The Minimalist Educator Podcast
A podcast about paring down to focus on the purpose and priorities in our roles.
The Minimalist Educator Podcast
Episode 092: Strategic Humor For Lighter, Stronger Schools with Christine and Tammy
What if one small shift could make lessons stickier, meetings warmer, and workload feel lighter? We dive into the overlooked power of humor as a strategic tool for teaching and leadership, blending research with lived classroom experience to show how a shared smile can fuel memory, trust, and focus without slipping into cringe or chaos.
We unpack why humor boosts dopamine and oxytocin—and why that matters for engagement and recall—then challenge the old belief that “professional” means “serious.” You’ll hear how self-deprecating and affiliative humor can raise credibility and approachability, while sarcasm and punch-down jokes erode psychological safety. We walk through age and cultural considerations, especially for English language learners, and offer clear guardrails for humor that includes rather than excludes.
From light-touch meeting rituals to clever agenda “Easter eggs,” from quick in-class resets after lunch to simple recurring bits students adore, we share practical moves that take seconds and pay off in attention and belonging. We also address burnout: how to lift mood without feeding cynicism, and how gentle humor can help teams reconnect with purpose. Plus, we highlight student-led moments that turn a room into a community, proving that laughter can be both kind and deeply effective.
If you’re ready to teach less and impact more, this conversation offers concrete steps to weave smart, humane humor into daily practice. Listen, try one idea this week, and tell us how it lands. If it helps, subscribe, share with a colleague, and leave a review so more educators can build lighter, stronger schools.
Find our book The Minimalist Teacher and Your School Leadership Edit: A Minimalist Approach to Rethinking Your School's Ecosystem at the links!
Follow on Instagram @PlanZEducation and @minimalist_ed_podcast.
The Minimalist Educator Podcast is a Plan Z Education Services adventure.
Welcome to the Minimalist Educator podcast, where the focus is on a less is more approach to education. Join your hosts, Christine Arnold and Tammy Musiowski, authors of The Minimalist Teacher and your school leadership edit, a minimalist approach to rethinking your school ecosystem, each week as they explore practical ways to simplify your work, sharpen your focus, and amplify what matters most so you can teach and lead with greater clarity, purpose, and joy.
SPEAKER_03:In this week's episode, we're discussing a powerful tool that can often be overlooked in our schools, and that is the use of humor. We're exploring how humor can show up in our classrooms and our staff rooms, and why it matters more than you might think. So we hope you enjoy listening to this episode and thinking about how you might be able to use a shared smile in your school.
SPEAKER_04:Hello everyone, and welcome to this week's episode of the Minimalist Educator Podcast. Today, Christine and I are going to be chatting a little bit about a book that she has read around humor, which she's going to tell us a little bit about. And then we're going to connect that to our lives in education. But before we start, of course, how are you today, Christine?
SPEAKER_03:I'm good. I'm very happy to be talking about humor. How are you, Tammy?
SPEAKER_04:Yes, I'm good too. I like to think that each of us has our own sense of humor when it comes to, you know, all different kinds of things. So I think this will be a fun topic to talk about.
SPEAKER_03:I think so too. So yes, I recently read the book Humor Seriously, which is written by two authors, Jennifer Aker and Naomi Bagdonis. Apologies if I have pronounced your name wrong, Naomi. But yeah, it was a it was a a really interesting read about humour because I think sometimes we think of it as, you know, a silly pastime, you know, you're joking around with friends or watching a comedy movie, and you don't really think about it in terms of your professional life, or I haven't necessarily thought about it in terms of my professional life, but this book really changed that perspective and made me think about how actually it can be quite strategic and helpful in the workplace. So yeah, it's not just about having fun. I think the research, you know, especially now that they're doing so much neuro research, we can see the power of humor, of having funny moments. It's all releases all of those feel-good hormones, right? So like dopamine and oxytocin, things like that that make people feel really good. And of course, why wouldn't we want more of that in our work day, right?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, exactly. I think too, we can overlook the importance of having, you know, obviously we don't plan like, here's a dopamine moment.
unknown:Not like that.
