Xixi Wang

At TED-Ed, we’re passionate about sharing diverse and meaningful student voices with the world.

Since 2014, thousands of student groups across the globe have been developing and sharing their ideas using our free TED-Ed Student Talks resources.

To celebrate 10 years of TED-Ed Student Talks (also known as TED-Ed Clubs), we are introducing a new “10 for 10 years” series. The first in this series highlights 10 updated features from the new-and-improved Facilitator Guidebook and Student Idea Journal! We will continue to celebrate this exciting milestone with additional posts as part of this series.

 “A great talk can have a huge impact — maybe on millions of people, maybe on just one. But no talk can be great without a lot of thought and hard work. The best speakers go through a process to transform their idea into something others want to share.”

Feedback from facilitators who have used the Guidebook and Student Idea Journal with students in primary and secondary schools have enabled these materials to become even more flexible, fun, thoughtful, and aligned with 21st century skills.

So, what’s new? Creative analogies that represent the talk journey, guidance on effective source evaluation and fact-checking, student TED Talks that serve as models, and facilitation planners to help leaders customize their experience.

Here are 10 new features you can expect from our latest resource release:

 1. Enhanced facilitator support

The updated Facilitator Guidebook helps facilitators adapt and customize our 13 Explorations (modules with activity blocks) to engage students in discovering, developing, and sharing their TED-Ed Student Talks. We’ve provided tips, space and timing estimates to help plan effectively while aligning these materials with important learning objectives like identifying and reflecting on their experiences and curiosities, researching and thinking critically about ideas, writing and presenting compelling stories, giving and receiving feedback, and understanding the perspectives of others. We’ve also made it easier for facilitators to move between the two core resources, our Facilitator Guidebook and Student Ideas Journal, and truly use these resources in tandem.

 2. The water you swim in

During his graduation speech, David Foster Wallace tells a short fable about fish swimming in water, which highlights that we often aren’t aware how our day-to-day experiences might differ from the experiences of others. We use this fable and the analogy of the water we swim in everyday to ask students to explore their own experiences more deeply because when we understand ourselves more fully, it can help us identify what ideas we have to share. This framing helps students grow their cultural and global awareness, perspective taking, and critical thinking skills.

“To give a truly powerful talk, it helps to start with a topic that excites you, in some way defines you, or about which you care deeply.”

3. An idea is like a gift

Great speakers give their audiences a gift that they can apply to their lives and use to expand their perspectives. That’s how great ideas can spread. In these new activities, students think about how an idea is like a gift, and what gift they could give their audience. This helps students with listening and critical thinking skills.

4. The tour guide and the talk roadmap

We compare a successful speaker to a tour guide, in the way they guide their audience on a tour of their idea and ensure that everyone has the information they need to follow along. In this activity, students use the talk roadmap planner to identify what to include in their talk in order to support their idea and take the audience on an engaging journey from start to finish. This new concept helps students with writing skills and tandem peer feedback activities help with students’ listening skills.

Xixi Wang

5. Research and source evaluation

Thorough research is the best way to prepare for critics or skeptics in any room. With TED-Ed Student Talks activities, students learn how to build trust and a solid foundation with an audience through the use of credible sources, verifiable facts, and specificity to support their idea.

A successful speaker draws on their experience, research and “borrowed credibility” (drawing upon the work of experts) in order to create a solid foundation to build upon, provide specificity by, and allows the speaker to consider counter arguments from possible critics. These activities help students grow their research skills.

6. Effective and engaging storytelling

When a story is told well, it can turn data, descriptions of events, and information into something exciting and engaging for an audience. Students explore how they can tell an engaging story, and make sure their audience can follow along and really imagine what the speaker is saying. These activities help students with writing skills.

 “Asking thoughtful questions is a superpower; through these activities students learn to ask questions of themselves, of their peers, and of the world around them.”

