About me and why I use magic in the classroom
Using magic in the classroom isn’t a particularly original idea; many teachers already use magic to spice up their classes and a good number have already received international recognition for their work in this field while others have even made a career out of integrating magic tricks into the learning process… of course there are millions of people out there on youtube making videos on how to do certain magic tricks in general, and there are also hundreds of teachers on the internet who explain how to adapt some of these tricks to subjects such as science or mathematics.
A simple google search will return a wide range of websites that are dedicated to using magic tricks in the classroom. Funology and “Magic Teaches Core Subjects” are two great examples, with lots of ideas about how to make classes more fun with magic tricks that can be performed in the classroom.
So why continue with this course if there are already so many freely available resources online?
Well, first of all anyone can learn and do a magic trick, but few can adapt an existing magic trick so that it teaches or revises the contents of a syllabus, and even fewer can create a magic trick of their own that both works as a magic effect and that also has its own didactic potential, tailored to the particular pedagogical needs of the pupils.
And that is what I hope we’re going to end up being able to do in this course. Naturally, if you are an ESL teacher then this course is going to be really easy to follow. If you teach any foreign language, you will also find it very easy to relate to a lot of the tricks that I am going to show you, and you will be able to adapt most of the tricks to your own classes with relative ease. If you are a mathematics teacher then you will probably already know quite a few math tricks that you can easily to develop into a more complete effect. But if you teach any other subject, you may find it a bit harder to adapt some of these magic tricks to your classes.
But let’s worry about that later on… For the time being, let’s take a quick look at some of the other pedagogical advantages of using magic in the classroom.
Magic as an element of gamification
By now you should be convinced of the pedagogical and didactic value of using magic tricks in the classroom. But before we properly begin the course (and since I teach English as a foreign language) let’s see some of the most typical language that magic tricks most commonly afford us to use as well as some of the teaching opportunities that will arise through the use of magic in the classroom.
A few words about the magic tricks, some of the tools required and the language that you can practice
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