How Do We Keep It Fun? Why Joy Still Belongs in the Classroom
The central theme of this discourse revolves around the vital inquiry: how can educators maintain an atmosphere of enjoyment within educational environments? We posit that the essence of fun transcends mere frivolity; it embodies connection, engagement, and the establishment of emotional safety within the classroom. By embracing micro-moments of joy and employing low-preparation yet impactful strategies, we endeavor to cultivate a space where both teachers and students thrive. Furthermore, we emphasize the importance of authentic energy and enthusiasm as tools to foster a lively and inviting atmosphere conducive to learning. Ultimately, the pursuit of joy in education is not merely an ancillary concern; it is an imperative that shapes the very fabric of effective teaching and learning.
Nicholas Kleve, affectionately known as Mr. Funky Teacher, eloquently addresses the challenge of maintaining joy in the classroom in this enlightening episode of the Be a Funky Teacher Podcast. Drawing inspiration from a thought-provoking question raised at the National Teacher Leadership Conference, he emphasizes that the concept of fun in education should not be synonymous with frivolity but should instead focus on fostering emotional connections and genuine engagement. Kleve delineates various strategies that educators can implement to inject joy into their classrooms without overwhelming themselves with additional responsibilities. By leveraging low-preparation techniques such as music integration and playful interactions, teachers can create an inviting and dynamic learning environment. Throughout the discussion, he underscores the symbiotic relationship between teacher enthusiasm and student engagement, advocating for a classroom atmosphere where joy is not merely an afterthought but a fundamental principle guiding educational practices. As the episode concludes, listeners are left with a profound understanding of the essential nature of joy in education and its transformative potential within the classroom setting.
Takeaways:
- Incorporating micro-moments of joy can significantly enhance classroom engagement and student enthusiasm.
- Redefining fun in the educational context is crucial, as it transcends mere frivolity and fosters connection.
- Authentic energy and excitement from educators create a vibrant learning atmosphere that benefits students.
- Utilizing low-prep, high-impact strategies such as music and playful interactions can transform classroom dynamics effectively.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Be a Funky Teacher
- National Teacher Leadership Conference
- National Network of State Teacher of the Year
- YouTube
Transcript
Yeah, he's Mr. Funky.
Speaker A:He's Mr. Funky Teacher.
Speaker A:Mr. Funky Teacher inspires greatness, makes you feel good.
Speaker A:Like your favorite playlist.
Speaker A:Keeping that fresh and funky.
Speaker A:Yes, he does.
Speaker A:He got some funky cool ideas to share for all you teachers.
Speaker A:He can empower others, students and teachers.
Speaker A:It's all about hard work and creativity.
Speaker A:He brings out the kindness in everyone.
Speaker A:He's got the passion to teach.
Speaker A:You hear it when he speaks.
Speaker A:He knows how to build strong relationships.
Speaker A:If you're seeking the best bunkiest, he is it.
Speaker A:He will empower you to improve.
Speaker A:You'll be helping others and loving it too.
Speaker A:He's Mr. Funky Teacher.
Speaker A:Yeah, he's Mr. Funky Teacher.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:This is Mr. Funky Teacher with Be a Funky Teacher dot com.
Speaker B:I'm coming to you with another Be a Funky Teacher podcast.
Speaker B:Today's episode is titled How How Do We Keep It Fun?
Speaker B:Why Joy Still Belongs in the Classroom.
Speaker B:This episode was inspired by a question asked after my presentation session at the National Teacher Leadership Conference in Orlando, Florida hosted by the National Network of State Teacher of the Year nstoy.
Speaker B:And so I wanted to come and spend some time answering this particular question.
Speaker B:There was app that we were using for this conference and participants who came to my presentation on the stage, they could ask questions afterwards and one of the things that one of the participants who came to the conference presentation, they wanted to know more about how do you, how do you keep it fun?
Speaker B:So I want, I do want to dig into that but before I do that, I have three things I'm thankful for.
Speaker B:First off, I'm thankful for grief therapy.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker B:I'm thankful for the space and the support it gives me to reflect, process and keep moving forward with heart.
Speaker B:I as I've mentioned in some podcasts, I lost my mom a little over a year and a half ago and grief therapy has definitely been been something that has been meaningful, purposeful and beneficial in my life as my mom was one of my biggest cheerleaders.
Speaker B:And so I'm thankful for that time in grief therapy where I check in and go in about once a month and sometimes twice a month.
Speaker B:The next thing I'm thankful for biking and getting a chance to bike at a mountain bike park with my son in our community.
Speaker B:There's this really cool new mountain biking park.
Speaker B:It's really well done and I'm.
Speaker B:I'm so thankful to get that time with my son, my youngest son, he got a new mountain bike.
Speaker B:We, we actually bought it off off of a social media marketplace.
Speaker B:Someone was selling it and we got it for him.
Speaker B:And he has been asking, hey, can we go to the the mountain bike park?
