Have Some Fun

“…you make English actually fun.” This excerpt comes from a thank you note written by Zack, one of my current seventh grade students. The word “actually” did cause me to raise an eyebrow, but that is fodder for a different post. There were more than five notes with this theme, so I believe we have a trend. Fun. Laughing. English class. During distance learning!

It is Monday, January 18, at nearly 4:00 PM. We do not have school today, but I find myself thinking about what I have planned for tomorrow. I want to head into our coming week as I do every week, looking forward to the conversations I will have with my students, looking forward to laughing, looking forward to surprising them, looking forward to having fun.

Yep. Even during this crazy time, I am having fun with my students. And, according to the wonderful notes I received from many of them—thanks to our counselors and a “thank you” activity—I found out that my students are having fun too. Sometimes we have fun because of an active and engaging activity or competition. Other times, we have fun because the conversation goes in an unexpected direction, and we find ourselves laughing. Most often, we have fun at my expense. And I am OK with that.

If we have fun, we remember things. If we have fun, we want to do it again, whatever it is. If we have fun, we are engaged. This is simply the way we, as humans, are wired. This is one of many reasons why I brought rubber chickens into my classroom. This is why we play games and sing songs as a way to help remember information. This is why our Breakout Room Teams have mascots. This is why we celebrate quizzes with announcements of, “Hurray! Hurray! A quiz today!”

A lot of what I do in my classes has stayed the same during distance learning. The only difference is that we see each other on Zoom instead of in room B-8. We continue to do activities from Enter the Rubber Chickens and Shoes and Boxes and Peanuts and Keys. The activities in these books require that there is touch, play, and movement. We do that on Zoom as well. It is not as elegant as it is during live classes, but it works.

So, I guess the point of this post is to remind you to have some fun in your teaching this year, no matter how your year looks. Don’t get so bogged down with the outside influences, the need to try yet another new app, the tendency to think that “one more thing” will make your class better. Maybe less really is more. Maybe you don’t need to change everything just because you and your students are in different places. Whatever your decisions for teaching this year, be willing to laugh with your students and at yourself.

Be willing to have some fun.