TED-Ed Innovative Educators, cohort four

What could education look like if every innovative voice from the classroom to the superintendent boardroom was shared and amplified globally?

The fourth cohort of TED-ED Innovative Educators and the TED-Ed Team are embarking on a mission to find out. We are extremely excited to introduce cohort four of the TED-Ed Innovative Educators program– sixteen amazing and influential leaders in education who together are setting out on a journey to improve education by elevating the most important ideas in education worldwide.

Using TED Masterclass, each TED-Ed Innovative Educator will hone in on their most important idea in education and develop it into a TED-style talk. Not only that, but they will play a vital role in catalyzing a movement to empower educators everywhere to develop, refine, and share their best ideas in education, with the ultimate goal of improving education everywhere, for every student.

Curious to see how TED Masterclass will help these inspired leaders in education amplify their ideas? So are we! We’ll be back later this year to share the evolution of their ideas as you watch them deliver their TED-style talk. Start by reading below – and stay tuned for more to come!

We asked each educator one question: if you could share one idea with every educator in the world, what would it be?

Jerry Almendarez, Superintendent, Colton Joint Unified School District, Colton, CA, USA:

“Educational inequities – identifying inequities within your own district and determining how to address them.”

Mathew Burt, Principal, Broome Senior High School, Kimberely, Cable Beach, WA, Australia:

“Celebrating and engaging Indigenous students in positive education experiences.”

Jeewan Chanicka, Superintendent of Schools, Superintendent Equity, Anti-Racism & Anti-Oppression, Toronto District School Board, Toronto, Ontario, Canada:

“The significance of understanding our personal identity as a way to improve practice and close achievement and well-being gaps in education. Who we are matters: it influences what and how we teach and which students are successful in our classrooms and schools.”

Carol Cleveland, Principal, iGrad Academy, Kent School District, Bremerton, WA, USA:

“The idea of allowing students to own their educational journey. This involves allowing students who demonstrate mastery of standards to progress through grade levels at their own pace, to select teachers whose personality and instructional style best matches their learning style and personality… to allow students to intern on jobs and move into pre-apprenticeship programs… to get a better post-secondary understanding of what career journey they want and can afford to pursue.”

Brenda Erickson, Montessori teacher and Founder & CEO of Counterpane, Counterpane Montessori School, Fayetteville, GA, USA:

“Trust the minds inside those little (and big) people!”

Greg Farrell, Principal on Special Assignment, Principal Leadership Development, York Region DSB, York, Ontario, Canada:

“He who wants for nothing has the world as their oyster…”

Jesse Jackson, Superintendent, Lake Wales Charter Schools, Lake Wales, FL, USA:

“I would share the ‘power of potential.’ The power of potential is a strategy that I have explored working with seemingly difficult or wayward teenagers. This idea requires you to relinquish preconceived notions and understandings and work with what could be ‘potential.’”

Russell Lazovick, Superintendent, Bridgewater-Raritan Regional School District, New Jersey, USA:

“Connection. Of ideas, of systems, and most importantly of people, [connection] is the most often overlooked and yet the most critical piece in determining the success of our schools.”

Shawn Loescher, Chief Executive Officer, Urban Discovery Schools, San Diego, CA, USA:

“How design thinking supports reimagining the educational experience for students, teachers, staff, schools and our communities.”

Sarah Mansfield, Assistant Head of School, St. Christopher’s School, Richmond, VA, USA:

“To cultivate a generation of 21st century learners and leaders, a culture of collaboration is essential.”

Shemeka Millner-Williams, Assistant Superintendent, Lancaster ISD, Duncanville, TX, USA:

“As the world continues to grow, change and diversify, so must the methods we utilize, the spaces we build, the resources and tools we use… We must endeavor to create critical thinkers, self-starters and problem-solvers with the ability to empathize with others in a way that forces them to work toward the common good of all humanity.”

Chris Muller, Former Superintendent, current University Lecturer and Consultant, Senior Lecturer at Education University of Hong Kong, Cape Town, South Africa:

“International schools represent a world-wide, grass roots endeavor to educate, under one roof, children of many lands and cultures by means of a curriculum that is challenging, internationally recognized, and that taps into the resources of a diverse community. [...] Such a vision requires an education that is academically rigorous while promoting values in the principles of compassion for others, virtuous behavior and the pursuit of justice and peace.”

Becky Navarre, Assistant Superintendent of STEM, Fort Worth Independent School District, Fort Worth, TX, USA:

“Build relationships first, value the individual and support others to succeed.”

Gonzalo Salazar, Superintendent, Los Fresnos CISD, Los Fresnos, Texas, USA:

“Our students come to us with funds of knowledge and a set of core values that are passed on through parents and grandparents through the “pedagogies of the home” (Dolores Delgado Bernal). [...] Storytelling can serve as a vehicle that helps students arrive at a better understanding of the self.  A better understanding of the self will empower students with the self-assurance that reveals their full potential.”

Peter Ulrich, Assistant Superintendent, Savannah-Chatham County Public School System, Savannah, GA, USA:

“I’d really like to revisit my TEDx Talk from 2016, Simple Solution of Love, about showing love for the teachers in your life.  I’d like to refine the message about the importance of recognition of our teachers in hopes of gaining a larger audience to elevate educators.”