7. Fact-checking checklist

It’s important to present information in a way that is compelling — and 100% credible. Students learn how to assess what they claim and make sure it is fully credible with their own checklist based on what TED stage speakers go through with their curators. It is an important process for any event curator to know what sources a speaker used to support their claims and details in their talk. This activity helps students with critical thinking and research skills.

8. Ride the wave delivery tips

Public speaking can be nerve-racking and scary — like facing a giant incoming wave in the ocean. Students are shown how to harness the adrenaline and emotion they often feel before they step in front of an audience. The activities provide tips and tricks for students to not only overcome their fear of the approaching wave, but get up and ride it instead.

9. Using TED Talks to prepare for the stage

We believe that showcasing student ideas can bring people together, help celebrate diverse values, and create an inclusive future. And we want students to see what they can be. TED Talks from fellow students are used to illustrate concepts, help students analyze talks, and allow them to visualize themselves on stage. Students observe Anika, Ashton, Ethan, and Shreya (via both their talk video and talk transcripts) to see how they brought their idea to life on stage.

Xixi Wang

10. The talk rubric

At TED, we believe that a well-developed presentation uses communication in a clear and engaging way that puts the audience first. In order to assess if they have progressed and are successfully engaging their audience, facilitators and students are provided with our definitions for clarity, organization, impact, applicability, credibility, and delivery. The rubric allows facilitators and students to assess whether they have improved and where they might need continued improvement to share their idea the best way possible.

Thanks for celebrating 10 years of amplifying students’ ideas with us! Share this post or our website, which details our registration process, with anyone you think would be interested in helping students develop their TED-Ed Student Talks. You can also learn more about the TED-Ed Student Talks resource and registration process.

Here are some common FAQs:

Q: How much time does this process take?

A: Completing the 13 Explorations and staging the Presentations can take anywhere from 10-20 hours (15 hours is the average). This varies depending on the pace of instruction and how many Explorations the group completes. Facilitators are provided with facilitator planning pages to help think through this based on the activities and learning objectives listed.

Q: How will students engage with the resources?

A: A sample approach to student engagement is what one district calls “all -> some -> few”. In this model, all students do the first two units. Students with strong ideas and the ability to spend extra time working then move onto the last unit. We think exposure to the material can be beneficial no matter how many activities students experience so facilitators can design different ways for students to engage.

Q: How can you celebrate student ideas when they are complete?

A: We provide more details about the TED-Ed Student Talks Showcase, hosting a TEDx event, and submitting strong student talks to the TED-Ed team for review in our Exploration Extras section at the end of this guidebook. We also encourage you to dream up different ways to highlight students within your community!

Q: Can we watch other TED Talks?

A: We provide a list of additional talks to watch in the Exploration Extras section, including specific playlists of younger student videos. We also provide transcripts of the TED Talks so that students can analyze the talk script in addition to watching the talk. Each talk on TED.com has a transcript available.

Q: Is there space for student leadership?

A: Yes! Some roles students can be encouraged to do are: social media manager, photographer, video production coordinator, or Exploration leader.

Q: Can I create a TED talk too?

A: We definitely encourage educators to create talks along with their students! This can create a release of responsibility structure, as students learn from modeled behavior, practice that behavior as a group, then do so independently (e.g. share how you would complete a sentence or answer a question as a model for the students). Additionally, if you’re interested in sharing your talk on a TED stage, check out your local TEDx events or look into our TED-Ed Educator Talks program.

Interested in learning more about TED-Ed Student Talks? Check out our Student Talks page here to find out how the program works and how you can get involved.

TED-Ed

Our team has a big announcement!

Educators working with Spanish-speaking students or students learning Spanish can use our free curriculum to create TED-style Talks with their students in Spanish!

Our TED-Ed Student Talks curriculum has been a successful resource in English throughout the years, so we are thrilled to be able to offer them in another language.

How do you and other educators receive the free materials?

