention features more than 600 educational sessions covering the whole spectrum of the foreign language profession. The entire selection of sessions is designed to provide attendees with an exciting array of sessions and events to further their knowledge and help them be better teachers or administrators. We welcome you to submit a proposal for consideration. The deadline is Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at midnight Pacific Standard Time. No submissions will be accepted after this date.
It is extremely important that you read carefully the Submission Guidelines before proceeding to complete your online submission. This will explain all the session formats and requirements.
The ACTFL Convention draws approximately 7,000 attendees to this national event bringing together language educators at all languages, levels and assignments within the profession. Please note: Presenters whose proposals are selected for presentation MUST be available to present any day during the Convention.
ACTFL Members: Your login for the Call for Proposals is the same as your ACTFL members login. Don't know your login and password? Contact the membership department at membership@actfl.org.
Non-ACTFL Members: You will need to create an account with ACTFL before logging in to submit a proposal.
https://myactfl.actfl.org/ACTFL_iMISPublic/AsiCommon/Controls/Shared/FormsAuthentication/Login.aspx?ReturnUrl=/BounceBack.aspx&doRedirect=http://www.actfl.org/login_receive.cfm

Another Friend From West Virginia - Via Morocco!

السلام عليكم،
أنا محمد بولالي، أستاذ اللغة الأنجليزية و الرياضيات، و كذلك أدرس اللغتين العربية و الإسبانية من حين لآخر، في نفس الجامعة التي يدرس فيها مايكل مورشس.
كم كنت أتمنى أن أنظم إلى هذه الأكاديمية هذه السنة، لكن ظروف قاهرة حالت دون ذلك. لقد حضرت جل ورشات  العمل التي قادها مايكل في السنوات القليلة الماضية، وكانت كلها على أعلى مستوى من الدقة و الإحترافية. لا زلت لا  أصدق أن فرصة الإنضمام للأكاديمية هذه السنة قد فاتتني. لكن أملي كبير في أن أنضم إليها السنة المقبلة إن شاء الله. 
حرصي على الإنضمام إلى الأكاديمية نابع من حرصي على حضور كل أوراش مايكل. لقد تعرفت على مايكل مورشس كرئيس لي في العمل، و أيضا كصديق.
لقد كنت جد محظوظ بالعمل تحت إشراف مايكل مورشس لعدة سنوات، في ولاية أوريغون سابقا، ثم في ولاية  ڤرجينيا الغربية حاليا. كانت بصمته واضحة في مساري المهني، بحيث كانت علاقتنا أبعد من علاقة رئيس بمرؤوسه. أجده دائما حين حتاجه. يمضي أوقات طويلة لشرح و تبسيط كل ما يصعب علي، دون كلل أو ملل. ذكي، سريع، و يولي اهتماما بالغا بأدق التفاصيل لتحسين مردودية مرؤوسيه حتى يوفروا خدمة في أحسن مستوى.
كصديق، كان مايكل و لا زال، الصديق الوفي الذي يعتمد عليه في السراء و الضراء. لا يتعب من المساعدة أبدا. بيته دائما مفتوح في وجهي حتى وهو غير موجود. و بيتي مفتوح في وجهه كذلك. باختصار، حياتي في الولايات المتحدة، ما كانت لتكون كما هي من دون وجود مايكل.
شكرا مايكل، واحجز لي مكانا في الأكاديمية السنة المقبلة

Ask Michael - Special Education

The question that occurs to my mind now is how do American teachers deal with low achievers and students with learning difficulties (might entail slow learners)? Do these students sit in the same classes with distinguished and average students? If so, what remedial programs do the teachers use in order to improve their performance? If not, where and how?
It is highly appreciated if you tell us about the procedures of implementing remedial programs, if there are any?
 More importantly and maybe this should come at the very beginning is that what tools do teachers need to identify these students and what weaknesses that have got? Do they use diagnostic exams, for example or exams set for such purposes...:)

This is a great question(s). This subject is near and dear to my heart. I have studied learning disabilities for twenty years, as I work with at-risk students, low-literate students, and under-represented populations of students, many of whom suffer from learning disabilities. I got so interested, I read about the early stages of the research, going back to WWI and brain-injured soldiers. From there, I learned more about the brain and cognition.  Sometimes it is useful to study how the brain doesn't work to better understand how it does. 
When discussing learning disabilities, it is important to know what they are not!  They cannot be physical or organic issues (from injury), they cannot be from diminished IQ (that is a different type of disability), and they cannot be a cultural difference.  The best indicator of a learning disability is that nagging notion that a student isn't working to her potential in a specific area. So when a students actual performance lags well behind her potential performance, that is a good indication of a possible learning disability.  I won't go into the various kinds of LDs, but I have included a link to a checklist for LDs that is also connected to a good organization for more information.  You can always ask me individually for extra information as well.
In the USA, we didn't have a good plan to deal with students with LDs until the 1970s when we passed laws that schools had to do more.  But even up until the mid 1980s, we excluded most of the students from the regular classrooms.  Eventually though, we came up with a plan called "inclusion" where we would "mainstream" these students as much as possible - it is interesting to know that we were also doing the same things with ESL (English as a Second Language) students. Some schools practice complete inclusion, others practice "least restrictive environment" where the students get the right combination of regular classroom and extra interventions. Most schools practice this, where students spend most of their time in the regular class. Students must have psychological assessments to be given special accommodations in our classes.  If they are deemed to have a LD, then the teacher must grant the accommodations - these can include more time on tests, a quiet place to test, a note taker, etc.  Finally, each student must have an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) that details these accommodations.
There are informal tests that can be given by teachers to detect LDs and other learning problems. If you are interested, I can tell you more about these.  The best lesson we have learned about LDs is that an environment that uses a lot of learning styles is beneficial to all students, not just those with LDs.  I will provide more good web resources for those of you who are interested. This is just the beginning of a discussion on this topic, I am interested in what the rest of you have to say :)

http://www.montoursville.k12.pa.us/webpages/specialed/files/ldchecklist.pdf

"Language is the Only Homeland"

