6mn54 october 2013, subtitles available in 24 languages http://www.ted.com/talks/christopher_emdin_teach_teachers_how_to_create_magic

What do rap shows, barbershop banter and Sunday services have in common? As Christopher Emdin says, they all hold the secret magic to enthrall and teach at the same time — and it’s a skill we often don’t teach to educators. The science advocate offers a vision to make the classroom come alive.

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 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, it can turn awful practices into powerful ones, it can change men and transform them into angels.