Micke Hermansson, standing, cut out against the background

The Curiosity Architect

Educator, author, TEDx speaker and founder of Grej of the Day, the seven-minute micro-lesson that has travelled from one Swedish classroom to educators, companies and parliaments in 25 countries.

Work with Micke Discover Grej of the Day

Why don’t we teach the way we love to learn?

Think of the last thing you learned just because you wanted to. Nobody asked you to take notes, and you remembered it anyway. That question is behind everything I do, in classrooms, in boardrooms and on stage.

Micke

Swedish by origin.
Global by ambition.

Micke Hermansson photographed by Kristian Pohl

Micke Hermansson grew up in Tärnaby, a village of 600 people in northern Sweden famous for its Olympic alpine skiers. From 1987 to 2016 he taught, mainly in primary schools in northern Sweden.

In 2010 he created Grej of the Day for his class of ten-year-olds: a clue the day before, a short story with a wow in it, and a retelling at home. Students and parents responded with enormous enthusiasm. After around 500 consecutive school days, a parent contacted a major Swedish newspaper, and Grej of the Day became a nationwide phenomenon almost overnight.

In 2015 he was named Sweden’s Best Teacher by the Swedish Chamber of Commerce, and by 2016 he was working full-time as an author and international speaker. He has since given more than 500 talks in 25 countries, from the European Parliament to the UAE, the United States and Germany.

His mission is simple: to make knowledge cool. Whatever their background, every student should leave school enriched, curious and eager to share something they have learned. At heart Micke is still a teacher. His classroom has simply grown.

18 books published across Europe
25 countries where Micke has spoken
500+ talks, 400 of them about Grej of the Day
130k members in Grej of the Day communities

Off stage

Micke, as a Grej of the Day.

Grej of the Day always starts with a clue, so this one does too. Here are fifteen clues about him, the man rather than the method. Guess first, then find out how close you were.

Micke Hermansson leaning against a wall, arms folded

Three things Micke believes about learning.

Covering the syllabus is not the same as learning it.

Every school system feels the pressure to go faster. The better question is how to make learning stay.

Curiosity isn’t a personality trait. It’s a classroom condition.

The students didn’t change. The room did. And rooms can be designed, by a teacher, a school or a whole system.

Learning that feels good is learning that lasts.

Stories, surprise and retelling are how memory works. Every Grej is built on all three.

One thing a day.

Grej means “thing” in Swedish. Grej of the Day is a seven-minute micro-lesson that begins the day before, with a clue. It fits into any timetable and gives the rest of the syllabus a running start. Micke ran more than 600 of them over six school years, from the blue whale and Apollo 13 to the Berlin Wall and Anne Frank.

  1. The clue

    A clue creates curiosity. It goes home the day before, and the whole family starts guessing.

    The day before

  2. The micro-lesson

    A seven-to-eight-minute story opens the door to new knowledge, and always ends with a wow.

    Morning, 7–8 minutes

  3. The retelling

    Students retell the story at home, from memory. Parents know it is coming and listen.

    That evening
01

1 / 11

    A good clue does half the teaching before the lesson even begins.

    Micke
    Clue 1 Grej of the Day

    A radiant woman.

    Marie Curie

    She discovered polonium and radium, and became the first person to win Nobel Prizes in two different sciences: physics in 1903 and chemistry in 1911. Her notebooks are still radioactive today and are kept in lead-lined boxes.

    Make a guess first. Then reveal the answer.

    Clue 2 Grej of the Day

    A dull taxi number. Or was it?

    Srinivasa Ramanujan

    When the mathematician G.H. Hardy visited him in a taxi numbered 1729, he remarked that it seemed a rather dull number. Ramanujan disagreed at once. 1729 is the smallest number you can write as the sum of two cubes in two different ways.

    1729 = 1³ + 12³ = 9³ + 10³

    Make a guess first. Then reveal the answer.

    Clue 3 Grej of the Day

    A diary written in a room nobody was meant to know about.

    Anne Frank

    For more than two years she hid with her family in a secret annex behind a bookcase in Amsterdam, writing about ordinary life in extraordinary danger. Her diary has since been translated into more than 70 languages.

