Teach with Magic

by Kevin Roughton, Bob McLain (Editor)

Learn from the Engagement MastersEducation is a battle for attention. Whether you are a teacher trying to reach a classroom full of students or a parent trying to prepare your child for the world to come, getting our audience to just listen can be a real challenge. When students have access to personalized entertainment sitting in their pockets, anything that doesn’t jump out and grab their attention right away is easily drowned out.

But there is a place where even today all those modern distractions melt away—Disneyland. When you’re there, you’re not only in a different world, you’re in Walt Disney's world. Whether you are Peter Pan flying over London in Fantasyland or a rebel fighter struggling against the First Order in Galaxy’s Edge, you are 100% engaged. Sights, sounds and even smells ensure that your brain is locked into the experience.

If we can bring those techniques into our teaching, we can create engaging experiences for our students, grab their attention, and boost their learning. You’ll improve your teaching and create a place students want to visit.

In this book we’ll learn from the world’s greatest engagement masters—the Disney Imagineers. Through narrative visits to attractions throughout Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, you’ll experience a visit to the park as we share memories and see how the Imagineers make it all work. We’ll be guided by Imagineering icon Marty Sklar’s Mickey’s 10 Commandments of Theme Park Design as we turn our classrooms into the most engaging places on Earth!

Genres: Education

230 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 11, 2021

Reviews

[K Brewer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful Ideas!

This really earns four and a half stars for the engaging writing and the inspiring lesson and unit planning ideas. I have a page and a half full of notes and questions to follow up on, and I plan to spend the next few hours (if not days) exploring Mr. Roughton’s website and playing with his lesson ideas.

My two quibbles are these:
- This needed a good editor, especially in the forward.
- The Kindle version does not include the visuals, even those referred to in the text. As a result, e-reading consumers don’t get the full experience.

[Johanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book! This had some great ideas for a social studies classroom but also some that were incredibly over the top and slightly cringey from even my perspective. Regardless Roughton has an excellent handle and perspective of creativity in the classroom which should not be ignored!!

[Reagan Kuennen · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/4 ⭐️ I like the overarching ideas brought up in this book and trying to make education more engaging but I honestly could have done with FAR less about Disneyland. I would’ve rather had this more straight to the point, which I know is kind of the opposite of creativity and its goal but alas

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

For new teachers this a great place to start and really make your lessons and teaching style your own. As a veteran teacher a lot of it is stuff I already do but the reminder was good. I was able to take a few things to add to my repertoire though.