Go to the TED-Ed’s Spanish materials website and make sure you are registered as a TED-Ed user. Then enter your basic information about your role and organization. Lastly, click “request materials” and our team will send an email with folders of the materials.

If you have not registered for a TED-Ed account yet, you will need to do so and make sure you have selected “educator” in your TED-Ed profile.

Why do teachers love the materials so much?

When students participate in these activities they have the opportunity to:

— Identify and develop an idea they are passionate about

— Transform their idea into a compelling TED-style Talk

— Learn how to give and receive feedback

— Strengthen their public speaking and presentation skills

— Connect with other students in the program

Know an educator who might be interested?

Share our website or this document in Spanish with your network and fellow communities, such as:

1. Reach out to K-12 teachers, librarians, school principals, etc. working in schools or educational organizations and tell them about the program!

2. Share on your social media.

Note: We ask that each educator requests the resources individually to be sent to their email through our website, rather than educators forwarding the resources directly to other educators. It is helpful for us to track who has requested the resources.

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Lleva el programa Student Talks de TED a tu escuela e inspira a tus estudiantes para que desarrollen y compartan sus grandes ideas como charlas estilo TED.

El programa TED-Ed Student Talks es un plan de estudios complementario y gratuito que te ofrece actividades atractivas para que los estudiantes identifiquen, desarrollen y compartan sus ideas en la forma de charlas estilo TED. El plan de estudios ha sido utilizado por educadores y estudiantes de inglés de todo el mundo durante los últimos 7 años. Nos complace anunciar que los educadores que deseen usar el plan de estudios con sus estudiantes en español ahora pueden descargar esos recursos de forma gratuita.  Esperamos que aprendas más en nuestra página de descarga de materiales en español y que consideres compartir esto en gran medida con otros educadores que conozcas. Sigue leyendo para saber más sobre el programa y cómo puedes difundirlo.

¿Cómo recibes los materiales gratuitos?

Ve a la sección Español del sitio web de TED-Ed e ingresa información básica sobre tu rol y organización. A continuación, haz clic en “solicitar materiales” y te enviaremos un correo electrónico con las carpetas de los materiales. Debe iniciar sesión como “Educador” para ver esta página. Consulte su perfil de TED-Ed para ver su tipo de registro.

¿Por qué a los docentes les gusta tanto el programa?

Les da a los estudiantes la oportunidad de hacer lo siguiente:

— Identificar y desarrollar una idea que les apasiona

— Transformar su idea en una charla estilo TED atractiva

— Aprender a dar y recibir comentarios

— Reforzar sus capacidades para hablar en público y hacer presentaciones

— Conectarse con otros estudiantes del programa

¿Conoces a algún educador que pueda estar interesado?

Comparte nuestro sitio web con tu red de contactos y con otras comunidades. Por ejemplo:

1. Ponte en contacto con maestros de preescolar, bibliotecarios, directores de escuela, etc., que trabajan en escuelas u organizaciones educativas y cuéntales sobre el programa.

2. Comparte nuestro sitio en tus redes sociales.

Nota: Le pedimos a cada educador que solicite que se le envíen los recursos a su propio correo electrónico a través de nuestro sitio web, en lugar de que los educadores reenvíen los recursos directamente a otros educadores. Esto nos ayuda a hacer un seguimiento de quién ha solicitado los recursos.

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In the fall of 2021, TED invited leaders and educators from around the world to participate in COUNTDOWN, a global initiative to champion and accelerate solutions to the climate crisis.

JeJuan Stewart, a leader in the TED-Ed Student Talks program from Georgia, answered that call by hosting TEDxYouth@Snellville, a COUNTDOWN event in her community. JeJuan shares her experience and advice for hosting a stellar, youth-centered TEDx event that focused on the problems and solutions of the climate crisis.

Why did you decide to host a TEDx COUNTDOWN event?

