Teachers using TED Talk

TED Talk is such an amazing tool for the classroom! “Stephanie Lo, Director of TED-Ed Programs, advises teachers to use TED videos as a way to get students thinking.” This is stated in a blog we read about in class this week called “How teachers can best use TED Talks in class, from the perspective of a student.” It written by Olivia Cucinotta, and she goes into detail about how teachers can use TED Talk in their classrooms. I really like the quote from above because it really is super important in learning to make your students think. When a student is thinking it means they are engaged in what you are trying to teach them. Even as a current student I find it hard to stay on task sometimes, and even find myself rereading the same paragraph multiple times because of my mind drifting away from my work. When you give students a chance to open up a lesion or class with a video that will help them engage in the lesion before hand you will have your students in a more engaged environment.

The TED Talk I decided to view this week was “Julian Treasure: How to speak so that people want to listen.” I really enjoyed this TED Talk for a couple of reasons. The first being is this is really good practice for future teachers. None of us want to end up being the mono tone lecture teacher most students hate. In this talk he goes into description of what type of voice you want for different situations. He gives examples of ways to warm up your voice, and also gives advice on things you shouldn’t say.

My favorite part of the video had to be the activity. He has the whole crowd stand up and warm up their voices. It included six different sounds, or mouth and throat movement. It was fun to watch and also fun to try. You may even look over your shoulder to see if anyone saw or herd you practicing it, but I thought it was a fun activity.

Its TED Talk videos like the one below I want to use in the classroom when I teach.  I want students to not only learn something, but also enjoy a fun activity to get their thoughts and blood flowing. I want them to enjoy what they are learning and actually have a hands on activity to have the student actually interact with what they are learning.