For the Love of TED

Like many people, I have become enamored with TED Talks and try to share that passion with my students when possible. I had the great fortune of attending a TEDx event last year and that has only fueled my desire to visit the mother ship…a “real” TED Conference. Naively, I thought I could use some professional development funds and head on my way to total intellectual indulgence. My discovery of the price of tickets was a blast back to reality: this was definitely not in the budget. But all was not lost when I discovered that TED was looking to tailor some of their talks to the education world and wanted ten educators to pioneer the way. Now, I am certainly not claiming to have anything brilliant to say, but I just had to try as this would by my only way to TED. Despite the outcome, the process alone has been enriching. The first challenge is to determine what you have to say to such a crowd: a TED audience that can afford such high ticket prices as well as a teachers and students. (Your talk is to focus on something that can be used in the classroom by teachers as a help to a lesson they are presenting to their class.) Talk about a lesson on audience! Secondly there is the internal fight in your brain that battles between how cool it would be to be selected and the doubt that creeps in about why would anyone want to hear you talk unless a grade is attached and attendance is enforced. But despite these hesitations, I pushed forth and made a video. This, too, guaranteed humility. I videoed my class without their knowledge and those students who I thought were so attentive were up to some serious high-jinx when I wasn’t looking. Additionally, there is the usual cringing that comes along when watching yourself on tape and the ubiquitous words such as “so” or “right?” when checking for understanding. Please note, it did not take long for me to discover that I never waited for an answer when I said, “right?” I simply nodded to myself and proceeded with my lesson. Finally, there was the introduction of the video where I desperately tried to communicate my passion and focus directly to the camera lens and I realized that without audience, I am nothing. Probably the biggest thought I take away from this experience is that the teachers I like to work with think like me and realize that we are not the definitive experts on anything. We are good listeners and observers who weave together information, thoughts and ideas we have gathered over the years in order to create an experience for our students that we hope is meaningful: our audience.