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Sunday, May 12, 2013

New and Inspirational TED Talks for Parents and Educators on Education and Learning

There were several new TED (Technology Entertainment Design) Talks posted this week on TED.com on Education. Both parents and educators will learn or be reminded on ways to inspire curiosity and the desire to learn in their kids and students. TED's mission is to Spread Ideas Worth Sharing. Following TED's mission, I am always sharing with with others some of the TED talks that I watch that teach me or inspire me as well! TED has an app for both the Android and Apple iOS platforms that allow you to download TED talks onto your tablet or smart phones device when you have access to WiFi. Then you can watch or listen to the TED talks later without using up your data plan. The ROKU streaming media device has the best TED Talk application for a streaming media device that I have used for easily watching TED Talks on your TV or when giving presentations.


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.


Sir Ken Robinson outlines 3 principles crucial for the human mind to flourish -- and how current education culture works against them. In a funny, stirring talk he tells us how to get out of the educational "death valley" we now face, and how to nurture our youngest generations with a climate of possibility.


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.


Leaving a high-flying job in consulting, Angela Lee Duckworth took a job teaching math to seventh graders in a New York public school. She quickly realized that IQ wasn’t the only thing separating the successful students from those who struggled. Here, she explains her theory of “grit” as a predictor of success.


Why, why, why does our education system look so similar to the way it did 50 years ago? Millions of students were failing then, as they are now -- and it’s because we’re clinging to a business model that clearly doesn’t work. Education advocate Geoffrey Canada dares the system to look at the data, think about the customers and make systematic shifts in order to help greater numbers of kids excel.


Pearl Arredondo grew up in East Los Angeles, the daughter of a high-ranking gang member who was in and out of jail. Many teachers wrote her off as having a problem with authority. Now a teacher herself, she’s creating a different kind of school and telling students her story so that they know it's okay if sometimes homework isn’t the first thing on their minds.


Until recently, many teachers only got one word of feedback a year: “satisfactory.” And with no feedback, no coaching, there’s just no way to improve. Bill Gates suggests that even great teachers can get better with smart feedback -- and lays out a program from his foundation to bring it to every classroom.


The following TED talk aren't about Education. But if you value your time and you use technology you will find it very educational if you didn't already know the things presented by David Pogue. Then if you've ever wondered what some of the chinese language symbols mean, then you will find out from watching Shaolan's talk on Learn to Read Chinese with Ease.
Tech columnist David Pogue shares 10 simple, clever tips for computer, web, smartphone and camera users. And yes, you may know a few of these already -- but there's probably at least one you don't.


ShaoLan: Learn to Read Chinese With Ease!
For foreigners, learning to speak Chinese is a hard task. But learning to read the beautiful, often complex characters of the Chinese written language may be less difficult. ShaoLan walks through a simple lesson in recognizing the ideas behind the characters and their meaning -- building from a few simple forms to more complex concepts. Call it Chineasy.