It is summer holidays and hopefully all teachers are taking some well earned time to rest and recuperate. Enjoy that time. I am not sure about you but it takes me about 3 weeks to really relax and enjoy the holidays. For the first week I still think about the kids and my class. The second week I think about everything I should have done, or could have done with my lessons and students. Finally by week 3 I start enjoying my holidays.
And then I do what all teachers do – start thinking about next year.
This year I am doing something a little different. My own little professional development project. I am going to watch and learn from TED
Have you heard of Ted?
“TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences – the TED Conference in Long Beach and Palm Springs each spring, and the TEDGlobalTEDx program and the annual TED Prize conference in Oxford UK each summer – TED includes the award winning video site, the Open Translation Project and Open TV Project, the inspiring TEDx program and the annual TED Prize.”
TED: Ideas worth Spreading
Photo Credit: Gever Tulley by vinzcha
For me, TED is the Open University for the world. I wish I could claim the time I watch the videos on line as credit for Professional Development. When you watch the talks you are infected by the passion for learning. The speakers are entertaining, thought-provoking and serious about teaching the audience.
There are over a 1000 videos on the website. So far I have watched the following 10 videos. I am not going to give you a blurb about each video because the message I have received from these videos may be different to yours. But I will say that each TED talk has given me the knowledge and motivation to do better and be better next year.
Cameron Herold: Let’s raise kids to be Entrepreneurs
Adora Svitak: What adults can learn for kids.
Erin McKean redefines the Dictionary
Jamie Oliver: Teach Every Child About Food
Randy Pausch: Really achieving your Childhood Dreams
Gever Tulley- 5 Dangerous Things
Sir Ken Robinson: Bring on the learning revolution
Kiran Bir Sethi teaches kids to take charge
Sugata Mitra shows how kids teach themselves
When your head comes out of those restful clouds, and you are looking for some inspiration, take a look at the Ted Talks. And let me know some other great clips to watch. I am looking for some more information.
By Ainslie Hunter
