In this episode, we visit with retired teacher Susan Carter, who, while teaching, branched out into stand-up comedy, starting at Yuk Yuks and carrying on to Churches, Community Events, and Teachers’ Conventions. Susan has self-published a number of books. We talk about that process, her thoughts about the importance of comedy in the classroom and life, at least in part from her own experience, to “survive” and we might add thrive in the entertaining “chaos” that can be the Junior High experience.
Susan shares her thought on a couple of other books recommended for teachers to consider:
The Science of Making Friends – Helping Socially Challenged Teens and Young Adults by Elizabeth A Laugeson as well as Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy’s “The Gap and the Gain.”
As the host in this episode, I was struck by how we, as educators, can draw on the Gap and the Gain principles as we work through the challenges of positively impacting our students’ trajectories and share the load with our fellow educators. A sense of humour is extremely helpful not only because crazy things are said and happen pretty much every block in jr/sr high, but also as we measure what we hoped to achieve against what actually happened in block one, or in that lesson, activity, or unit. A fixation on the Gap – measures against the ideal, focusing on the Gain draws our attention to where we were, and where we are now…”You’ve come a long way.”