“A person can have the greatest idea in the world- completely different and novel- but if that person can’t convince enough other people, it doesn’t matter.” Gregory Berns
While working with a group of students recently, they wanted to know more about what I do, and why #TeachlikeTED. Their questions prompted me to share the origin story of #TeachlikeTED here.
In teacher preparation programs, we are taught the components of a lesson and to be experts in our content areas, but how many teachers have been equipped to be a dynamic presenter or have learned the brain science behind how to share concepts in ways that students or audiences will remember? In 2014, I was tasked with training a group of high school students on how to speak in public for classroom presentations, state conferences, and even national conferences.
As I determined how to go about teaching presentation literacy to these students, I thought back to how I learned how to speak in public. I realized that the closest thing to a public speaking class was a speech class my sophomore year of college. But even that was more of a writing and reading class- writing speeches then looking up at key moments as I read the speech to classmates. I also thought back to my junior year of college when I almost dropped out of the teacher prep program after my college professor announced to the class how many times I had said “um” during a lesson I was delivering. I was mortified! I called my mother and told her I was dropping out of the program. My mom, being a sympathetic and kind woman, said something along the lines of “suck it up buttercup” and so I got back to work on finishing my degree!
As I approached the task of prepping students for the stage, I turned to TED Talks to learn how the greatest TED speakers prepped for their 18 minutes of fame on the red circle, and began using the resources that I discovered as part of training these students to be leaders and speakers in their role as EdRising State Officers. As I saw the principle of effective TED Talks transform the lives of these students, I thought of how this information and these practices might have transformed my classroom lessons as a teacher, and potentially enabled me to have a greater impact, not only in the classroom, but in board meetings, leading professional development workshops, or speaking to the community. I developed a presentation to deliver at conferences with 10 “Teach like TED” principles to apply to teach or present in an impactful way.
This presentation has transformed quite a bit over the last couple of years and has now expanded to multiple presentations (and versions of those presentations): #TeachlikeTED for educators, #LeadlikeTED for administrators and education leaders, and #SpeaklikeTED for students. I am excited to continue this journey of helping leaders, teachers, and students learn to share their ideas in a TED-style fashion and would love to hear your stories on how you’ve used TED Talks and learning to present in a TED-style fashion in your work.
Feel free to reach out to me at rachael@teachliketed.org or find me on social media @RachaelEdu.