    Make a guess first. Then reveal the answer.

    Swipe to change clue

    1 / 3
    Micke Hermansson on stage explaining a Grej of the Day lesson
    16 countries in the University of Southern Queensland study

    The research is catching up with the classroom.

    In 2024 an international study of Grej of the Day began at the University of Southern Queensland in Australia, with hundreds of educators from 16 countries taking part. Professor Melissa Fanshaw and her team presented early findings in late 2025. The results are being prepared for a peer-reviewed journal and have not yet been published.

    Teachers in Swedish special education report that the format works well for children on the autism spectrum and children with ADHD, and the method is increasingly used in those settings. How far that holds is one of the questions the study is looking at.

    • 2024 Study begins at the University of Southern Queensland
    • 100s of educators taking part, across 16 countries
    • 2025 Early findings presented in Australia
    • 2026/27 Publication expected, once peer review is complete

    From one classroom to the world.

    From a class of ten-year-olds in northern Sweden to parliaments, palaces, research labs and classrooms across Europe, and now India.

    Sweden 2010
    • Micke creates Grej of the Day for his class of 10-year-olds. Students and parents respond with enormous enthusiasm.
    Sweden 2014
    • After around 500 consecutive school days, a parent contacts a major Swedish newspaper. The article makes Grej of the Day a nationwide phenomenon almost overnight.
    Sweden 2015
    • Named Sweden’s Best Teacher by the Swedish Chamber of Commerce
    • Introduces Grej of the Day on TV4’s national breakfast programme
    • Becomes one of Sweden’s most in-demand speakers and workshop leaders in education
    • The first Grej of the Day book is published and becomes an educational bestseller
    Sweden · Finland 2016
    • Becomes a full-time keynote speaker across Sweden and the Nordics
    • Receives a major Finnish award for educational innovation, presented by Hans Rosling
    • Invited abroad as a special guest, including to Asia
    • Joins a Swedish Parliament roundtable as an education expert
    Norway · Finland 2017
    • Grej of the Day expands to Norway, where two books are published
    • Spreads widely across Finland, and digital language material for students is released
    Netherlands · Belgium 2019
    • Expands to the Netherlands and Belgium, where many Grej of the Day books follow
    • Named Sweden’s best speaker in Nordic Business Forum’s speaker competition
    • Third and fourth Swedish Grej of the Day books (2018 and 2019)
    Business 2020
    • The book The Presentation Lift is published and takes Micke’s work into the corporate world. It is also translated into Dutch.
    France 2021–22
    • Grej of the Day expands to France, with a third French-language book on the way
    Companies 2023
    • Growing work with major companies and organisations, including Pfizer, Electrolux, Oriflame and PwC
    Australia 2024
    • An international research study of Grej of the Day begins at the University of Southern Queensland, with educators from 16 countries
    Culture · Media · Games 2025
    • Co-develops Art of the Day with a Swedish Royal Foundation, and speaks at the Royal Palace in Stockholm
    • Becomes a Grej of the Day avatar in Minecraft Education
    Education · Policy 2025
    • Grej of the Day expands to Germany with its first German-language book
    • A major preschool pilot launches in Sweden
    • Commissioned by the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise to create economics handbooks for upper-secondary students
    • The first phase of the Australian study is completed and presented
    Europe · India 2026
    • Speaks at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, and to school leaders and teachers in Ukraine
    • After speaking twice in India, begins the next chapter with a new Indian agency
    • Australian study results prepared for a peer-reviewed journal, with publication expected in 2026/27
    • Booked for major events in Scotland, Iceland, Finland and Germany, and writing a new book on after-school learning
    Micke Hermansson on stage in front of a large audience

    Make
    knowledge
    cool.

    Knowledge isn’t boring. The way we package it sometimes is.

    Micke

    At TEDxBinnenhof in The Hague, Micke told the story of Grej of the Day: how a few minutes of curiosity every morning can change a whole classroom.

    One idea.
    Many ways in.

