A
post on BoingBoing a few months ago prompted me to order
Magic and Showmanship: a handbook for conjurers, by Henning Nelms. This book isn't about how to do conjuring or 'magic' tricks, but about how to incorporate drama, suspense, human interest etc. into performances in order to make the tricks much more compelling to the audience.
My hope is that some of this advice will also apply to teaching. If even a little bit rubs off on my classroom persona, the students will find my classes more interesting and, I hope, find the material easier to remember.
So...did you learn anything? Will any new elements be incorporated into your bag of teaching tricks? Most importantly, have you considered how you might test whether these new skills are indeed effective?
ReplyDelete-trying to move beyond anecdote