Four TED-Education Talks to Inspire & Empower
Nonprofit organization TED is famous for the lectures it offers promoting important ideas and innovations that deserve a wide audience.
It’s no surprise then, that some of the most inspiring talks happen to be about education. We’ve collected a few of our favorite TED talks on education for you to learn from and share with colleagues:
School Lunches | World Peace Game | Every Kid Needs a Champion
Success in Science
TED also provides a system for creating lessons through YouTube videos. TEDed hosts a tool for finding and “flipping” videos for students, which allows you to add questions, further resources, and even a place for discussion. Search videos by subject, or browse other educators’ best flips and find already made lessons. You can find flipped videos at www.ed.ted.com, and more TED talks at www.ted.com.
John Hunter: Teaching with the World Peace Game [20m28s]
Fourth-grade teacher John Hunter wants to give more power to his students in the classroom. In fact, he’s willing to go so far as making them leaders of the free world. Over the course of his teaching career, he and his students have crafted “The World Peace Game,” a creative way to learn whereby students are tasked with the complex problem of eliminating violence on Earth. Hunter offers inspiring stories from his classes, and explains how his unique teaching method encourages truly meaningful learning.
Rita Pierson: Every Kid needs a champion [7m48s]
Veteran teacher Rita Pierson shares her insights on educating kids. She makes the point that not only is it okay for a teacher to apologize to students, but it is important when mistakes are made. Teachers need to build trust with their students, because she sees relationships as the heart of learning. According to Pierson, “Kids don’t learn from people they don’t like.”
Ann Cooper talks school lunches [19m38s]
Head of nutrition for Berkley, California schools, Ann Cooper speaks out against the poor state of nutrition for America’s kids. As a country, she says, we need to start caring more about what our kids eat, and schools are the foundation for this change. Cooper explains why schools need to feed students local, sustainable, and seasonal food, and to make sure that kids are educated as to why it’s important too.
Freeman Hrabowski: 4 pillars of college success in science [15m11s]
University of Maryland, Baltimore County President and NAESP 2013 Conference Speaker Freeman Hrabowski speaks about how underrepresented students can improve achievement in math and science. He explains what schools need to do for African-American, Latino, and low-income students to make them more successful in fields that they are underperforming in. Hrabowski shows that when minority students have higher expectations of themselves, and opportunities to collaborate, they can excel in STEM subjects.