Our initial ideas were to:

1. Bring Black and Brown youth together around the issue of climate change

2. Expose them to Black and Brown climate change activists in our community

3. Share our EAGLE 7 TED-Ed Club experience (within the TED-Ed Student Talks program) with them so interested students could join our Club for the following school year

Event lineup

Tell us about your event!

Our event took place at the Emory University School of Public Health. The location was provided by the sponsors of the Black Public Health Students at the Rollins School of Public Health and was hosted by Snellville residents Briana Boykin, non-profit founder and former member of Black Public Health Students at Emory RSPH, and Joshua Stewart, who performed spoken word during the event.

Talks were given by several climate change community activists, including three Black founders of organizations:

1. Environmental justice activist and founder of Millennials 4 Environmental Justice Diamond Spratling spoke about the wonders of the environment

2. Environmental educator and organizer of Black Birders Week Sheridan Alford spoke about birds as an indicator species to the environment

3. STEM educator and leader Horace Buddoo spoke about why K-12 education is our best hope for action on our climate dilemma

4. Health scientist from Michigan Public Health Sabina Emerenini spoke about cardiovascular disease, environmental health and her experience as a Black woman

5. Founders of BLKHLTH Matthew McCurdy and Khadijah Ameen spoke about how environmental justice is racial health justice

6. Program Director of Eagles Educational Services/SFAYC John Reed spoke about carbon footprints and teens
   

7. Head of the Chad Livsey Project Chad Livsey spoke about community activism and his passion for maintaining clean communities through conducting Pop-Up environmental clean ups throughout Metro-Atlanta

Before the event, I spoke to each one of our speakers about their topic and determined how and if they would be relatable to high school students. I encouraged them to consider approaching their work from the position of empowering students. What would they say to their younger selves? How do they see youth impacting climate change?

TEDxYouth Countdown

How was your TED-Ed Student Talks group involved?

Our EAGLE 7 TED-Ed Club Students were involved in the promotion through social media for the event. They assisted with registration, set-up, and sponsored tables throughout the event. They earned volunteer hours for their time. Through supporting this event, they have a better idea of what to expect in the future, as well as ideas to help them design their own Talks for the Spring event.

What was the greatest success of the event?

Seeing everyone engaged and excited about the content. We also had break out discussions for everyone to meet each other and speak with the sponsors at their tables. Most of the after-event comments were centered around how we can continue the dialog and engage even more youth in the conversation for future events.

Why is it important for educators to be involved with the climate crisis

Educators are a critical component to this because they can bring balance and wisdom to the table by the way they facilitate discussions and enable youth to develop into the servant-leaders they can be.

Annisa Morgan of Dollarsat10

What advice do you have for someone interested in hosting a TEDxYouth event?

For those of you who want to step in to the experience of hosting a TEDxYouth event, I offer these words of advice:

1. Plan early. Give yourself time to review the links and supports that are available on the TEDx site. There are so many resources, chats, and videos to help you.

2. Create a planning team and delegate the tasks. Use a project managing system to help you keep up with communications between team members (IE Slack, Asana)

3. Connect with local TEDx organizers in your community. They can be a huge support for speakers, logistics, sponsors, and more!

4. Pay for videographer, editing services, and marketing services if you are able to! Alternatively, if you have access to a school with an audio/visual instructor that can provide you with student assistants for the event, it can be like a great “On-the-Job-Training” experience for them.  It will allow them to earn credits for school, volunteer hours, and experience for their portfolios.

5. Have speakers sign their paperwork prior to the event. (Ideally, during the 1st meeting!)

6. Enjoy the journey. Have a sense of humor and stay humble. Your patience will be tested and once you get the first TEDx event completed, take a deep breath and pause. Because believe it or not, you may find yourself applying to do another!

