Ha ha ha! Humor in the classroom

"Classrooms in which laughter is welcome help bring learning to life."

I just saw this quote and I liked it because I have been thinking lately about using humor in the classroom (okay, and I'll be honest, also because we have been talking about clauses and this is a good example of an adjective clause:))

I really believe that laughter is so important in the classroom. Today, thanks to one of my students who is a professional laugh therapist, we got a true lesson in laughing. I believe strongly in using humor in the classroom but I want to learn more about this. There is some research that I found, and it all agrees that laughter should be prominent in an ESL classroom.

Sometimes my students have told me that I am funny. To me, this is funny! Outside of the classroom, I don't consider myself funny, and certainly no one has told me that I am. So why do I enjoy laughing so much in the classroom? Here are some of my possible guesses:

1. I want to make the students comfortable and laughing together always makes people comfortable.

2. Life is just so funny! It doesn't matter what country you are from, laughing is a way to connect universally and some things in life are just plain hilarious!

3. When a teacher uses self-depricating humor, it shows the class that he/she is also human and not perfect. When we show our vulnerability, I think that we sometimes get more courage out of our students.

4. I love my job so much that it is easy to laugh. In fact, it's hard to be too serious sometimes.

Those are just some of my guesses as to why I love (and apparently, have!) laughter in my classroom. Any other ideas:)?