Sarcasm

15 July 2006 (I know this is displayed right above this on the blog, but I need it for my own records).

So, what I've been thinking recently has to do with both a little of what I've read from Mentor Moe's blog from last summer and some feedback I got from him and my partner in first-year crime (whom i will call, Battery): sarcasm.

In my evaluations, Mentor Moe has complimented my use of humor as an effective disarming device with my students. On Wednesday, however, he mentioned that my sarcasm was beginning to blend too much in tone with something that the students might interpret as serious. Battery reinforced Mentor Moe's point when he said that he actually felt that I had become angry/annoyed during my lesson. To the contrary, I had a blast that day. It was the most fun lesson for me so far this summer. I mean, there's still tons to fix, like board organization, and presenting any semblance of written notes on the board for the students, but I felt like I was able to extract even just a small bit of interest and engagement in the connection between the abstractness of algebra and the concreteness of numbers: a hugely important point for anyone even thinking about math, ever.

Now, humor isn't something I use just to disarm the students (henceforth, my kids). For me, humor is just about the only philosophically stable way to approach our high school system. High school IS boring. The procedures and structures and tests we put these kids through ARE silly. I don't want to hide that. I don't want to lie to my kids. That would break TWO of my classroom rule: (Speak respectfully and Take responsibility for the classroom community). Humor allows me and my kids to recognize how stupid these structures can be while still realizing that we're going to have to use them. No you can't be late; no you can't disrupt my lecture; no you can't go to sleep. But, I also can't pretend that every moment of class will be intellectually and emotionally stimulating and engaging at all times.

That is to say, I cannot abandon humor as a teaching style, as a way of sustaining interest through the self-consciouslly boring lulls.

But, what do I do when I begin to press sensitive kids too much. Especially since part of what my humor wants to do is make my classroom intentionally non-serious (or, as a neologism, consciously dis-serious), this conflict between kids interpreting my lame, high-school teacher witticisms as serious threats, insults, or even comments is a formidable one. Obviously, I can't just say: I love you all; I will never be annoyed or angry at YOU. If they trusted me to begin with, this wouldn't be an issue. (I also can't decide if something to that effect is a worthwhile poster). I think this might just be something of which I have to become a better self-monitor. There will be students (like me when I was a student) whom I can press with sarcasm. There will be others I can't. In general, I need to keep my tone lighter. Always lighter. But, it's a dangerous line that I'll have to walk; but, I don't think it's any more dangerous than ones other teachers have to negotiate. Getting students interested IS dangerous. That's part of why it's worthwhile.