Interested in learning more? Check out TED-Ed Student Talks Program, COUNTDOWN, and how to host a TEDxYouth Event.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

JeJuan D. Stewart is entrepreneur, parent coach, community leader, STEAM advocate, and a retired anesthetist of Snellville, GA. As the CEO of EAGLE 7 Consulting, she is committed to empowering all to give, lead and excel through servant-leadership development and training. EAGLE 7 TED Ed Club was started in 2014 in an effort to empower youth voices and provide access to underrepresented students of color to TED Ed Clubs.

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A South Texas school district is inspiring student voices by utilizing the TED-Ed Student Talks curriculum in all their 6th grade writing classrooms.

Here, educator Corinne Spellane discusses how they incorporated the program into the ELA curriculum, and how it helped students find their passion, organize their ideas, build their confidence, and share their own TED-style Talks.

Los Cuates Middle School 2020 showcase

Check out Los Cuates Middle School’s showcase promo and their 2020 Talk showcase.

Rolling out the program

It all started with the little ones! Several of our feeder elementary schools have established TED-Ed Clubs in their after-school programs. When we saw and heard what these kiddos were capable of, we knew we had to help it grow. We decided to start with 6th grade students so that they could rely upon their elementary TED-Ed Club experience.

In Los Fresnos, we provide middle school students with a separate writing class. Preparing for a speech involves organization akin to that required in writing essays and compositions. Therefore it just seemed natural to incorporate the TED-Ed Student Talks curriculum in the writing classes. It was such a treat to watch their ideas snowball from their experience in elementary school!

Making it work in the classroom

The 6th grade ELA department is a pioneering group of eager educators willing to try innovative approaches to give students a voice and strengthen their writing skills. We began by eagerly sifting through the TED-Ed Student Talks Guidebook and other TED-Ed resources. We then reviewed the district’s pacing guide and important dates to establish a basic schedule for the project. Teachers continually shared their feedback and we adjusted accordingly. Once the timeline was established, we set non-negotiable goals and checkpoints to ensure students had adequate time to complete and share their Talks. Teachers had a wide range of negotiable items that allowed them the freedom to make personal and classroom adjustments.

We really had to evaluate our timeline and make the necessary adjustments sometimes on a class-by-class basis. For one class in particular, we noticed that the kids’ passions from Activity 3 in the Guidebook changed after they’d gone through Exploration. This most likely was due to the time and opportunity to think, reflect, and watch more Talks. When they got to the “What are my great ideas?” activity, students found that their passions had evolved. We realized that students need more time to talk out their ideas and reflect on what they truly wanted to say.

Liberty Memorial Middle School

One of my favorites was a student who originally identified her passion as “Raising Show Cattle for Future Farmers of America.” After some extended conversation, she eventually discovered that her “great idea” was actually about her feeling of empowerment when showing animals well over a thousand pounds. Her Talk then shifted to the idea of “Girl Power in the Show Ring.”

Additionally, for Exploration 7 around researching the idea, many of the teachers recommended the use of laptops or computer lab time to help with the research process and teachers provided ample class time for research. Some teachers also encouraged students to continue the research process at home. In many cases, students chose to continue their work beyond class time because it was so interesting to them.

Supporting educators

Teachers need patience, flexibility, and time! For some of the activities teachers asked me to join them. It was helpful to have an additional adult in the room to aid the students during specific parts of the process. This was important especially at the beginning when students were coming up with ideas.

My favorite part was watching this process evolve across the three different middle schools. Teachers were able to share and collaborate on their challenges and success while still adding their personal teaching styles. Our group of teachers tried to come together regularly, so that could share our experiences as facilitators, but it was difficult. Fortunately, every middle school had a team of two teachers that were able to collaborate. In the future, it would be very beneficial to have regularly scheduled meetings between the facilitators, and a forum of some kind where teachers could post ideas and suggestions.

Utilizing the Student Talks curriculum

The Student Talks Guidebook was the cornerstone of our timeline. We also watched tons of TED Talks and TEDx Talks to help us through the process. Some of our favorites were: how to grow from underdog to basketball and social media icon, school strike for climate, and the danger of a single story.

