I never understood those professors who write down their jokes in advance and then use them every semester. I had a prof who’d add his jokes to his lesson plans and mark them in red.
For me it never works because every group is different. I teach two sections of the same course this semester. This morning, I made some jokes in the first section that really slaughtered. Students laughed so hard that the walls shook.
So I decided to repeat the same jokes in the second section. And they fell completely flat. The students gave me compassionate looks and forced polite smiles.
I’m not sharing the jokes here because they make no sense outside the context of our course. Still, how cool is it that students is Spanish Beginners II understand jokes in Spanish? Or at least understand that I’m trying to be funny and laughter is expected.
Teaching languages is very rewarding. Even though you get to answer the endless “And how do you say…” questions.
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