SPEAKER_04:But if we can be, like you said, strategic about some of the things that we want to be, you know, add humor to, it can just release a lot of stress for people because it lightens the mood, it lightens sometimes the intense feelings of whatever's happening in a school. And it doesn't mean that we have to make light of things because there are some things that are very serious that we are working on and through. But if we are strategic about those moments where it's like, okay, you know what? Here's a here's a moment in our meeting where I can just like, you know, share this funny story or or connect this to something that will make people laugh, then usually too, that will help people remember what you've talked about because humor is one of those memory retention, not a strategy, but like an opportunity, yeah. Yes, yeah. Because think about all of the funny movies that you've watched over time, right? And like how often do you remember just funny lines and they stick in your mind or a certain scene in a movie? And so if we can build that into our daily or you know, once in a while we build that in for people with whether it's our students or colleagues, that's gonna help people, you know, feel a little less stressed, but also help them remember what we've been talking about or the importance of something. And so it's a good, it's a good well-being booster for sure.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely. Absolutely. If you can walk away from a meeting or a class or, you know, all the different tasks that we do in the day with a bit of a smile at the end of it, that is absolutely gonna leave you with a better mood and feeling happier for the rest of your day and your week than you would otherwise if it's just serious, serious, serious all the time.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah, for sure. It that can feel very draining. And so humor adds that feeling of lightness because we're changing our facial expressions, we're using different muscles, we're laughing or smiling, which you know is just a different type of energy versus when we're frowning or scowling over something. And I mean, no one wants to be in that place of seriousness all the time. It's really hard to to stay there. So kind of that variation in emotion is helpful for people.
SPEAKER_03:For sure. I know for me personally, I think you know, especially in the first years as a teacher, I thought to be professional, I had to be very serious. I thought I had to be very, you know, nothing's a joke, nothing's silly, you have to be very serious. I think partially, I've looked very young when I first started teaching, so I didn't want to add on to this youthful face with silliness as well. Because I thought, no one's gonna take me seriously, no one's gonna give me a job, like come on. And I think as I've taken on extra roles in schools as well, the same thought has come back to me again. Like, I have to prove that I can do this work, so that equals being serious. And I I think I've really felt that and therefore kept my humour to outside of school, or if it's in school, it's with, you know, your besties that you have. Like we'd always have a joke around when we worked together. But then when I was in a staff meeting or in a meeting with with team members, I would always put the seriousness back on again to try and you know achieve that professional look. So people would think I was capable. But reading this book has really made me realize that you can use humour to build those social connections and actually it enhances how much people trust you, how how confident people think you are. If you're willing to stand up in front of a meeting and make a joke, people just see you as a confident person. And so you might actually be able to build trust and social connection and approachability and everything if you do actually take time to to have those silly moments and have a have a joke with people, which I I had never thought of before. I had always equated professionalism with being serious. I don't know about you, Tammy.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I think that's a good reflection to have. I'm trying to think back, just some people I've encountered even back when I was a student, like who did I connect with the most from my teachers? And it was usually teachers who had a sense of humor.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. Because they would just make funny jokes about so like things I don't remember, but I just like you remember how you feel, right? And so those teachers were the ones that I had better relationships with. In fact, I'm remembering now when I was in grade eight, my teacher, his name is was Mr. Pepin. He was this French man who had a bit of an accent, and he was just really hilarious. Like he was always making jokes. And I was in the drama club, and so we had to create some kind of skit for some reason, and I impersonated him. And so, yeah, so I was just, you know, doing all the some of the silly things that he would do and just you know, exaggerate those things. And I wouldn't have done that had I not felt comfortable with him as a teacher and knowing that he would just see it as also humorous because that play I did in front of the school, as far as I remember. So yeah. So, you know, it's it's such a that's a very I would consider that probably one of my core memories from school because of that. Humor. That's a good connection now I'm making too. Because like, you know, I I remember a lot about him, and that's probably why. So yeah, that social connection is huge. And you mentioned the approachability of someone who, you know, when people just kind of crack jokes or you know, are lighthearted about things, you definitely feel that a difference in approachability versus someone who is serious. And so, kind of back to your question about like the view on is someone who's serious, the professional one versus maybe the one who's not as I think it's I mean, when these things are happening, right? When are you making the jokes? But it does definitely change how easy you feel like you could approach someone because I would definitely be more guarded around someone who is more serious, at least more often. But then when you see someone kind of be candid, it kind of again breaks some of that stress, right? And you feel like, okay, they're kind of they're kind of funny. Now I feel like I can relax a little bit, right? Yeah. It's so funny.
