TED Talks to Inspire Teachers

Side note: This is dual post of my EdTech 537 course at Boise State University. 

Here is a list of TED Talks that I find very useful in my teaching. Some you may seen before, others, you may not. I hope you enjoy! I will add to this list when I come across more. 

As a social studies/history teacher, I find John Hunter's speech very engaging.  From TED, "John Hunter puts all the problems of the world on a 4'x5' plywood board — and lets his 4th-graders solve them. At TED2011, he explains how his World Peace Game engages school kids, and why the complex lessons it teaches — spontaneous, and always surprising — go further than classroom lectures can." http://www.ted.com/talks/john_hunter_on_the_world_peace_game

As a teacher who wants to contastantly challenge my students to engage in Inquiry and ask great questions, Ramsey TED talk is amazing. From TED, "It took a life-threatening condition to jolt chemistry teacher Ramsey Musallam out of ten years of “pseudo-teaching” to understand the true role of the educator: to cultivate curiosity. In a fun and personal talk, Musallam gives 3 rules to spark imagination and learning, and get students excited about how the world works." http://www.ted.com/talks/ramsey_musallam_3_rules_to_spark_learning

Sir Ken Robinson is one of the funniest people I have ever seen speak. I have been lucky enough to see him in person at two different conferences. He is extremely passionate about letting students be creative and how to change schools so that students aren't disengaged anymore. From TED, "Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity." http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity. On a side note, this TED talk has been viewed 27 million times as of 7/10/14. 

David Christian has a great view of history and how EVERY event is linked. Instead of looking at history simply in a linear timeline, David Christian looks at history through various events, such as the Big Bang, development of Agriculture, etc. From TED, "Backed by stunning illustrations, David Christian narrates a complete history of the universe, from the Big Bang to the Internet, in a riveting 18 minutes. This is "Big History": an enlightening, wide-angle look at complexity, life and humanity, set against our slim share of the cosmic timeline." http://www.ted.com/talks/david_christian_big_history

Another great talk from Sir Ken Robinson. From TED, "In this poignant, funny follow-up to his fabled 2006 talk, Sir Ken Robinson makes the case for a radical shift from standardized schools to personalized learning -- creating conditions where kids' natural talents can flourish. http://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_bring_on_the_revolution

As the caption says, every child needs a hero. Rita does a great job explaining why we as educators can't simply focus on the curriculum when it comes to teaching, but we need to focus on the whole student. From TED, "Rita Pierson, a teacher for 40 years, once heard a colleague say, "They don't pay me to like the kids." Her response: "Kids don't learn from people they don’t like.’” A rousing call to educators to believe in their students and actually connect with them on a real, human, personal level." http://www.ted.com/talks/rita_pierson_every_kid_needs_a_champion

Hans Rosling created a fantastic website that shows you how different variables impact countries. I use it as a way to get my student to challenge what they already know about a topic or to introduce a  new topic. From TED, "You've never seen data presented like this. With the drama and urgency of a sportscaster, statistics guru Hans Rosling debunks myths about the so-called "developing world." http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen

I wish I had a math teacher like Dan Meyer. In his TED Talk filmed at TEDxNewYork, he talks about how to change the math textbook and curruiculum to make it more real for students. From TED, "Today's math curriculum is teaching students to expect -- and excel at -- paint-by-numbers classwork, robbing kids of a skill more important than solving problems: formulating them. In his talk, Dan Meyer shows classroom-tested math exercises that prompt students to stop and think. (Filmed at TEDxNYED.)" http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_meyer_math_curriculum_makeover

Dr. Sugata Mitra is a visionary! Through his "Hole-In-The-Wall" Project, Dr. Mitra discovered that it didn't matter what your economic background is, when children are engaged in their own learning, they will drive it further. From TED, "Education scientist Sugata Mitra tackles one of the greatest problems of education — the best teachers and schools don't exist where they're needed most. In a series of real-life experiments from New Delhi to South Africa to Italy, he gave kids self-supervised access to the web and saw results that could revolutionize how we think about teaching."  http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_education