ABSTRACT
Teachers are often told to refrain from smiling until they've achieved full control of their students, yet they are simultaneously expected to maintain their students' full attention while teaching challenging ideas and skills. This chapter describes a qualitative research study (following 70 students in three urban high school classrooms) in which computer science teachers' pedagogies of humor and joy were actually essential to not only engaging their students in what many initially believed to be a boring or intimidating subject but also participating in critical thinking and communication practices valued across all fields of study.
