Humor and jokes have to be used carefully so that you don’t accidentally hurt a student’s feelings.  This article on teaching with humor has some good guidelines.

Here’s a good article on the value of humor as a learning tool.  Creating jokes requires mental gymnastics and telling them requires good communication skills.  Laughter helps create community.
Use this joke to introduce a discussion of classroom expectations.
Knock knock.
Who’s there?
Stopwatch.
Stopwatch who?
Stopwatch you’re doing right now!

Cheer up a teacher by giving them a copy of Blackboard Blunders by Richard Benson.  This is a funny collection of  student answers to test questions.  This is one great example.  Question: Where was the American Declaration of Independence signed?  Answer: At the bottom .

Laughter is good for you.  Get a few chuckles from this teacher tenure song.

This is not PC for your classroom, but it might make you smile.  Christmas decorating that goes beyond the pale.  “Tacky” is in the eye of the beholder.  My kids think I might want to copy one of houses!

The Prussian General Karl von Clausewitz once said, “The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan.”

I’ve always liked the teacher jokes and links I get from friends.  Now I’ve found the Jokes for Teachers website.  They have a great collection of jokes and a number of those lists like Questions You Hope Your Students Won’t Ask and Tips to Improve Your Writing.  If you want to look at other websites, try Jokes [...]

Anyone who has ever studied a foreign language can’t help but laugh at this video from TeacherTubeVideos.  It would be fun to have students make a similar one of their own.