    Grej of the Day began as seven minutes at the start of a school day. It has since reached parliaments, publishers, Minecraft Education and a Swedish royal foundation. It is a proven, portable format for curiosity-led learning, and it can grow with partners across education, media, technology and industry. Choose your sector to see what a partnership could look like.

    “The most powerful edtech in any classroom is still a teacher with a good story. The best tools make that teacher even better.”

    Micke

    Organisations that have worked with Micke

    From global brands and business forums to publishers, universities and education platforms, a selection of organisations Micke has worked with.

    • Spotify
    • Minecraft Education
    • Pfizer
    • PwC
    • Electrolux
    • Oriflame
    • Juniper Networks
    • Bonnier
    • Sanoma Learning
    • Heutink International
    • Nordic Business Forum
    • Håll Sverige Rent
    • Nord universitet
    • Sydsvenska Handelskammaren
    • Ackordscentralen
    • Sveriges Trafikutbildares Riksförbund

    Already happening

    What it could look like

      18 books.
      Across Europe.

      For teachers starting tomorrow, for anyone who has sat through a boring presentation, and for the simply curious.

      1 / 5
      Publishing enquiries

      From Sweden to India

      India’s scale and diversity offer a new opportunity to reinvent learning. Its National Education Policy 2020 asks for teaching that is experiential, inquiry-driven and discovery-oriented, and names storytelling as part of standard practice in every subject.

      Then it adds four words Micke loves: “and, of course, enjoyable”. Grej of the Day was built for exactly that. After speaking twice in India, Micke is now beginning the next chapter of the journey here, together with a new Indian agency.

      experiential holistic integrated inquiry-driven discovery-oriented learner-centred discussion-based flexible and, of course, enjoyable

      “I’m coming to India to learn, too.”

      • How do India’s best teachers hold the attention of a big class?
      • What does a great story sound like in 22 languages?
      • Which Indian stories should every child in the world know?
      Micke

      In the press

      The Economic Times 14 February 2025

      ET NOW Global Business Summit · New Delhi

      “Visionary innovators to reimagine global future”

      Named among the summit’s innovators, on his second Indian stage.

      Economic Times coverage of the ET NOW Global Business Summit naming Micke Hermansson among its speakers

      What they say
      afterwards.

      Conference organisers, business leaders, educators and teachers, in their own words.

      “We organise many events, but I struggle to remember the last time we had the pleasure of welcoming a speaker who captivated the audience quite as completely as you did, and seemingly so effortlessly. You are truly a full-blown pro, and definitely one of the best speakers I have encountered in Sweden.”

      Jerry Ralowski Executive Chairman, Swedish-Polish Chamber of Commerce

      “As my colleague and I agreed after your keynote: this is the best lecture we have ever been to!”

      June Doornich Vice Dean, Education · Handelshögskolan, Bodø

      “Grej of the Day continues to be my favourite part of teaching, and the value it brings to building background knowledge is immeasurable. I’m now into my fourth year of teaching it every day.”

      Christa Primary School Teacher, Canada

      “The audience, including myself, was spellbound. He is like a mix of Hans Rosling, an amazing educator and a great stand-up comedian. Highly recommended!”

      Maria Nygren Assistant Principal

      “One of the absolute best presentations I've ever experienced.”

      Martin Fritsch Business Development Rep

      “A lecture everyone should hear.”

      Juniper Network Company Spokesperson

      “He really lives what he teaches. An energetic and entertaining, interactive lecture for everyone who at some point has to present something to someone; which is the vast majority of people.”

      Annica Persson Quality Developer, Academedia

      “What a storyteller! What a lecture! What a show! I started with GOTD right after Micke's inspiring visit.”

      Tomas Lind Teacher, Piteå, Sweden

      “You brought the house down with this speech, Micael. Awesome!”

      Barbara Rogoski Speaking Coach, TED, The Hague

      “I've had the privilege of seeing Micke speak twice in a short span of time. He is the best speaker in Sweden today!”

      Christer Friman Author, Boden, Sweden

      Let’s put curiosity on the agenda.

      Keynotes, teacher training, partnerships, publishing and licensing. Find the right way in and get in touch.

      Work with Micke