Christopher Emdin: Teach teachers how to create magic

Summary

In his captivating TED talk, Christopher Emdin highlights the gap between traditional teacher education and the essential skills needed to truly engage and inspire students. He argues that while academic content and theories are important, they lack the 'magic' necessary for effective teaching. Emdin suggests that this magic can be cultivated by learning from environments like black churches and rap concerts, where engagement is innately powerful. He champions the idea of a 'Pentecostal pedagogy' that intertwines passion and skill, urging a reform in teacher education to focus on these dynamic methods.

Highlights

• Aspiring teachers struggle with theory-heavy education that lacks practical engagement skills 📚.
• Some educators naturally make learning captivating, leaving students wanting more 🎓.
• Traditional education spaces lack access to environments that naturally cultivate teaching magic 🌟.
• Urban teaching requires immersion in cultural practices to learn real engagement skills 🎶.

Key Takeaways

• Focus on practical skills for engaging students, not just academic theory ✨.
• Identify effective teaching techniques from diverse cultural spaces like black churches and rap concerts 🎤.
• Magic in teaching isn't innate; it can be taught by observing masterful storytellers and performers 📚.

Overview

Christopher Emdin dives into the world of education, contrasting the dull, theory-heavy training that teachers often endure with the electric and engaging experiences found in spaces outside traditional classrooms. Aspiring educators frequently find themselves stuck in an academic rut, more focused on ancient theories than real-world application.

Emphasizing the innate magic that some educators have, Emdin points out that the best teachers can make a classroom come alive, drawing students to the edge of their seats with compelling lessons. Unfortunately, these 'master teachers' often don't possess the formal certifications that would place them in classrooms, a gap that needs bridging.

By tapping into the cultural richness of places like black churches and rap concerts, Emdin proposes a 'Pentecostal pedagogy' that imbues teaching with vitality and engagement. He envisions a transformative shift in teacher education, steering future educators away from sterile classrooms to environments throbbing with life and learning energy.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction: Aspiring Teachers The chapter titled 'Introduction: Aspiring Teachers' begins by highlighting the struggles of an aspiring teacher. The narrative focuses on the overwhelming task these educators face, exemplified by a particular teacher working on a lengthy 60-page paper. It's based on traditional education theories developed by past educational scholars. This scenario underscores the challenges and existential questions aspiring teachers encounter as they navigate their academic and professional journey.
• 00:30 - 01:00: The Magic of Engaging Educators The chapter explores the journey of an aspiring teacher who aims to make a difference by becoming an educator. It highlights the irony of learning about engagement in a disengaging manner, as experienced by the teacher-in-training within a graduate school of education. The narrative delves into the ambitions of becoming an educator and the magic they hope to inspire in their future students.
• 01:00 - 02:00: The Discrepancy in Education Training The chapter 'The Discrepancy in Education Training' discusses the challenges faced by new teachers who are struggling to understand educational standards, grading, and discipline strategies taught in their training programs. It highlights the impact of educational training on their personal teaching approach, using an anecdote of a first-year teacher who adheres to the phrase 'Don't smile till November.' Additionally, it touches on the students' interactions with education, exemplified by a student attempting to avoid school by pretending to be ill.
• 02:00 - 03:00: Pentecostal Pedagogy and Engaging Audiences The chapter titled 'Pentecostal Pedagogy and Engaging Audiences' explores the contrasting scenarios of educational engagement. It highlights the existence of remarkable educators who captivate their students with passion and energy, creating an environment where learners are eager and attentive, almost metaphorically waiting for even the smallest detail or 'bead of sweat' to catch their interest. The narrative contrasts this image with other experiences, emphasizing the impact of dynamic teaching in capturing and maintaining an audience's attention.
• 03:00 - 03:30: Critique of Teacher Education This chapter delves into the power of storytelling, emphasizing how an effective narrative can transport audiences to unknown worlds, igniting their imaginations to see what they've never seen before. It highlights a speaker's ability to captivate and command an audience, comparing this influence to the strange phenomenon of people following directives without question, staying engaged until told otherwise. The critique suggests a deep exploration of the impact of storytelling and perhaps, as inferred from the title, draws parallels with the influences in teacher education.
• 03:30 - 04:30: Teaching the Magic of Engagement The chapter titled 'Teaching the Magic of Engagement' discusses the disparity between ineffective training and the impactful educators who excel in storytelling and narrative building. It highlights a disconnect where these skilled educators are often not present in actual classrooms. The focus is on the importance of engaging teaching methods and the challenge of bringing these expert educators into the educational environment, particularly in urban education contexts.
• 04:30 - 05:00: Conclusion: Transforming Education In this chapter, the focus is on the transformation of education and the challenges faced by those intending to become educators. It begins with a reflection on the lack of understanding surrounding teacher certification and the necessary qualifications for educators. There's an underlying sadness about the people described, who are disinterested in the learning process yet aspire to be effective teachers but lack proper role models. The chapter highlights Mark Twain's idea of the power of preparation and teaching, suggesting that with the right training, even individuals with initially negative morals can be transformed positively.