SPEAKER_03:I suspect, actually, now that I'm thinking about it, that if we went back in our podcast episodes, I think the initial episodes, we would have been very serious. And as time's gone on, I think we've gotten more comfortable with saying something a little bit silly or or having a laugh during a podcast. But I think I brought that same idea of professionalism equaling being serious to the podcast as well, actually, now that I think about it. That's a good point.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. And also I think it depends on who has been our guests. And maybe, you know, between you and I, it's easier because it's just you and I talking. But the guests that we are more familiar with, who we've had more encounters with, who are kind of our our friends, crossover to professional life, it definitely is easier to just, you know, share something funny with them on the podcast versus someone who has maybe reached out to us and we don't know them, but they want to be on the podcast. And so, you know, we have to get to know them very quickly in a short amount of time. So we don't know if having, you know, being funny or cracking jokes is gonna be the right thing for the person coming on. So yeah, no, that's an interesting point, too. I'm gonna have to go back and listen to some of those older episodes.
SPEAKER_03:Let's hope it doesn't mean serious equals boring as well.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_03:Oh dear. So another thing the book brings up is this idea of different styles of humor. And the authors describe four different types, and they've kind of got it on a like on four quadrants. They've described it by four quadrants, and and then you you can do a little quiz to find out which kind of humour suits you, which is quite interesting, quite interesting to go through. So on one end of this quadrant of this spectrum, you've got this kind of like almost like a nicer kinder sort of humor where you you're you might make fun of yourself rather than other people, or it's you know, affiliative humour, so you're really thinking about how you can bring people together, and then on the other end, it's more of the like jokes at other people's expense, you know, self-defeating, or like, you know, that sort of stand-up comic routine where you're kind of taking people down or making fun of them in the moment and things like that. So it's it is quite interesting to see that. And I definitely felt like, oh yeah, no, I'm I'm the self-deprecating humor, I'm constantly making jokes at my own expense all the time. So it was it's quite interesting to sort of see where you land. And I suspect that could play out very differently in a school with different roles as well. Like if your head of school was doing, you know, a very aggressive kind of humor, I think that would read very, very differently to a head of school that is doing self self-deprecating humor, right? Which could lead to yes, are you more trustworthy and approachable, or are you someone that I need to kind of like duck around the corner when you come, you know? So yeah, it's quite interesting.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I think when we're working with people, especially like we have some love relationship with everyone in our sites, right? So, but the relationship isn't the same. So I think we would have to be really careful about the type of humor we use, especially it I don't think people consider, or maybe this is this is controversial, I don't know, but people can be sarcastic, right? Which I think we could classify in that potentially aggressive humor because like not everyone appreciates sarcasm. I do generally, but not everyone does, and so you really have to know your audience, and I think that kind of humor or whatever you want to call it is you have to be really careful with the age at which you're like trying it out, because I've definitely encountered teachers who think that their sarcasm is funny, but really, you know, they're talking to nine or ten or eleven-year-olds, some of them get get it, some of them don't. And the joke, if you can call it that, is kind of at their expense. And so some kids are like kind of laughing then at this teacher's joke, or like, you know, mentally like making that connection with the teacher, like, oh, I get what you're saying about so and so. Which is not a place where we want kids to be. Like we would want them to be, okay, if you're gonna be funny, like do some kind of silly joke where it's about I mean, it can be about yourself if it's like truly something silly, right? But yeah, that's a such a tricky place because I've definitely been in that spot where I've taught, you know, third or fourth grade. And there's some kids who get the like sarcasm, but it's not, you know, it was never about anyone in the class. But I'm like, oh yeah, I can't do that because not everybody gets it. And I do want if I'm gonna joke, I want everybody to get it. So at least maybe some people will laugh at it, you know.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely. And yeah, if you try sarcasm like in a kindergarten class, like it's going over everybody's head, like no one is getting that joke at all. Maybe you're a teaching assistant over the other side or something, but that's that's about it. But adding on to that, I think you know, I work with a lot of English language learners, and you got to be real careful with your jokes because it it might only be funny in English. So if they're still learning English, you know, that it's not gonna land at all. And you know, we we also want to be like, you know, we don't want to use the kind of humor that is making fun of another culture or another group of people that's you know never gonna be appropriate in a school context, for sure. So, yes, you do have to think about the context that you're in, the people that you have in front of you, and the age of people as well, for sure. I think that's a very important point to make when you're thinking about using humor.