Once I gathered all of the materials, we came together to develop our timeline. I first reviewed Idea Book and materials, then worked with teachers to create a timeline and list of resources, which can be seen here: TED Talk Passion Project and Showcase.

The TED-Ed curriculum provides the common core standards, which we don’t use in Texas. But, it was easy to match the activities provided in the Idea Book with our Texas curriculum standards. For example, one Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills standard states, “develop drafts into a focused, structured, and coherent piece of writing by: organizing with purposeful structure, including an introduction, transitions, coherence within and across paragraphs, and a conclusion.” Similarly, the “Discover” section of the TED-Ed Student Talks Idea Journal guides the students through the brainstorming and organizing process in a new and fun way! It was easy to tag our standards with this activity. The kids really didn’t see it as work and it was almost as if we tricked them into writing an essay because they were developing their Talk.

Developing a throughline activity at Liberty Memorial Middle School

Some parting advice

I recommend that teachers work through the student guide book themselves first to develop their own Talks. If you are able to participate in TED Masterclass that would be even better! Having the experience first really helps you to understand the process and be able to assist your students. Be patient and expect your students to struggle, as this process is challenging and a novel concept for most kids.

Chances are, if you clicked on this article, you’re young and and you’re itching for a change. Maybe you noticed that your local homeless shelter is underfunded. Maybe your school isn’t accessible for differently abled individuals. Whatever it is, you think something isn’t right and you want to do something about it. Well, you’re in luck! Just because you’re young doesn’t mean you can’t make a difference. From one student to another, here are a few suggested ways to make a change:

Start your own project. Sometimes, it’s as simple as that; if you see something you want to change, do something about it! For example, if your local library is closing due to underuse and you want to revive it, you could write to your local politician or bring it up at a town hall meeting. Or, if you’re like grade 12 students Miranda Wang and Jeanny Yao, who found plastic to be useful yet harmful to the environment, you might go in search of a new bacteria to biodegrade plastic. Want to learn more about what they did? Check out their TED Talk! Worried about finding the resources — money, human or otherwise — to make your project happen? Don’t worry. You just need to reach out and ask others; you’ll be surprised at how willing people are to help youth improve the community.

Join an existing project. If you are interested in making a specific change, it’s possible that others may be too. In that case, if you find a common thread — or find that an aspect of what they do aligns with what you want to do — you might want to join them! Remember, there is power in numbers and the sum is greater than its parts.

Make personal changes. Explicitly working on a project isn’t the only way to make change; even small personal lifestyle changes can add up. Let’s say, for example, that you are passionate about sustainability and the environment. You might decide to become more environmentally friendly and practice more mindful consumption. In daily life, for example, that could mean that you start to bike or carpool, to thrift your clothes instead of buying them, and to simply buy less stuff. We all have limited resources, so how can we use our resources to help others the most? It’s important to remember that you don’t necessarily have to sacrifice everything in order to make an impact. For example, Giving What We Can (GWWC) is an altruistic organization whose members pledge to give 10% of their income to effective charities. Founded at Oxford University in 2009 by moral philosopher Toby Ord, the premise of GWWC is exactly that — giving what we can.

Research to learn. When you want to make the world a better place, it’s important to learn about the world itself and the problems it faces. So, what better way is there to learn than through research? Whether it’s a quick Google search, a trip to a library, or an interview with locals, research is often a critical step in deciding which problem to solve next and how.

Empower others and spread the word. To expand your reach, you need to build awareness about your cause. This has a multiplier effect, because the people you influence can in term persuade others to act as well. For example, when Tavi Gevinson was fifteen years old, she had a hard time finding strong female, teenage role models — so she built a space where they could find and empower each other. You can learn more about what she did by watching her TED Talk.

There are plenty of ways to take action and make a change. What will you do?

To see more examples of how other passionate Club Members are improving their community and taking action around the world, check out this playlist on the TED-Ed Clubs YouTube channel!