This is one of my favorite quotes by Czeslaw Milosz, a Polish poet.  I was reminded of this reading Sabreen's response to culture.  Even though I worked and lived in an Eritrean refugee camp for two years, I still don't know what it is like to be ripped from my home and displaced permanently. I grew up without a home, we moved more than 25 times before I finished high school. I was in the middle of my my senior year when my father showed up late one night with a truck and we moved a thousand miles away.  I was devastated, as I had just gotten used to being in one place for a bit, made my first friends, then had to leave.  I stayed with my family in that new place for one month, then hitch-hiked back across the country to finish high school with my friends. I left after high school to go to college, but for me, that small town I was in for only two years was my homeland.  I have carried it around with me all over the world since then, and even though I don't go back very often, I know that I can. That makes all the difference! This past fall, that little school inducted me into its Hall of Honor for my humanitarian work, and I couldn't be prouder.  That place had embraced me, and it is mine forever.
I can't imagine what it is like for many of you and your students. I just can't.  I have been to Palestine - Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Hebron, almost taking it for granted then.  I know how important Arabic is to our students, as it is the language of their homeland and of our faith. I always thought English was a second homeland though, an opportunity for students to escape many of the things that oppressed them. An opportunity to study, to travel a path only an education can take them, especially an international one.  The kids in the refugee camp taught me this, they used to come to my tent every night for extra lessons knowing that their English skills might be the only ticket out of their terrible environment. English is also a language that connects the world, and thus connects our students to the world.  If we do our jobs right, and they work hard to learn, then their English skills will improve the chances for them to meet many of their dreams many times over.
There is one more very powerful reason to learn English, and it is reflected in the words of Neslon Mandela, "If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart" Native English speakers don't learn other languages usually, and we don't know how to speak to the hearts of the rest of the world as a consequence - I truly believe this causes half of our problems.  When our students learn English, they are learning to speak to the hearts of half the world, including the people that one day might be able to assist them or to collaborate with them.  It is a very powerful thing, to speak to hearts.
I feel this when I try pathetically to speak Arabic to you all.  I get a lot of smiles, and a few gently rolled eyes. The other day the six-year old daughter of a friend from Madaba who lives nearby told me, "You know, your English is ok, but your Arabic is horrible."  That made me laugh. I love it when native Arabic speakers are patient with me because I know they appreciate my effort.  Ahmad has even sent me some Internet Arabic resources! 
Finally, I can tell you more about speaking to hearts today, I have received a great deal of support from many of you in the past two days in English, and I can tell you how much it has impacted my heart, thank you.

Comment on Culture

I would like to start  talking about culture in general .Actually , culture is a great pot in which our beliefs ,thoughts , history , community are melt together to create several personalities . It is the interaction between time place and human nature .Maybe everyone of us asks himself what is the relationship between culture and the language .I strongly believe  that the language is the production of any culture. Consequently , to understand any language ,you should study the background ,the history ,the myths , taboos and habits of any people .  
Its very important for the teacher to establish a positive classroom culture at the beginning of the term .By doing this , the teacher will facilitate the teaching process. First of all the teacher should define the classroom culture .In my opinion , it is a set of norms, values and beliefs, and symbols the teacher  and students  agree upon and work together to  solve problems, deal with challenges and, at times, cope with failures. To achieve this , the teacher should work like the detective by asking students about their likes and dislikes .For example, the teacher could put students in certain setting in which they can form a circle to talk about them selves . Mean while the teacher can record all of the given information in special class profile . Building classroom culture is similar to building a family What is essential is having a strong bond among the members of the institution that depends on certain values like respect , honesty , forgiveness and taking responsibility . An important step in teaching children to be comfortable with their cultural background and essentially themselves is to encourage and value their input in a small group of other students. This has to do with the organization of the classroom and the development of lesson plans. Discussion is a valuable form of learning in establishing a positive classroom culture .      Moreover , In order to create cultural texture, the teacher ask students to search the internet or library and find information on any aspect of the target-culture that interests them. In the following class, students explain to their group what they have learned and answer any questions about it. From my own humble experience , I asked my students to do a research about  the Israeli occupation to our home land and read the news about the violation  of human rights concerning Palestinian people in Gaza . Afterwards, we held a discussion about it .Then I asked them to write their own story about a Palestinian suffering .
In addition , it is highly important for the teacher to teach any reading text in a context .Sts should  get involved in learning process through the interactions patterns. This has to do with class room management which influences the pace of the lesson .  It is obvious that to create  a good atmosphere inside the classroom  , the teacher should gain students trust and respect by his deeds and behaviors. When the teacher shows them his enthusiasm and how much he is restrict in some points , he will has his own language  inside the class .  Once you are  the conductor  in the orchestra , You will have harmony and agreement . The teacher plays several roles right from the beginning he is an observer  for information , clerk ,psychologist ,analyst , historian , planner , instructor , mentor ,facilitator , wise man  and before and after a human .   
 Sabreen alomary