Last night I was talking with a professional woman who works in a law office. She makes good money working nine to five. She was lamenting however that she also has to commute over two hours a day to the west side of Los Angeles. Oh, and that one of her bosses is a real sour puss. (Those are not the words she used, I had to change a few words to protect the innocent!) This boss is a real complainer about the clients she has to deal with, the quality and speed of work getting done in the offic...
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I had a little scare in magic class. While teaching an optical illusion I noticed one of my students had a bloody nose. Not a little bloody nose but a gusher. A stream of crimson tide flowing from his nostril. I stayed calm and remarked “you have a bloody nose” as I walked over the sink in the classroom and grabbed some paper towels. By the time I got to him he had plenty of blood on his hands. I had him lay down and hold the paper towels to his nose. He wasn’t the type to panic thank g...
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Do you like chocolate? I like chocolate. Since I learned dark chocolate is good for you all the guilt went away. I eat half a small Trader Joe’s dark chocolate bar every evening. I break it into little chunks. Some I bite and let them turn into a thick goo in my mouth and others I let melt all the way down into a little sliver of deliciousness. Mmmmm… sorry, I drifted off to the land of chocolate for a moment.
What does this have to do with magic? Some people don’t like to work with kids...
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I finally took in to a class the Inside Out Book. I have been putting it off since it is a bit complicated to make. I ended up making each one for the kids in my class.
The effect is very cool. You have a little business size booklet that seems to have more pages but you cannot get to them. You have to know the secret way of opening it to see the other pages. The graphics I added are of a top hat and when you open the book correctly a rabbit pops out, first just the ears and then the entire r...
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Did Illusion Day at my class on Monday. Kids always seem to love the material in that class. Now, when I say illusion I mean optical illusions not the sawing a girl in half illusion. And the kids seem to know this because we talked about optical and auditory illusions the first day.
I always seem to find something to tweak each time I present the same class. I re-worked the illusion sheet, which we didn't even get to! I'll bring it again next week. I haven't done The Fishy Story for a while an...
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Another Magic Class graduated yesterday. Always mixed emotions for the kids. They are excited to get their wands but sad to see the class end. But we had a ton of fun as I added a game to play and gave them a graduation present that is pretty cool. (Message me if you would like details on how you can make them yourself for less than a nickel each. You can easily make enough for each class while watching your favorite TV show!)
The only odd thing during this graduation was an older student who ...
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Here is why you should pay attention to your students when they are learning a new trick and playing with it. (You are giving them time to play with the trick/props before moving on to the next trick right?)

We did Carnival Day today which is a variation of Circus Day. I ask them what is the difference between a Circus and a Carnival. Some have no idea and some come up with ideas like; more animals at a circus, more rides at a carnival, more acts at a circus more games at a carnival. It is th...
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At my Monday class we had Circus Day. Actually we had two days, part one last week and part two this week. I broke it up into two classes because we did Circus Belts as a project this time. Usually I demonstrate the belts and send home the instructions as "magic homework" but this time we all made the belts in class to take home.

It started off with my showing off the routine but instead of strips of newspaper like I have used in the past I used colored crepe paper. Red, white and blue to mak...
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Wow, this six week session flew by!
I was as sad as the kids were to have graduation come so fast. I guess I am just used to 8 week sessions now.
One boy really was upset at the begining of class and said to the other kids "Stop saying it's graduation day! It makes me sad!" He came up and gave me a big hug. It does feel great to know these kids love learning!

But the kids were excited about getting their wands. One little girl brought a note from home saying she had lost the first day's intro le...
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One of my favorite days is Houdini Day. I plan to do them all week!
So I kicked it off as always by asking if anyone has heard of Houdini. Sometimes one or two really know quite a bit about him. Maybe they read a biography and did a book report on him. None of them did today but they were first and second graders so mine was their first introduction to The Great One. I read the first page of The Houdini Box by Brian Selznick. It is a great build up. And I do try to do it justice with a dramati...
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Whew! A full week of classes! I am teaching at four different schools with seven classes plus my outside teacher who has two of her classes running now. My classes are on three days so I still have two week days off. Not too bad!