Speaker B:And it says yesterday, last night actually made it happen.
Speaker B:Was able to go there with him and he did great.
Speaker B:And it was so fun to get to get to go there with him.
Speaker B:I like doing kind of extreme sports stuff and doing like mountain biking, off road mountain biking.
Speaker B:If you're going through some jumps or going over some different types of terrain, could there certainly could have have kind of a adventurous type of feel to it.
Speaker B:So very excited to get that time with him.
Speaker B:The third thing is I'm thankful for my children and getting to see them grow up is something that I don't take for granted.
Speaker B:And I'm so thankful for every moment I get to be a part of their journey as they grow up.
Speaker B:All right, well let's get into the big idea here everyone.
Speaker B:The big idea, the big focus is how do we keep it fun?
Speaker B:Why Joyce still belongs in the classroom.
Speaker B:Well, we have to, I think to help answer that question, how do we keep it fun?
Speaker B:We have to redefine fun in education.
Speaker B:See, fun doesn't mean fluff.
Speaker B:Some people think it does.
Speaker B:It doesn't.
Speaker B:Fun does not equate to fluff.
Speaker B:Fun is actually, if we think about as a high level performing educator, fun is actually connection, engagement and emotional safety in a classroom.
Speaker B:Classroom should feel alive.
Speaker B:Students should laugh, smile and want to be there.
Speaker B:You don't have to be a performer.
Speaker B:You just have to be real warm and really open to joy.
Speaker B:Now sometimes it feels like we're a performer if we do it right.
Speaker B:Sometimes feels like we're performing.
Speaker B:But it doesn't have to be a performance.
Speaker B:We do have to be have that our real authentic and warm selves bringing into a classroom.
Speaker B:And I always am a big promoter of bringing in energy and excitement, authentic energy and excitement into the classroom that I use as a way to connect with students in a real way and it provides that connection and high level of engagement in the classroom.
Speaker B:So I think we have to first.
Speaker B:So that's where I say we have to redecind of define what fun is in education.
Speaker B:And so once again, fun is that connection and engagement and emotional safety.
Speaker B:And then the next thing is I want us to lean into micro moments of joy.
Speaker B:And so thinking about how can we build joy with low prep high impact strategies, right?
Speaker B:Like we don't we want to try to bring joy into the classroom not by doing a bunch of a list of additional things, right?
Speaker B:Because one of our challenges is time and not having enough time to do certain things.
Speaker B:Well I would argue like what are some ways that we can bring enjoy fun with with low prep, high high impact strategies?
Speaker B:Well, one way is using music during arrival or during transition times.
Speaker B:Bringing in music, even having a playlist ready to go where with.
Speaker B:With songs that, that you can lean into that.
Speaker B:Hey, if we're transitioning from one subject to another for even at 30 seconds to a minute, can you turn on a song or as students are coming in in the morning, is there some sort of might be some calming music?
Speaker B:It doesn't have to be some high performing dance party music.
Speaker B:Maybe it's just some sort of classical music of some sort that that is kind of uplifting and just kind of just brings a certain energy in the classroom.
Speaker B:Perhaps it's it's.
Speaker B:And even when students leave, I mean but, but that's kind of, that's a, a low prep type of thing.
Speaker B:If you set up some you know a playlist and bringing it in, even pulling up a you or having a couple YouTube songs that they can just be, you know, it might be a video but it's kind of playing in the background with some music.
Speaker B:That's a super easy thing to really you do that day after day that can transform in a space or environment as you're incorporating that into the transitional type of aspects of the day.
Speaker B:Oh, using silly voices during read alouds.
Speaker B:So think about that.
Speaker B:If you're reading aloud to students in some capacity, do you need just use a plain old voice or could you have some silly voices you bring in?
Speaker B:I love bringing in silly voices or goofy voices sometimes or they don't have to be silly or goofy.
Speaker B:They can be relevant to.
Speaker B:If you're reading a story with certain characters and it could be relevant to those characters they get.
Speaker B:Students will just love that and eat that up and have fun with that and and see your playful fun side.
Speaker B:You know, have having you know, you can have like fun silly questions like, like, like you know, education appropriate.
Speaker B:Would you rather type of questions you can bring in or other like like questionnaire things that, that you could have come up with some stuff and but just kind of keep it simple and throw those in a couple of them a day or a couple of them randomly to kind of mix it up and kind of bring some fun in that that type of stuff can can transform little games.
Speaker B:I I, you know I talked at my presentation about hey the, the power importance of games.
Speaker B:They can be.
Speaker B:They don't have to be like these super complex games.
Speaker B:They can be simple games.
Speaker B:One of the things that, that I do this thing like, like a, like a question question game where students are working with elbow partners or with, with small groups and, and trying to race each other to answer questions based on their reading.
Speaker B:It's, it's about as simple as you can get it.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:But it, it brings some energy.
Speaker B:And they're competing to, and they're all competing against me.
