This website is called Magical Teaching, and the site features real teachers’ thoughts on their work—on the magical teaching they find in paper-clipped bundles in the back seats of their cars or hanging around after school for extra help. Magical teaching is something that happens.

But sometimes when I hear the phrase “magical teaching,” I imagine some urban classroom turnaround tale from the movies, some implausible story about a well-meaning teacher who gives up everything to save students. At those times I feel like a hoax, like the gap between what I’m supposed to be and what I am is too big. I’m not some magical teacher, I think.

But rather than get bogged down by comparisons to myths and stories, I spent time investigating them, looking at portrayals of teachers in books, television shows, and films. Tomorrow I’ll share the first part in a three-part series called ‘The Myth of the Magical Teacher” that came about as a result of that work.

I hope you like it.

Derek Smith