I taught the new Make A Snake trick to another couple of classes to iron out the details. I haved one more school to teach it to and will try to get some video of it to post and get the graphics online so it can be used by my other teachers.

I have also been trying ou...
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So one of my schools is new school for magic classes. Many schools let out the older and younger students at different times which is good for After School Enrichment classes since you can run two classes. One for the younger students and 45 minutes or so later run a class for the older kids which might go a little longer since another class won't be coming in.
But this school the time between is only 30 minutes. Not really enough time to run two classes back to back. So you either only have ...
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Here's a reminder! If you would like to add or respond to a post here just e-mail me and I will add it to a blog post!

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I am back in full swing teaching at four different schools. The classes range from ten students to over twenty in a couple of the classes. A good crowd of kids for each week!

I didn't tell you about the class graduations last session. The class with the Kindergartners was fun. I have never allowed Kinders in my classes before. They just can't learn anything that takes much skill. (I take that back. When I was in Kindergarten a girl in my class could play "Flight of the Bumblebees" on the piano...
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We did one of my favorite tricks today; I Knows Which Nose You Picked! A little on the gross side but kids get a kick out of it and I have to admit I like it!

Had a little discipline problem today. One of the kids was making crude jokes repeatedly after I warned him to stop. I had him move away from the rest of the kids which, when I occasionally have a problem, seems to set things straight. But not today. I had to STILL ask him to stop making inappropriate remarks. I used my ultimate authorit...
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Today was Graduation Day for one of my classes. As usual, every student has to come up front and say the three rules of magic. I have NEVER had a student who could not pass this test. If they forget a rule they go sit down and listen to another student come up and give the rules. Then they can come back up and try again. I DO try to get the younger ones up early so if they have a problem we find out early enough so they have a chance to listen to others.
Well, today I had TWO students with se...
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I think this was the last class to get Zig Zag Magician. Used the 8x10 to demonstrate the idea. Looked good against my gray shirt as the missing pieces really showed up! Kids seemed to get a kick out of it escpecially after I told them about it being related to The Zig Zag Lady illusion.

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I have been so surprised at how excited the kids became this week when I announced it was Illusion
day. The cheers went up and the chattering began. Maybe it is because they were introduced to Illusions on the first day and that primed the pump. Well, whatever it was they ate up the illusions and had a lot of fun with them. They certainly went home with their hands full of goodies to show off!
The Pick A Card, Any Card trick seems to be ready to go into the regular line up. Even the first grad...
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Announced today was Illusion Day. You would have thought I had announced it was Free Ice Cream Day! A cheer went up that warmed my heart thinking the kids were really that happy about it. =) 
Tried out the new Pick A Card, Any Card trick after I re-worked it. I simplified it and now all the kids up from first grade. Worked great. I think the kids will be able to fool adults with it. I love hearing the next week when a student talks about fooling their mom or dad.

