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