Christopher Emdin: Teach teachers how to create magic Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 Right now there is an aspiring teacher who is working on a 60-page paper based on some age-old education theory developed by some dead education professor wondering to herself what this task
• 00:30 - 01:00 that she's engaging in has to do with what she wants to do with her life, which is be an educator, change lives, and spark magic. Right now there is an aspiring teacher in a graduate school of education who is watching a professor babble on and on about engagement in the most disengaging way possible. Right now
• 01:00 - 01:30 there's a first-year teacher at home who is pouring through lesson plans trying to make sense of standards, who is trying to make sense of how to grade students appropriately, while at the same time saying to herself over and over again, "Don't smile till November," because that's what she was taught in her teacher education program. Right now there's a student who is coming up with a way to convince his mom or dad that he's very, very sick
• 01:30 - 02:00 and can't make it to school tomorrow. On the other hand, right now there are amazing educators that are sharing information, information that is shared in such a beautiful way that the students are sitting at the edge of their seats just waiting for a bead of sweat to drop off the face of this person so they can soak up all that knowledge. Right now there is also a person who has an entire audience rapt with attention,
• 02:00 - 02:30 a person that is weaving a powerful narrative about a world that the people who are listening have never imagined or seen before, but if they close their eyes tightly enough, they can envision that world because the storytelling is so compelling. Right now there's a person who can tell an audience to put their hands up in the air and they will stay there till he says, "Put them down." Right now. So people will then say, "Well, Chris, you describe the guy
• 02:30 - 03:00 who is going through some awful training but you're also describing these powerful educators. If you're thinking about the world of education or urban education in particular, these guys will probably cancel each other out, and then we'll be okay." The reality is, the folks I described as the master teachers, the master narrative builders, the master storytellers are far removed from classrooms. The folks who know the skills about how to teach and engage an audience
• 03:00 - 03:30 don't even know what teacher certification means. They may not even have the degrees to be able to have anything to call an education. And that to me is sad. It's sad because the people who I described, they were very disinterested in the learning process, want to be effective teachers, but they have no models. I'm going to paraphrase Mark Twain. Mark Twain says that proper preparation, or teaching, is so powerful that it can turn bad morals to good,
• 03:30 - 04:00 it can turn awful practices into powerful ones, it can change men and transform them into angels. The folks who I described earlier got proper preparation in teaching, not in any college or university, but by virtue of just being in the same spaces of those who engage. Guess where those places are? Barber shops, rap concerts, and most importantly, in the black church. And I've been framing this idea called Pentecostal pedagogy.
• 04:00 - 04:30 Who here has been to a black church? We got a couple of hands. You go to a black church, their preacher starts off and he realizes that he has to engage the audience, so he starts off with this sort of wordplay in the beginning oftentimes, and then he takes a pause, and he says, "Oh my gosh, they're not quite paying attention." So he says, "Can I get an amen?" Audience: Amen. Chris Emdin: So I can I get an amen? Audience: Amen. CE: And all of a sudden, everybody's reawoken. That preacher bangs on the pulpit for attention. He drops his voice at a very, very low volume
• 04:30 - 05:00 when he wants people to key into him, and those things are the skills that we need for the most engaging teachers. So why does teacher education only give you theory and theory and tell you about standards and tell you about all of these things that have nothing to do with the basic skills, that magic that you need to engage an audience, to engage a student? So I make the argument that we reframe teacher education, that we could focus on content, and that's fine, and we could focus on theories, and that's fine,
• 05:00 - 05:30 but content and theories with the absence of the magic of teaching and learning means nothing. Now people oftentimes say, "Well, magic is just magic." There are teachers who, despite all their challenges, who have those skills, get into those schools and are able to engage an audience, and the administrator walks by and says, "Wow, he's so good, I wish all my teachers could be that good." And when they try to describe what that is, they just say, "He has that magic." But I'm here to tell you that magic can be taught. Magic can be taught.
• 05:30 - 06:00 Magic can be taught. Now, how do you teach it? You teach it by allowing people to go into those spaces where the magic is happening. If you want to be an aspiring teacher in urban education, you've got to leave the confines of that university and go into the hood. You've got to go in there and hang out at the barbershop, you've got to attend that black church, and you've got to view those folks that have the power to engage and just take notes on what they do. At our teacher education classes at my university, I've started a project where every single student
• 06:00 - 06:30 that comes in there sits and watches rap concerts. They watch the way that the rappers move and talk with their hands. They study the way that he walks proudly across that stage. They listen to his metaphors and analogies, and they start learning these little things that if they practice enough becomes the key to magic. They learn that if you just stare at a student and raise your eyebrow about a quarter of an inch, you don't have to say a word because they know that that means that you want more. And if we could transform teacher education
• 06:30 - 07:00 to focus on teaching teachers how to create that magic then poof! we could make dead classes come alive, we could reignite imaginations, and we can change education. Thank you. (Applause)