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The kids were debriefed about Halloween at the beginning of class today instead of about last weeks class. Turns out about half the class went out as magicians or wizards! I was VERY surprised. I never thought of magician being a cool costume. A little later we were talking and a student commented magic class was his SECOND favorite class. When asked what his favorite class was he replied "tennis." I can live with that. Competing with an outdoor activity is pretty good!
Tried out a new trick u...
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Funny thing happened at class today. One child was absent but showed up about five minutes late with his mom. I stopped class and asked the mom, "Oh, did you forget we had magic class today?" "No" she replied, "my son has a soar throat and didn't go to school today but insisted on coming to magic class." Now, I have had mom's tell me in the past how their child was out sick earlier in the week but felt much better on magic class day and wanted to go to school. This was the first time the mom ...
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Okay, for today's classes I went back to Houdini Day to try out a new trick.  A card with Houdini's picture and a hole at his feet was used to demonstrate his ability to escape. The younger ones were able to help Houdini escape alright but the second part, adding a card with a straight jacket for them to use, was too complicated for them to grasp in time. My philosophy that any child can learn these tricks GIVEN ENOUGH TIME and ATTENTION was born out again. We spent the majority of time worki...
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The kids had fun laughing at Mr. Fingers today! They then made accessories to go along with his eyes. The most popular item was headphones or Princess Lea's hair buns. =)  The usual question came up: How is this magic? I should have headed that one off by first explaning magic's Allied Arts. Ventriloquism, puppetry (you don't have to use ventriloquism with a puppet, just have it whisper in your ear or squeak and you translate) juggling, even escapes like Houdini. No matter. We talked about gi...
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Whew! Finally getting the picking up the kinders and getting them to the MPR down. I do love their excitement! They are so open and honest.
I changed when I give them the Finger Traps. The last couple of classes I have introduced Houdini, asked what they might know and then after building his reputation up asked if they would like to see the only thing he could not get out of. Of course they say yes! I bring out the finger trap and ask if they can get out of it. Then go thru the rules of not b...
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These kids are so much fun! The enthusiasm they bring to class makes me feel great.
I did the Houdini Day intro for both classes. They had some funny ideas about how Houdini died. Shot, pills, old age. But that gave me lead ins for how he didn't even drink and was in great shape even at 52 when he died of appendicitis. We did some different routines that I wanted to try out on them. The Zig Zag Magician was one. Some of them had heard about the famous illusion, The Zig Zag Lady I based it on....
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I plan to do Houdini Day at all my classes this week. Ties in with Halloween as that is the day Houdini died 75 years ago. Houdini Walks Thru A Wall went well today. The kids got a bigger kick out of Can You Walk Thru This Wall. It was even more fun even though their scissor skills are spotty. They really like trying to fit thru that paper hole! Houdini's Nemisis, AKA Chinese Finger Trap always get laughs. One student tore his to shreds and asked for another even though they were told at the ...
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Today was my small class. Only twelve eager little sponges. A satisfying but magically unsound report by one of my students: his dad liked a trick so much he asked his son to keep repeating it. How can a child not keep doing it when asked by a parent even though they are breaking Rule Number 2 in magic? I do like it when they fool their parents!
Tested out two new magic tricks with them. The Zig Zag Magician based on the a famous illusion in magic, The Zig Zag Girl. It is half puzzle, half odd...
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Whew! This class has 26 students. That is not a problem except they range from K-5. You would think the Kinders would be hard to control but they are the best behaved! The problem is they need more one-on-one time and the older kids get restless and want to move on to the next trick. But they should be practicing. They think knowing how a trick is done equates to knowing how to perform it. Not. Anyway, the Kinders are wonderfully attentive and everything is magic to them. =)
I did resort to t...
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Started a new class today. Total of 32 great students. One or two have taken my class before and it was nice to see a familiar face. We had some fun. The spoon gong really seemed to blow their socks off. They love the spiral as well. Ran out of time to do the third trick (Appearing Birthday Candles) for the younger class. Will get to it next week. I do like the kids at this school. They are smart and well mannered.

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Today at my Monday magic class I taught the 11 students Pick One, The Amazing Two String Trick and The Compass That Doesn’t Point North. They had a great time seeing the tricks as usual. =)
One student figured out the workings of Pick One as soon as I talked about the circles each having a secret number. His mind raced ahead to the next steps and it was very impressive! The other kids had fun fooling each other with it.
For the Two String Trick one boy had seen it before in a magic kit but ...
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Welcome Teachers to the Teaching Magic Blog. I will use it to document the classes I teach adding any tips or tribulations I encounter. If you have any questions, comments or class experiences you would like to share then e-mail them to me and I will add them here!
info.DougHoover@gmail.com

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