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, for sure. I think what's probably most important for us to sink our teeth into, attach our claws, I don't know, whatever you want to say, when we're bringing humor into the workplace, is just really think about how is this going to enhance the experience for everyone? Yeah. Or enhance the is it going to engage some people more? Like, if is this a great time to crack this joke because I can see that a couple people in this meeting are getting like the sleepy eyes, or like, should I do some kind of funny action in my class right now because it's after lunch and kids are tired, you know, like that kind of thing. And that just goes back to being strategic, how you had mentioned that earlier, where we just we have to be intentional about the things that we're saying and doing. And the use of humor also has to be intentional because we want to, you know, we want to enhance people's learning experience, whether it's just coming in from their break or in a meeting or wherever they are. Exactly. So I think what we're saying here, Christine, is that we can use humor as not only, you know, intentional moments in our day with the encounters that we have with people, but we can also use it as a way to I don't know if mitigates the right word, but at least work through or around when people are feeling a little bit burnt out or tired, um, and just to make light of some situations. Because you know how we can we can add stress to ourselves when we think about like, oh, that was such a terrible day or blah blah blah, and we make things heavier than they need to be just because of how we're feeling. I shouldn't say just because, but because of how we're feeling. And so if we know that we have a colleague or a friend or someone, or or we can be the source of humor to help alleviate some of that feeling of like, uh, you know, I don't want to be here, or I just am so tired. That's a really good intentional way to use some kind of humor. Dad jokes, even, you know, like even though it's as bad as they can be. Sometimes that's all you need is to get somebody to smile again.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, for sure. I think it could be a really powerful tool to help people in those moments when they're they're feeling a bit overwhelmed. Again, though, I you know, we were just talking about be cautious and so on. I I'm just thinking about how one of the symptoms of burnout is getting cynical. And we've talked before on the podcast about how easy it is when you have when you're getting in that cynical mindset, how you can like start sending all the memes about, you know, yes, teachers and dumpsterfiers and all the rest of it. So I like proceed with caution with the cynicism. Maybe you don't want to like, you know, double down on the cynicism, but definitely some sort of you know, dad joke humor or that, I mean, that self-deprecating humor in those moments where people are really feeling stressed and overwhelmed, and then you make a joke about yourself. I think that can be really quite powerful to sort of lighten the mood and be like, hey, we're all we're all struggling, we're all having moments, we're all, you know, trying to figure this out in the best way we can. So I think it can be very powerful for sure.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah, I agree. I I think we could give our listeners a couple of little takeaways that or are paradown pointers for just kind of building in some little moments of humor in the day beyond just like, you know, because maybe you're listening to this and you're like, well, I'm I don't know any good jokes, or I don't know how to like make you know some a situation feel a little lighter with humor. So we have a couple of ideas that you could try. And this could be in your classroom with your students or with your staff in your meeting or in your team meeting or wherever you are. And in meetings, we know that often whoever's holding the meeting will have some kind of check-in. And it doesn't have to be anything elaborate, we know, but it's a good way to get to gauge how people are feeling at that moment in the day before we start a meeting. And so having some kind of like you could call it a laughter ritual, but maybe it's just a picture of something funny that's up just to make people smile or laugh. And you can talk about it or not talk about it, just have it up there at the start of the meeting because we know people will be curious about it. They'll be like, what the heck does this have to do with what we're talking about today? And so it just kind of can release people's mind from whatever they're coming in with. So it doesn't have to necessarily be like, you know, each of us is gonna do a check-in. And like, where are you on a scale of 10 to bear today, the sleepy one or the aggressive one? You know, like it doesn't have to be like that either, which those are sometimes fun too, but it can just literally be a funny picture that you have posted.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, for sure. Some schools have rituals, as you say, around things like uh, you know, fail of the week or you know, giving out teacher awards at the end of the school year with, you know, best outfit or you know, greatest shoes or whatever. So it's just like those little rituals that bring some lightness and humor in again without being at anyone's expense.
