As teachers we can sometimes be afraid to share too much of our personality with our students. After all, we have serious work to do in school. When I remember my math teachers from junior high and high school I mostly remember how serious they were. In retrospect I’m sure they had interests and personality, but that’s not how I remember them. To be honest, I had practically no personal connection to them.
When students see you as a person, even a little bit, they will be more engaged in your class. One of the best ways of building a little trust with them is to find shared interests. The first shared interest that I express to students is that I want them to be successful and that we can work for that together.
So, in this post I want to share with you how to use your personal “flair” to consciously and strategically increase your connection with students. The ultimate goal is always to help them as learners and humans, and flair is a fun and simple way to get started.
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What This Post ISN’T About
Before we dive in, let’s get clear on what teaching with your personal flair ISN’T:
- This isn’t a fake persona that you put on.
- It isn’t trying to become best friends with students.
- Flair doesn’t require a “larger than life” personality
- It isn’t about making your classroom into a personal shrine
Teaching with Flair
Now that we’ve got what flair isn’t out of the way, what exactly are we talking about when we say teaching with flair? Well, it’s consciously sharing a bit of our personality to connect with students. Learning is a human experience. Helping our students connect with us as humans can help lower their anxiety in the classroom and buy into what we’re selling.
I was one of those students who performed very differently in classes based on my personal feelings about a teacher. Is that right? Probably not. But as I reflect on my own experience as a student, when I connected with a teacher I cared much more about what they were teaching. On top of that, I actually did better as a student! My scores were higher and grades were better in those classes where I connected with the teacher, regardless of the subject they taught.
Flair is one way to create a personal connection that we can leverage into a better learning environment and ultimately better outcomes.
Here’s what I mean by flair:
- Small, often simple actions and items.
- Authentic to your personality and interests.
- Provides a point of connection with students
- Teacher actions and prop that don’t distract from the learning
Now that we’ve defined what flair IS and what it ISN’T, let me share with you some of my favorite examples of flair in the classroom. It’s not an exhaustive list, but I hope you find some personal inspiration to think about your own flair.
Choose a Lanyard that Tells Something about You
One thing that I always have with me as a teacher is my lanyard. It’s the best way for me to not lose my keys! Also, it can show something about you personally. A lanyard can share the university you attended, favorite sports team, favorite character, favorite band or a hobby you enjoy. While it seems simple, choosing a lanyard with purpose can give you a conversation starter with you students.
Students definitely notice and ask about lanyards I’ve worn over the year. It seems like such a simple thing, but it’s an easy way to share something about yourself with students. For example, this year our family has been playing Mario Kart and Mario Party together. So, when I needed to buy a new lanyard for the upcoming year, this is the one that I’m going to be sporting:
I’ve tried so many different lanyard types over the years, and I definitely have features that I would recommend.
First of all, it should have the clip in the middle that allows you to detach the part with the keys. This will stop you from having to take it off or risk getting smacked in the face when you are unlocking a door.
Second, the little clip at the back of your neck is nice for easy removal.
Lastly, I prefer for the ribbon part to be thinner rather than thicker.
Here’s a few examples to check out:
- Super Mario Lanyard
- Wonder Woman Lanyard
- ASU Lanyard (or other college/university)
- Star Wars Mandalorian Lanyard
- NASA Lanyard
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Hufflepuff (Harry Potter House) Lanyard
Share Math Jokes
If you’re a fan of cheesy jokes you can add a little flair to class by sharing math jokes. You can share these jokes on a daily basis or a weekly basis. Then, you’ll be known as the math teacher who shares the cheesy math jokes.
Here’s a few tips for sharing jokes-
- Channel your inner stand-up comic.
- Use a “mic” when delivering the jokes.
- Lean into the awkwardness.
- Let a student share them with the class.
- Download a sound effects app with a laugh track to play after the joke.
By the way, if you want to impress your administration about how brain friendly your sense of humor is for students, check out this article from Edutopia about the power of humor in the classroom.
We have a fun starter set of math jokes you can use right away. Click here to download 20 math jokes that show your love of math and bring a bit of humor into the classroom. I do have to warn you, though- they’re very cheesy 😉
Make a Playlist
Another simple way to add flair is to incorporate music. One of my favorite teacher friends and my next-door teacher for many years plays music for students as they enter the room. Sometimes the music is current music and other days students get to hear some retro music. Students love listening to music and it’s a great way to set the mood for your classroom. You can share music you love as well as take requests from students.
Playing music for students can help them connect to you personally on another level. When you share a favorite song or artist with students, you’re deepening your personal connection with them.
If you are looking for some playlists for your classroom then check out 19 Spotify Playlist to Play in Your Classroom. Not all of these lists will work for junior high, but you can get a good starting point for what your classroom playlist could look like.
Give Feedback with Stamps
We all give feedback to students every day. Most of the time we just tell kids “Good job with…” or “Try this part again”. With stamps you can give students feedback in a fun way. Also, it can show a bit of your personality by the stamp you choose to use. You can just use basic stamps (I’ve used images like unicorns and thumbs up), stamps with teacher sayings, or maybe you want to use a personal stamp like the one below:
What a simple way to add a little bit of “you” while you give feedback.
