Teaching With Magic by Xuxo Ruiz - Book

A Hands-On Manual for teachers, parents and magicians

Xuxo Ruiz is a teacher and magician who found that by mixing both his passions he could be more helpful to children and teachers all over the world. Teaching with Magic got him nominated for the Global Teacher Prize.

The teachers I remember best from my childhood are the ones who made their classes more fun for me. It was fabulous having classes with them, we had such a great time together! They knew that first they needed to capture our attention. If they made the classes fun for us, we were more motivated and we had the desire to go to school. Sadly, a lack of motivation for learning is nowadays very common with most children and in most schools.

When I first started lecturing as a teacher, I would occasionally do magic tricks. Then I noticed the students' attention and motivation for learning increased. It made me think of other educators, and I wondered... Could magic help schoolteachers? How would the students react? What techniques and tricks should a teacher use in class, and parents at home?

Then I felt the need to create a practical method for motivating students in their schools, and I created Educational Magic.

In the following years, I continued implementing my magic for educational purposes in the schools where I taught. From kindergarten and elementary school to high school, from my Physical Education classes to Art classes, across Math, Language, and Science... It was not just in order to motivate, but also in order to explain, mediate conflicts, influence the students' conduct, and boost their self-esteem.

Fifteen years later, after investigating, studying, revising, adapting, practicing and applying hundreds of magic tricks at school, I have managed to arrive at the selection that you now hold in your hands.

All the tricks featured here have been tried out and evaluated with real students in real situations, and they are perfect for any teaching situation. The result of years of practical work, rehearsals, class hours, and magic...It's all right here. Going through these pages, you will learn techniques that will surprise you with their efficacy. In your hands is the opportunity to learn, to be entertained, and of course to entertain others as you teach. You will surprise your students, you will thrill them, and you will make them think.

In my personal experience (and that of the teachers and parents who have taken part in my courses), it really works. Because of that I strongly believe in the enormous resource potential of what you are about to learn.

Foreword
Attention, please!
There's nothing here...
Nothing there...
Nothing anywhere...
Nothing up the sleeve...
But, what about now?
Shazam!
Here he is, in the flesh, XUXO! Ta-da!
And here I present him to you... One step forward... That's it.

But who is XUXO?

Xuxo is a teacher. And a magician. Therefore, he is a bigamist. He has two loves, magic-and teaching-and he married them both. And for a long time, for many years, he has been in this bigamous state; with diverse experiences as a teacher, and with a long and successful career as a magician. A professional magician. A magician with his own magic show for children and young people. A magician who is used to rubbing the magic lamp and asking the genie to grant him the power to make things and evil disappear, while making illusions and happiness appear, so as to amaze his young spectators and, magically, leave them "charmed" by the ever-fascinating Art of Magic.

"I've known Xuxo for many years, since the time when he, still very young and eager to learn and enter the world of magic, assisted in magicians' meetings in Cadiz. There were times when I would see him in some of my lectures and seminars for magicians, seated in the first row, eyes wide open, mind at the ready. Since then, we have met in magic conventions and, most often, in my house, in long and fruitful sessions, learning and getting immersed in it, sharpening our tools, "our powers".
Soon enough, already on his own, I saw him using these powers with his other love-teaching. The practice of teaching. I emphasize the practical aspect because what Xuxo describes in this precious and extremely useful book is not the result of some theoretical rumination on how magic might help improve the teacher's work. On the contrary, it is the juicy and well-ripened fruit of the continuous application of his knowledge and experience (in the real life of a teacher, with its difficulties and problems) on how to surprise, entertain, astonish and enlighten the young student-spectators with ever-fascinating magic tricks.
Attention, please!
Xuxo is here... Love of magic there... Love of teaching everywhere...
But there's nothing up his sleeve... But what about now? ...Shazam!
Here it is, in paper, in black and white... Teaching with Magic. Ta-da!
Come and give it a look...
Come and give it a read...
Magicordially,
- Juan Tamariz

"My name is David Kaye. I am a magician for children in New York and one of the more respected children's magician in the magic community. And what a joy it is to see a new magic book like this one. This is not the first book instructing teachers how to use magic in class. But it is the first book written by an unequivocally expert teacher who is also an unequivocally expert magician. Xuxo is the only person who could have written a book like this.
Xuxo is an excellent teacher and thus he is also excellent at teaching you how to perform magic. This book is smart, easy to understand, and complete. You will learn a lot here.
This topic is very dear to my heart because my father was a high school chemistry teacher for thirty years, who used magic to enhance his classes. And as Xuxo suggested might be the case, he was one of the most popular teachers in the school.
One of the benefits of children seeing magic performed in class is that it might inspire them to become interested in learning more about it. So not only will your students thank you for performing magic for them, we magicians will thank you for introducing your students to our art.
Treat your kids to magic and you will treat them to a lesson they will never forget. This is a wonderful book with which you will create exciting moments in your classes. Take the advice given here, as it is excellent. Enjoy!"
- David Kaye