Speaker B:We're, we're trying to beat Mr. Cleave so you can get out of an assignment or you can get out of something and boy, it gets them disgusting.
Speaker B:It gets them working.
Speaker B:It gets them.
Speaker B:It takes the, the engagement up by like 90% if, if you have some boring old text, depending on what, like what you're tying them into.
Speaker B:And, and so that's a game that you can transform engagement.
Speaker B:So I, I challenge you to like, look for ways to bring in silly simplistic games that can transform that, that engagement and make the space fun and, and bring in some moments of joy that, that.
Speaker B:But they, but once again, I'm not saying like these huge massive games, just silly little, little things that you can make up the game even and have some fun with it.
Speaker B:Ultimately, these aren't distractions.
Speaker B:When you bring in things like, like something like music with a playlist during transitional times, or bring in silly voices during read alouds or incorporate games into the learning space.
Speaker B:These aren't distractions, y'.
Speaker B:All.
Speaker B:They, they're relationship builders.
Speaker B:And they are an opportunity to bring fun into the classroom, to enhance joy within the classroom walls.
Speaker B:And then the, another thing that, that I want to lean into here is if you're having fun, students are probably having fun too.
Speaker B:So let's think about that.
Speaker B:Like it, have you ever thought about if you would want to be in your own classroom?
Speaker B:We never want to get so disconnected from education that we can't relate to what it's like to be a student.
Speaker B:And so there's sometimes I think about, hey, if I, if I was a student, would I want to be in my own classroom?
Speaker B:Or it might not just be in general speaking.
Speaker B:Maybe, you know, if I'm at the end of a school day and I'm reflecting on the school school day as, as I often do, I think, hey, would, would if I was a, if I was an 11 year old child, would I want it?
Speaker B:What would I have wanted to have been in my classroom today?
Speaker B:And a question.
Speaker B:And if the answer is no, why is the answer no?
Speaker B:And if the answer is yes, then hey man, then I'm doing something right here because I, I want my students to want to be in my classroom.
Speaker B:And, and I want to be in an engaging, fun space too.
Speaker B:As, as a student, as a lifelong student, I want to be in a fun, exciting energy field space.
Speaker B:And, and my, my fifth graders that I work with do as well.
Speaker B:And so that kind of helps challenge me to think about, about what I need to do as an educator to try to bring a playfulness into the classroom.
Speaker B:Because if I'm having fun, my students are probably having fun too.
Speaker B:Students will mirror my energy, and your students will mirror your energy too.
Speaker B:You know, if we're up in front of the classroom and we're acting like buddy duds, you know, they're gonna have a funny dud attitude too.
Speaker B:And, and I've had some teachers like, oh, I don't know what, what's wrong with my students?
Speaker B:They, they just act like they don't want to be in my room.
Speaker B:And it's like, okay, yeah, like you act miserable.
Speaker B:Sometimes I, I think this, I don't come around says, but I've thought in my head, well, this person's act X.
Speaker B:Almost like the students are a bother to work with or acts miserable or like, like they're being like tortured to work with the students.
Speaker B:And it's like, of course students are mirroring that type of energy back.
Speaker B:And so students will mirror our energy.
Speaker B:We have to recognize that if, if, if we are enjoying the lesson, students are going to feel that if we're engaged, students are going to lean into that.
Speaker B:Your joy is a professional tool and we have to guard it.
Speaker B:We do.
Speaker B:You know, we have to protect our joy in education as a professional tool because it is such an important, it's vital to our success as an educator.
Speaker B:It is vital to what we do on a day to day basis.
Speaker B:Bringing in joy into a classroom.
Speaker B:We set the tone in our classroom.
Speaker B:Our energy fuels the room.
Speaker A:It does.
Speaker B:And knowing that we set the tone in our classroom, our energy fuels the room.
Speaker B:Knowing that truly we can impact the fun that that is experienced in our classroom.
Speaker B:Fun isn't optional.
Speaker B:It's essential.
Speaker B:As we, as we wrap up our time here, fun is.
Speaker B:Is it.
Speaker B:It can't be an option.
Speaker B:It has to be essential.
Speaker B:A joyful classroom is where students feel, where they feel valued and ready to learn.
Speaker B:Bring joy on purpose into the classroom.
Speaker B:Let your funky side shine as a funky teacher.
Speaker B:Let your, let your weird side breathe.
Speaker B:Not creepy weird, you know what I mean?
Speaker B:Like, but, but you don't have to have to be like.
Speaker B:Like just a cookie cutter teacher.
Speaker B:Let your love lead in the classroom.
Speaker B:Well, that brings this episode to a close.
Speaker B:Remember to bring the fun into the classroom.
Speaker B:Bring the joy.
Speaker B:And remember to inspire greatness in young people.
Speaker B:And don't forget to be a funky teacher.
Speaker B:Bye, now.
Speaker A:He's Mr. Funky Teacher yeah he's Mr. Funky Teacher yeah, yeah, yeah Sam.
