Teachers

[Chris W]

After being on these forums for about a year and half, I have read many posts of magicians who are also teachers. I, myself, am a high school math teacher. I have performed tricks for some students, but not as much as I would like. I wanted to start this thread to see how many teachers there are the peruse this site and also wanted to get a feel for what they perform for their students, what plays well for this type of student, what plays well for this age group or that age group, etc.

Having the opinions and experiences of many teachers would help get me over the hump of nervousness that I often find myself in which either spoils my presentation or prevents me from performing for someone at all.

So, if you are a teacher, no matter what grade level, please feel free to post!

 

[Justin.Morris]

I have my BEd, but never went into teaching. But when I was in my practicum I did a trick at the end of the day if they were good. But you could have a magic Friday type thing. With one class I told them if they could figure out how I did a trick (or had a really great explanation that would work) I would give them a toonie ($2). They never did, but they came up with some really great ideas and challenged them to think outside of the box.

 

[Chris W]

Yeah, I remember Reverhart saying something about doing a new trick every Friday. That would be fun, but I know I would run out fast. I did two tricks last week and they wanted more. I told them if I did that I would run out, so I am going to take it slow and let them want more.

I agree that it would make them think outside the box a bit, but I would be hesitant to challenge them to find out the method. To me that might take away from the trick if somehow they did figure it out.

 

[RickEverhart]

What's up fellas? Yes...good thread spaz.

I currently perform one trick for my 4th graders EVERY single Friday of the school year. The catch is that all of the students have to have all of their homework turned in throughout the week. If a few of them have blown off homework...then there is no trick performed.

This causes the rest of the class to create some peer pressure and help struggling students out. The class works as a team to make sure everyone succeeds in my class and doesn't fall behind. Nobody wants to be the one to let the rest of the class down.

This concept has worked for the past 10 years that I have been an elementary teacher. Roughly you would have 36 effects to perform because there are 4 Nine week grading periods.

Now...some of you may be thinking...HOLY COW...that is a lot of effects. Not really if you think about it. Think of how many effects you can perform with just a thumb tip alone? I think you get the picture. Throw in a lot of your card effects, silk magic, spongeballs, rope, hat tears, kids props, etc. and you are all set.

My elementary students LOVE everything. Their favorite effect from this school year has been Kostya's WARNING (the label on the lighter) for those of you who aren't sure.

If anyone out there has questions about education and magic or how it can be incorporated...feel free to ask.

If I am not mistaken, I think Brad Henderson is an educator as well. Maybe he can add his two cents.

 

[Robert//Livingston]

I'm getting my degree right now in music education. Although I teach, and write music for many high school drumlines.

I don't perform any magic on my students... yet... haha

 

[Chris W]

Thanks for the response Rick. Now I deal with high schoolers. Some are easily amused and others are tough cookies. I mainly deal with cards. I've done basic, selfworking card tricks. I'm thinking of moving on to some better stuff. Maybe biddle, two card monte, tranpo. Thoughts?

 

[canadamagic]

I can't put my perspective out as a teacher but fortunately I can as I highschool student (dunno how much help it may be). I do magic for other students as well as the teachers, I remember one time I was actually pulled out of my class to go perform for another, very great

What I found that works best are short and hard hitting effects. The two card monte is a great one as it has several twists to it, the specators will needless to say be looking for the method so having them think one thing that ends up resulting in another is great.
I found that what also works well is gambling effects, it may not have to be oriented with gambling (understandably schoool reasons) but using things that especialy Jason England puts out works great. For example the other day one of my friends said after watching an effect I did, that he really wouldn't want to play poker with me, understandably.
So later that day I though why not give a little shpeal on poker. I asked people if they wanted to play a game of poker, obviously they didn't. The way I presented the trick was explaing the way that I "play" poker, showing how I can move cards from one place to another. While using things like the Strike Second deal, the Throw change, Steve Forty's BlackJack turnover (gambling moves) people were convinced that one card may be in a place that it wasn't.
I found that that worked best because people would try to follow the cards the best they could and the effect culminating (spellcheck?) in a compleatly different way.
What I also noticed is that with the "tough Cookies" one of the most efficient way is to get them involved, that has seemed to work best with me.
I'm not sure how much help I may have been but just my thoughts. Best of Luck!

 

[Chris W]

I think its an excellent idea to get you involved in this thread. Thanks for the input. Greatly appreciated.

 

[worldwideme]

what do you guys teach? why not attempt to incorporate magic into your lessons? you said you teach 4th grade reverhart, why not do some magic squares during math, if you do a mental math unit its perfect! you could even apply the age old "this is what they expect in junior high kids! dont even get me started on high school!!"

 

[zaw12]

I agree with what canadamagic said with "getting them involved". I have a friend who was meh on magic, but I finally got him to turn to a fan when I had him help me with doing the 2 card monte (he acted as a spec in the group, he just hammed it up, at one point even tilting the cards so only he could see them and blatantly lying about how "Yep clubs on bottom spades on top" when one was already a red ace ). He now loves my magic, and he is one of my favorite people to go to for constructive criticism on my magic.

Involving "emo" (hecklers really) teens in tricks is probably the best way to get them on your side, provided they can't screw up the trick at all.

 

[canadamagic]

I think its an excellent idea to get you involved in this thread. Thanks for the input. Greatly appreciated.

