By Sara Entezar and Himani Yalamaddi
In the blur of factoring quadratics, solving for the number of moles in a solution and frantically writing down information from fast-passing slides, the teacher pauses and throws out something out of the ordinary — a joke.
Often a welcome mid-lesson break, jokes and stories pique a few students’ interest in not only the sidetrack, but hopefully, also the material being presented.
While adding humor in the classroom is not a requirement to engage students, many teachers, like Economics teacher Pete Pelkey, World and U.S. History teacher Robbie Hoffman and Biology teacher Ken Gan recognize comedy as one of the most intrinsic ways to engage an audience of high school students who would otherwise be tangled in the drab nature of lectures.