Earlier today I came across Guy Kawasaki's Enchantment page on Facebook and decided to spend a few hours reading his advice on Enchantment - The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds and Actions.  Lately I have been feeling a bit discouraged in my role as a teacher, finding it increasingly difficult to capture the attention of my students, especially given all of the distractions with which they must contend on a daily basis.  So I decided to read the first few chapters of Kawasaki's book with the intention of uncovering ways to enchant my students.

One of the first things that struck me was that enchantment must start with building an authentic connection with another human being.  This feels like such a daunting challenge when each semester I come face to face with 300+ students in large lecture classes, who expect anything but enchantment.  Up until now my efforts have focused on trying to persuade students that coming to class and actively participating will help them do well in my course.  I have revamped my lectures using the principles of Presentation Zen and have invested many hours in becoming a better storyteller.  Yet I have met with resistance because this approach is unfamiliar to my students and requires them to develop different ways to listen and take notes.  Many have expressed frustration that my attempts to help them learn more effectively have pushed them too far out of their comfort zones.  Clearly my efforts to do what I believe is the right thing to do, have failed to enchant my customers.  So I am in need of a different approach.

Since the semester is almost finished (two more weeks to go) I will take some time to reflect on how I can use Kawasaki's ideas in my fall semester courses.  I would like to engage in conversation with students before the course begins and try to find out some of the things about which they are passionate.  Maybe one way to enchant them is to connect the course with things they care about.  I might set up a Facebook page for the course and invite those who are registered to share ideas about how to make the course interesting and engaging. Over the next few weeks I will continue to reflect on how to enchant my students.  Feel free to share any of your ideas.