Hey no problem, I like worldwideme's idea of incorperating magic into your lesson, I think that that would be a great idea, it would deffinately get the students more into the teaching (I know I would love anything to spruce up Socials )

Another thing I have been fooling around with is vanishing cell phones, I have done it with some of my friends and have appeared to remove some of my friends cell's apparently from the world. Maybe someting along the lines of.
"*catching them texting* "Give me your phone, *perform vanish* "You don't get it back until the end of the period." Little though I have floating around (while trying to find away to vanish my phone from teachers eyes )

 

[Justin.Morris]

Ha ha, it would be funny to put students cell phones into balloons if they bring them out in class.
In the balloon, and into the drawer.
ha ha


j

 

[RickEverhart]

That would be hilarious...and color coordinate the balloons with the phones. Kids would be laughing histerically.

 

[Rev]

I'm leaving my job as an accountant at the end of August to go be a Primary school teacher, specialising in Science (primary school is ages 4-11, for all those outside the UK who don't know) so this thread is of interest to me. I planned on doing a trick every Friday as a sort of reward for good behavior throughout the week, so it's nice to know other people who are actually teachers have done this successfully.

Rev

 

[Chris W]

Cool man. It can be a very rewarding experience...and a very tough one! i'm sure you'll do great. I think it would be awesome to do the Friday magic trick. I am thinking of ways to do it like Rick was mentioning about how they have to have their homework all complete. Its a bit tougher at the high school level and at my school.

 

[Chris W]

Update: Today I performed a few more tricks for my students. One of my students asked me to do some more but I told him I didn't have any cards on me at the moment. He said he brought some for me. So I told him that I might do some later. As they were working on a worksheet, I did a few tricks. I did biddle but made an error on that (pathetic, I know) but they were still pumped on the idea behind it. Then I did a force and reading their mind which they went crazy over. Finally, I did a control and color change which they loved as well.

Looking back on it, I did simply things but try to blow it up as best that I could. They were very into which was good to see. I hope to do this again, but I will do a max of 2 things I think....keep them wanting more. I will also use this as a reward as talked about above. If the class does well, I will eventually perform something. That type of thing.

Anyways, I'd love to hear your thoughts on what I performed, or just any advice/insight you might want to throw my way. Thanks in advance.

 

[RickEverhart]

Another avenue to take is once i have have shown magic in the classroom on Fridays...I have had students want to be the one to show the following week's effect.

dThese are 4th graders, mind you, who go to the library...check out magic books and practice at home so they can be the one do show the class a trick. I always have the child demo it for me on Thursday at recess so I can see if they are prepared enough for the Friday trick. Luckily we have a brick and mortar shop right in town. The owner loves the fact that I show my students magic and they come to the shop and spend money.

 

[canadamagic]

Update: Today I performed a few more tricks for my students. One of my students asked me to do some more but I told him I didn't have any cards on me at the moment. He said he brought some for me. So I told him that I might do some later. As they were working on a worksheet, I did a few tricks. I did biddle but made an error on that (pathetic, I know) but they were still pumped on the idea behind it. Then I did a force and reading their mind which they went crazy over. Finally, I did a control and color change which they loved as well.

Looking back on it, I did simply things but try to blow it up as best that I could. They were very into which was good to see. I hope to do this again, but I will do a max of 2 things I think....keep them wanting more. I will also use this as a reward as talked about above. If the class does well, I will eventually perform something. That type of thing.

Anyways, I'd love to hear your thoughts on what I performed, or just any advice/insight you might want to throw my way. Thanks in advance.

That sounds pretty awesome. Those are some of the effects that I also perform and that get great reactions. I find that even the simplist effects work great if not better than more complicated ones, there for the spectator doesn't have to work to follow along. Another thought I had (that I am also looking more into) is performing with everyday objects.
For example I went over to my girlfriends house the other day and her sisters friend was there and wanted to see some magic. I didn't have any cards with me at the time, so looking around real fast I saw two hair ties (those pony tail things) and I performed a variation of Chris Kenners missing link and they went nuts.
I think that using ever day things gives a greater reaction because they are things that people glance over everday and don't think anything of them.
So maybe with effects with some everyday class objects, there were some that I had thought of but skip my mind right now. I'll see if I can't remember any


EDIT: After I posted this I thought that why not do some math oriented things.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCq3NFEB2bc

Here is a little thing that I have tried with several people and most of the time it has worked. (remind them to THINK of the vegitable because most spectators will say it out loud)

Just a little thought

 

[Silver]

Some other thoughts on balloons. I forget where I read this, but a neat and attention grabbing trick, especially if kids are dozing, is to inflate 2 balloons, one inside the other and slightly smaller, and then pop the outer balloon. The resulting pop will have kids awake and looking for balloon remnants, only to see the the remaining balloon. If they're different colors, then the effect is more startling.

Also, it would be a fun project for a physics or chemistry class to create their own effect. Powerful magic can be done with gimmicks, but it all boils down to physics and presentation.

 

[Chris W]

Another avenue to take is once i have have shown magic in the classroom on Fridays...I have had students want to be the one to show the following week's effect.

dThese are 4th graders, mind you, who go to the library...check out magic books and practice at home so they can be the one do show the class a trick. I always have the child demo it for me on Thursday at recess so I can see if they are prepared enough for the Friday trick. Luckily we have a brick and mortar shop right in town. The owner loves the fact that I show my students magic and they come to the shop and spend money.

Good idea Rick. I had a kid come into class today and she said he learned a trick (I'm afraid he probably was looking on the internet illegally, so I will have to mention to them about the ethics of his). He wants to show me his trick so I will have to see how he does. If it is good, he can show the class on Friday. Thanks for your ideas!