A Different Way of Telling Time
I’ve seen a variety of clocks in classrooms. Let’s be honest, many kids don’t know how to tell time on a traditional clock. But why not take the opportunity to start a math conversation with mathy clock in the room. It showcases your nerdy love of math, and shows the hour, all at the same time!
Another way to have fun with clocks in the classroom is to show the time of different places around the world. You could choose places that are personally significant for you, or just places that are interesting (Greece as the home of influential ancient mathematicians, for example). You can just buy a couple of cheap clocks and set them to the time of different countries. Throughout the year you could even change up the countries.
Use Silly Props
I stumbled across incorporating props when I was desperate to get my students more interested in what I was presenting when I was teaching ELLs many moons ago. One day, I noticed a ball of aluminum foil on my desk and I put it on the end of a marker. Voila! I had a microphone. All of a sudden, I was much more animated when talking and silly. My students loved it!
I often said ridiculous things in my “microphone” randomly throughout a lesson. For example, I often spoke into the “microphone” saying, “Is this thing on? Toast. Toast!” It’s something I heard someone saying while testing a microphone once. Also, after I say something that gets some laughs I pick up the “microphone” and say, “I’ll be here all week. Don’t forget to tip your waitress on the way out.” It’s a reminder to myself not to take myself too seriously, and it’s a simple way to liven up the classroom.
There are many things that can be a silly prop. Here’s a list of some things you may want to consider, or you can come up with your own.
- Silly glasses (I recommend Sunstaches. My favorite is the Minion googles.)
- Dry-erase dice
- Oversized playing cards
- Unmagical wand (You can find one at the dollar store. I would use it to say that your magical wand isn’t working today)
- Stuffed animal class mascot (Beanie Boos are my favorite and kids love them)
Using a prop can add a little flair to your class and you don’t have to have a “larger than life” personality to pull this off.
Put Stickers on Your Water Bottle
Over the past couple of year metal thermoses and water bottles have become very popular. If you have one of these type of bottle that you bring to school on a daily basis, maybe consider putting some decals in it that represent you. This can easily become a conversation starter with kids. For example, mine has Super Mario, Wonderwoman, our school logo, some places I have traveled to, and more.
This summer our family has enjoyed playing the video game Animal Crossing together (a Nintendo game where you develop your own island community). So, these are some of the stickers that I’ll be displaying this upcoming year.
In addition, vinyl decals are great to give to students a little prizes for games. You can get them for many different themes including animals, retro, music, tv shows, galaxy, and colors. They cost around 10 to 15 cents per sticker and come in packs of about 50 to 300. Here are some to check out.
Wear Your Flair
At my school we’re allowed to wear t-shirts on Fridays. Often I wear a school t-shirt, but I love to throw in shirts that say something about me, my interests, or math, of course. You can combine cheesy math jokes and fashion. Sounds amazing to me.
I’ve heard of a teacher who wore a different pair of Converse sneaks every day of the year. You can read more of her story here. This is a pretty extreme example, but every day I’m sure students were checking what pair of shoes she was wearing. It gave her a personal way to connect with students without taking anything away from the learning experience.
Other wearable things that add some flair are pins on your lanyards, neckties, bracelets, silly hats, and more. I just got these Mario and Luigi hats and can’t wait to have some fun with them:
Call and Response
Teachers have used many different ways to get the attention of the class. Call and response is a simple way to get the whole class’ attention and add some of your personal flair. To learn more about call and response read this blog post from Angela Watson. It includes a lot of fun ideas. The reality is you can turn just about anything into a call and response. Some examples are:
Teacher: 3, 2, 1 All Students: Blast Off
Teacher: Hip Hip All Students: Hooray
And my personal favorite…
Teacher: Stop All Students: Collaborate and listen
You can make your own or use the examples that others have created. Again, this is a simple way to have fun and a bit of personality while getting the business of the classroom taken care of.
Use an Avatar
If you are a member of the Maze of the Month Club then you know that in every e-mail we send we include a Bitmoji. This is a little avatar of one of us and it includes cool sayings. Bitmojis are easy to make and you can share them with students in presentation, on work you create, feedback forms, in emails, on signs in your class, on your syllabus. The possibilities are endless. You can easily create a Bitmoji by downloading it from any app store. It can easily be accessed online through an add-on in Google Drive.
First, you’ll create a character who kind of looks like you and then you can choose your attire. Don’t worry- you can change it later. I’ve used Bitmojis with students and they seem to like it. You know who else gets a kick out of it? My fellow teachers. It’s possilble that I’ve been on school email message threads where every response is a Bitmoji! It’s a fun way to lighten up the day.
Share Your Flair
Now it’s your turn to share your flair with your class. You don’t have to try all of these ideas. Actually, please don’t try all of them- you might overwhelm yourself and your students. Take some time to think about how you can easily make your class a little more of an experience. You don’t have to be an entertainer or have a larger than life personality. All you need to do is share a little bit of personality and make some connections with kids.
Thanks so much for reading. Until next time!