Author bio: Sarina Wong is 17 years old and attends high school at the University of Toronto Schools, in Toronto, Canada. Sarina is a self-described bibliophile, and has her heart set on reading no fewer than 200 books this year alone! Sarina is also the founder of her school’s TED-Ed Club, which she started out of a passion for social justice and social change. 

You probably know what receiving bad and unhelpful feedback feels like. It’s easy to recognize because it’s usually one of the following:

Infuriating. You put a ton of work into something, expected to knock people off their feet, and instead you get blank stares.
Confusing. It’s obvious that the person giving the feedback doesn’t like something you did, but impossible to tell what that thing might be or how you might fix it.
Fluffy. These are comments that feel nice, but don’t help you grow or get any better.
Just plain mean.

Fortunately, TED-Ed Clubs has developed guidelines for giving honest, effective feedback on a talk. Try these tips the next time you’re asked to give feedback:

Get in the gift-giving mindset. Know that warm, fuzzy feeling you get when you give someone a present and know they’re really going to like it or get a lot of use out of it? Think of giving feedback on a Club Member’s talk as a gift to someone you really want to help. This mindset will help you set the stage with generosity.

Make a feedback sandwich. People hear constructive feedback SO much better after they’ve gotten a little bit of love. When you give feedback on a talk, have the first piece of bread be something that worked, then share something that could work better, then top off the sandwich with another piece of compliment bread! (Anyone else hungry?)

Try the Playing Card Method©. Know that deck of playing cards in your junk drawer? Well, it can teach you a whole new feedback language!

The learning wizards at LifeLabs New York have come up with a way to divide feedback into four categories:

Hearts: Heart feedback is positive but unspecific (ex. “Sam’s intro is great!”)
Diamonds: Diamond feedback is positive and valuable, because it is specific (ex. “Sam’s opening story about pizzacat caught my attention right away and built up suspense that got me excited for the rest of his talk.”)
Clubs: Negative and unspecific, this kind of feedback clubs someone over the head and just hurts (ex. “I didn’t like the part about Widget World because it didn’t make sense.”)
Spades: Just like the little shovels they’re named after, spades can help people dig themselves out of a hole. This feedback may be negative, but also specific, which makes it helpful (ex. “I was a little confused by the part about Widget World and wonder if Sam could explain a bit more about the snack incident, especially since his talk is about how WW made him afraid of popcorn forever.”)

When you’re offering feedback, try to give diamonds and spades, rather than hearts and clubs. That kind of feedback will make it easiest for people to repeat the stuff that’s working and decrease the stuff that’s not!

Author bio: Ashley Kolaya manages the TED-Ed Clubs program. The TED-Ed Clubs program supports students in discovering, exploring and presenting their big ideas in the form of short, TED-style talks. In TED-Ed Clubs, students work together to discuss and celebrate creative solutions to problems worth solving. Students also receive TED-Ed’s flexible public speaking curriculum to guide their club and to help inspire the next generation of leaders. To learn more about TED-Ed Clubs, go here: ed.ted.com/clubs.

Sophie Hayssen is a student from New York City and an intern at Clover Letter. After attending TED-Ed Weekend, she wrote about the event. Read Sophie’s letter below:

After years of watching TED videos, I have accumulated many favorite talks whose lessons have stuck with me and changed the way I perceived the world. However, at TED-Ed Weekend, the experience of seeing TED Talks live and by people my own age was more visceral and inspiring than anything I had seen onscreen. In our second workshop of the day, my group was asked to describe what TED meant to them. As one of the few attendees who was not a member of a TED-Ed Club, the Saturday conference was the only experience I had with TED IRL. I thought about the answer to my workshop leader’s question, and asked myself why those morning talks had moved me so much.

