Teaching Magic

I'm going to tell you something that every principal education program says that I should not tell you. Many of my graduate school professors will disagree with me. There are people with higher degrees than mine, that have written many books about how schools work and how students learn that will say that I am wrong. I can prove them wrong and I'll tell you why.

Here's the big secret: Direct instruction can work and can be incredibly effective.  Modern theory says not to speak to students through lecture as a means of whole group instruction (I won't even get into the fact that this is how most higher education classrooms are run despite their own theory). The problem is that most teachers cannot do it correctly. Doing it correctly is difficult unless you have seen it and have the courage and "magic" to recreate it. Those modern educational theorists claim that students cannot focus on a single activity for a prolonged period of time, yet they do it every time they watch a movie, play a sport, play video games or basically anything else they are interested in. The problem is that they are not interested in what we have to offer.

So the question really becomes how do we become interesting? The answer is to use "magic." I'm not talking about pulling a rabbit out of a hat or doing card tricks. I'm talking about the kind of magic that holds people at the edge of their seat and captivates them, not because of what is said, but because of how it is said. I'm talking about the kind of magic that most grandparents have that captivates their grandchildren to give them 110% of their attention when their parent can't seem to get them to sit still. Storytelling is an art that should be taught as a part of any teacher preparation program. While not everyone will be experts at this skill and while it may not work for every kid in every class, it certainly is a skill that can work for most students, some of the time and it deserves to be a tool in every teacher's skill set.


It seems that I'm not alone in this idea though. If you have an extra 7 minutes, I highly suggest watching the video below.  Focus on what he is saying, but more importantly, focus on how he delivers his message and what he does with his body. This guy is a magical teacher.