Health Work Wellness Conference

HUMOR: How to Use Mirth for Organizational Results

Monday = Marvel

“Billy, you are like a Grow-Op!” Excuse me. “You turn people’s lights on; you are like one of those intense bulbs that produces rapid growth.” Okay, I was a little concerned about the association. “You help people grow outside of their comfort zone and become more alive.”

Each day of the week we can focus on an alliterative attitude to lighten up and love life laughing: Marvel at the people in your life, the beauty of nature, and see how much of the day you can spend in awe of life. “Show me a day when the world wasn’t new” (Sister Barbara Hance, 1928-1993). Look for the good in others and tell them what you like about them. Create a generosity of spirit.

Awaken your sense of wonder. Monday practices include paying compliments, acknowledging, praising, and appreciating the magic of life. One of the great aspects of devoting our attention to the positives is that it takes us away from the typical human tendencies to judge and criticize. We’ve all been hearing more about the Law of Attraction – you may notice that when you put your attention on the things you don’t like about people in your life, you tend to get more of what you find distasteful. If you spend the day seeking to find ways to let people know what you like and appreciate, you may find that those positive qualities become more apparent to you.

Billy Strean on Speaking

You may have heard that the number-one rated human fear is public speaking. Number two is death. If at a funeral, I am one of those who would rather be giving the eulogy than in the casket. When you hear me speak to your group, you can tell I consider it a joy, honor, and privilege. Nothing makes me feel more alive.

Speaking is a relationship and an energy exchange where you get to share that aliveness. Read more

Exhilarated Learning!

Play. Laugh. Learn…Not just for pre-school anymore.

You’ve heard that children have short attention spans. We all do. We just don’t whine and complain when forced to sit still and listen for extended periods.

We also spend too much of our lives in our heads, so my workshops address the whole person (thinking, feeling, and action). You can count on an experience and not a lecture. Laughter, music, moving, interacting. FUN Read more

The Magic Of Laughter / The Laughter Of Magic

“Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog,” author E.B. White once wrote. “Few people are interested, and the frog dies of it.” Although there is a place for study, we can kill off some of the beauty and joy of laughter and humor when we get too investigative. Various other quotations illuminate why a heavily left-brain approach may miss out: Einstein commented Read more

Society for Teaching & Learning in Higher Education

Exploring, Shaping, and Knowing Student Engagement? HMM: Creative Teaching and Learning with Humor, Music, and Movement
Billy Strean, University of Alberta
With growing concerns about student engagement, the theme of creative teaching and learning provides an excellent catalyst to consider methods that enhance students’ classroom experiences. Good teaching is akin to weaving a fabric of connectedness between student, teacher, and subject (Palmer, 2007). Teacher-student connection and student engagement are the two most important ingredients in teaching (Lowman, 1995). This workshop will explore three effective methods of weaving the fabric and engaging students. The session will model how to use humor, music, and movement to deepen learning while adding energy, engagement, and interaction. A short review of research supporting the methods explored in this session will include humor, music clips, and activities so participants will get the students’ perspective of the advantage of these approaches. Participants will work individually and in small groups to explore and shape how they can use their creativity to bring these methods into their own courses.
The workshop will contain several other activities using humor, music, and movement to energize the participants throughout the half-day session.

Thinking Qualitatively

Workshop at the conference on the use of questions in Qualitative Research

Alberta School Board Association