I am exposed to ideas daily from interactions with teachers, parents, friends; but what makes some forms of communication more meaningful than others? The best answer I could come up with was that while many of us young people have interesting — or even world-changing — ideas, it can be challenging to express those ideas in ways that effectively reach other people. It’s hard to convey feeling through something as concrete and limited as language, but this is where most of the TED-Ed Weekend talks excelled. Because the talks were so carefully considered and geared toward the audience, I found myself getting excited about topics I had very little knowledge of, or didn’t even know existed before the conference. Even more impressive was how the topics ranged so widely from the importance of loving your natural hair to the benefits of solar energy.

In addition to TED’s power to help students articulate and organize their ideas, TED offers students a unique platform to share their stories. I’ve heard adult after adult complain, either in news articles or in person, about how the art of listening is lost on my generation, but the TED-Ed Clubs format flies in the face of that accusation. As I watched the talks, it was really refreshing to surrender my attention completely to the speaker and not have the pressure of having to respond immediately. Instead, I could just let the talk sink in and process it on my own. This relationship between the audience and the speaker defines the TED experience as both communal and personal. That is what TED means to me.

Author bio: Sophie Hayssen is a student from New York City and an intern at Clover Letter. When she’s not studying, she spends her time wandering aimlessly through bookstores and wasting away her youth watching Netflix. You can read more of her writing here.

How might we amplify student voices around the world? At a recent TED-Ed Weekend workshop, student attendees answered this question with a challenge: start as many TED-Ed Clubs as possible! And the TED-Ed Clubs Student Voice Challenge was born.

The goal of the TED-Ed Clubs Student Voice Challenge is to start as many new TED-Ed Clubs as possible in the next 3 months — because every student has an idea worth sharing. Know someone in another class, another part of your school, a different school, an after-school program, a club, or even an online community, who might be interested in giving a talk from the TED stage? Then you’re ready to take the challenge! Here’s how to participate:

1. Tell us you are participating in the TED-Ed Clubs Student Voice Challenge by filling out this form.
2. Recruit as many people as you can who will organize students to share their voices in TED-Ed Clubs.
3. Send this link to whoever you recruit to join an orientation call about TED-Ed Clubs.

The TED-Ed Clubs program supports students in discovering, exploring and presenting their big ideas in the form of short, TED-style talks. In TED-Ed Clubs, students work together to discuss and celebrate creative solutions to problems worth solving. Students also receive TED-Ed’s flexible public speaking curriculum to guide their club and to help inspire the next generation of leaders. To learn more about TED-Ed Clubs, go here: ed.ted.com/clubs.

TED-Ed Weekend is just like the official TED conference, except for one thing: it’s dedicated to student voice.

At the June 2017 TED-Ed Weekend, thousands of people tuned in via the livestream and Facebook Live to watch students take the mic at TED Headquarters in New York City. On stage, students shared ideas about everything from ADHD and the human mind, to solar energy and ocean clean-up. Off stage, students participated in hands-on workshops about creativity, VR, and animation.

Below, meet some of the TED-Ed Weekend June 2017 student speakers on their journey from TED-Ed Clubs to TED Headquarters:

Then, watch how TED-Ed Weekend June 2017 student attendees animated playful audience reactions to TED Talks — aka That Feeling When, or TFW — using a technique called pixillation:

To learn more about the impact of TED-Ed Weekend, watch how students describe the experience of coming together from TED-Ed Clubs around the world to share ideas:

If you missed this TED-Ed Weekend, don’t worry! There will be future opportunities to get involved in amplifying student voice. Each TED-Ed Weekend event features an amazing lineup of student speakers from around the globe. In addition to sharing ideas, student attendees have the opportunity to connect with experts, learn valuable new skills, explore ideas that matter, join hands-on media and animation workshops, and form lasting friendships within the global TED student community.

Questions about how to get involved with the next TED-Ed Weekend event? Email us at tededweekends@ted.com.

~The TED-Ed Team

To learn more about how TED-Ed celebrates and amplifies student voices, or to start your own TED-Ed Club, go to ed.ted.com/clubs.

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.