SPEAKER_04:Right. And exactly, because maybe one day you just wore two socks that were not matching, and maybe that's the thing that just makes people chuckle, right? Yeah, for sure. It happens.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. And as we were saying before, like, you know, knowing your your students, what's going to appeal to them at their age and within your community, you know, I worked with this teacher back in Australia years ago, and she loved drinking coffee. I mean, we all do, but we all she she loves drinking coffee. And so she had this thing where she when she'd be doing a read-aloud book, she'd always say, she'd say something like, pause for coffee, and she'd stop reading and take a little sip of her coffee. And it would always make her kiddos smile. Like every single time she did it, it was this little moment of levity while they were reading a book together. And it just it made them feel closer to her because it was something that you know they knew she loved and she was doing it right there with them in the middle of their book. So, you know, that worked really well for the kids that that she was teaching. So little things like that, it doesn't have to be super pre-planned, but just something that that adds that little bit of levity, it's great. Yeah. Another one that I heard about, I want to try. I haven't tried it, but um in your in your agenda, if you're doing like a staff meeting or you know, a conference, as you do, Tammy, things like that in your agenda for the day, like putting little Easter eggs in there. So, you know, like survive number five, or you know, something after lunch is just like stay awake, you know, like little jokes in your agenda for the day, which I think, you know, wouldn't be what people would expect. They're like just starting the meeting, they're just starting the session, and they wouldn't be expecting already in the agenda to see a little Easter egg like that. I think that would be a really fun one to try out.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, same. I really like that one because I have changed how I use an agenda as well in sessions. So I learned this from Elena Aguilar after doing a lot of her professional learning and just really, you know, giving people a moment to actually look at what's in the agenda, how you're gonna learn something, how like what configurations are you gonna be in? And so putting in some kind of little Easter egg, like, you know, this section we might do in a whole group. This is gonna be a small group, and then maybe in there you put something like with guest speaker Yoda, you know, like just some silly thing where people are just kind of like, okay, that's that's funny, and why is that there? Just for fun to get your attention and to maybe make you smile. So yeah, I really like that one too.
SPEAKER_03:Another thing we can do is leverage your students as well. Like we have students in every classroom who are hilarious, absolutely hilarious, and I think we can really make room for that as well. I'm thinking specifically last year we had one of our teachers who on one day a week would have like you can prepare a PowerPoint for us. You can present something that you're curious or interested in, and you can share it with us. And so each week one of the kids would come up and do a PowerPoint. And I happened to be in the room, and this one kiddo had just decided to share a whole PowerPoint of the foods that he loved, and the whole classroom was cracking up. Everyone was in stitches, just going through, like, you know, french fries and hot dogs and chocolate and all the rest of it. And this kiddo was new to the school and an English language learner, so he didn't need a whole bunch of vocabulary, he didn't need to use a whole lot of language, but it was such a moment of social connection and building for him with his classmates. Everyone was in stitches. It was such a lovely moment for this kid. So I think we can really utilize that the humor that our kids often naturally have in the classroom as well. So don't forget about that one.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I love that. So I'm hoping that from our conversation today, maybe people have a couple of new ideas for just, you know, identifying some moments in their day where they can be intentional about building in a little bit of humor, especially because we know that, you know, this is a tough job. It's it's a lot of energy every day. And so, you know, how can we use a little bit of that energy for some something humorous?
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely. I think it could be uh used as a really powerful tool, like a really exceptional strategy to uh uh shift the culture in a school so that you have stronger relationships, that people are enjoying being together throughout the day, throughout the week. I think it could be I think it could be really cool if you if we all started utilizing humor a little bit more. Yeah, I do too. Thanks so much, Christine. Thank you. This episode is sponsored by Plan Z Education Services, supporting educators with forward-thinking professional learning that puts both student impact and teacher wellness at the center. Driven by a vision to teach less, impact more, they help educators find purpose, prioritize what matters, and simplify their practice. Learn more at planzeducation.com.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you for listening to the Minimalist Educator Podcast. Join Christine and Tammy and guests again next time for more conversations about how to simplify and clarify the responsibilities and tasks in your role. If today's episode helped you rethink, reimagine, reduce, or realign something in your practice, share it in a comment or with a colleague. For resources and updates, visit planzed.com and subscribe to receive weekly emails. Until next time, keep it simple and stay intentional.
