When Divyang Khandelwal started the first TED-Ed Club at his school, he asked for some do’s and don’ts from the experts: other TED-Ed Club Leaders! Here are a few of their tips for success:

Help students uncover their ideas. “Take the time to make sure that everyone has an idea that they are truly passionate about, that is worth spreading, and that they will eventually be able to talk about for at least 2-3 minutes,” says Megan Lowe. [To help your Club Members strengthen their ideas, check out Megan’s TED-Ed Innovation Project: Sproutideas.net] “As much as public speaking is important, TED really is about spreading passions,” says Brindha Kodlapur.

Default to ‘you can’ instead of ‘you can’t’. “This program is all about letting students express their ideas and their passions,” says Mahrukh Bashir. “Don’t tell them ‘you can’t’ even if the idea is crazy, tell them ‘you can’ and you will see the magic.”

Practice public speaking. Learning how to give a TED-style talk is just one of the benefits of bring part of the program, notes Ridhima Behal Bharara in this blog post. To help alleviate the pressure of public speaking, Aditi Puttur recommends this great activity: “Give everyone random topics (peaches, going to Mars, education, crayons, etc… it can be serious or silly) and have them talk about their topic for 1 minute.”

Remember to collaborate, experiment, and have fun! The TED-Ed Clubs meeting format is flexible, and you can tailor it to meet the needs of your students. For example, instead of working on Talks individually during meetings, Kentaro T. Vadney plans to focus on being collaborative and sharing ideas. Each group is unique, so don’t be afraid to try something new!

To learn more about the TED-Ed Student Program, go here.