Jill Vinson, Superintendent, Cardiff School District, San Diego, CA, USA:

“Education is a team sport.”

We look forward to seeing these ideas develop and shine through TED Masterclass, and we will share their final talks with you later this year!

Why is Vermeer’s “Girl with the Pearl Earring” considered a masterpiece? What’s so special about Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man? How did Michelangelo’s statue of David become an icon? If you’re curious about art history, then you’ll love these 6 TED-Ed Lessons by art historian James Earle. Watch the playlist:

1. Why is this painting so captivating?

On first glance, the painting “Las Meninas” (“The Maids of Honor”) might not seem terribly special, but it’s actually one of the most analyzed pieces in the history of art. Why is this painting by Diego Velazquez so captivating? James Earle and Christina Bozsik share the context and complexity behind this work of art. Watch this TED-Ed Lesson below.

2. Why is Vermeer’s “Girl with the Pearl Earring” considered a masterpiece?

Is she turning towards you or away from you? No one can agree. She’s the subject of Dutch Master Johannes Vermeer’s “Girl with the Pearl Earring,” a painting often referred to as the ‘Mona Lisa of the North.’ But what makes this painting so captivating? James Earle explains how this work represents the birth of a modern perspective on economics, politics, and love. Watch this TED-Ed Lesson below.

3. The many meanings of Michelangelo’s Statue of David

We typically experience classic works of art in a museum, stripped of their original contexts, but that serene setting can belie a tumultuous history. Take Michelangelo’s statue of David: devised as a religious symbol, adopted as a political emblem, and later iconized for its aesthetic beauty. James Earle walks us through the statue’s journey, to show how art gains layers of meaning over time. Watch this TED-Ed Lesson below.

4. Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man of math

What’s so special about Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man? With arms outstretched, the man fills the irreconcilable spaces of a circle and a square — symbolizing the Renaissance-era belief in the mutable nature of humankind. James Earle explains the geometric, religious and philosophical significance of this deceptively simple drawing. Watch this TED-Ed Lesson below.

5. Distorting Madonna in Medieval art

After Rome was destroyed, people were wary of attachment to physical beauty. As Christianity gained traction, Romans instead began to focus on the metaphysical beauty of virtue, and art began to follow suit. James Earle discusses how Medieval paintings of Madonna were affected by this shift. Watch this TED-Ed Lesson below.

6. Dissecting Botticelli’s Adoration of the Magi

The scene of the three wise men offering gifts to a newborn Jesus was widely painted during the Renaissance era, so how did painter Sandro Botticelli create a version that’s still well known today? James Earle describes who and what set Botticelli’s Adoration of the Magi apart in the annals of art history. Watch this TED-Ed Lesson below.

For more art history, watch these TED-Ed Lessons. For more ideas from James Earle, check out Amor Sciendi.

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In the third act of “Swan Lake”, the Black Swan pulls off a seemingly endless series of turns, bobbing up and down on one pointed foot and spinning around and around and around … thirty-two times. It’s one of the toughest sequences in ballet, and for those thirty seconds or so, she’s like a human top in perpetual motion. Those spectacular turns are called fouettés, which means “whipped” in French, describing the dancer’s incredible ability to whip around without stopping. Below, Arleen Sugano explains the physics of this famous ballet move.

The dancer starts the fouetté by pushing off with her foot to generate torque. But the hard part is maintaining the rotation. As she turns, friction between her pointe shoe and the floor, and somewhat between her body and the air, reduces her momentum. So how does she keep turning? Between each turn, the dancer pauses for a split second and faces the audience. Her supporting foot flattens, and then twists as it rises back onto pointe, pushing against the floor to generate a tiny amount of new torque.

At the same time, her arms sweep open to help her keep her balance. The turns are most effective if her center of gravity stays constant, and a skilled dancer will be able to keep her turning axis vertical.

The extended arms and torque-generating foot both help drive the fouetté. But the real secret and the reason you hardly notice the pause is that her other leg never stops moving. During her momentary pause, the dancer’s elevated leg straightens and moves from the front to the side, before it folds back into her knee.

By staying in motion, that leg is storing some of the momentum of the turn. When the leg comes back in towards the body, that stored momentum gets transferred back to the dancer’s body, propelling her around as she rises back onto pointe.

As the ballerina extends and retracts her leg with each turn, momentum travels back and forth between leg and body, keeping her in motion.

In Tchaikovsky’s ballet, the Black Swan is a sorceress, and her 32 captivating fouettés do seem almost supernatural. But it’s not magic that makes them possible. It’s physics.

Animation by Dancing Line Productions/TED-Ed

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Have you ever wondered how animation works? Or wanted to learn more about the art of visual storytelling? Watch our Animation Basics video series and follow your curiosity. For a great introduction to the series — plus some creative animation projects to try with kids — start with these 5 TED-Ed Lessons:

1. Animation Basics: The optical illusion of motion

How do animators make still images come to life? Are the images really moving, or are they merely an optical illusion? TED-Ed takes you behind the scenes to reveal the secret of motion in movies. Watch this TED-Ed Lesson below.

2. Animation Basics: The art of timing and spacing

Expert timing and spacing is what separates a slide show from a truly amazing animation. TED-Ed demonstrates, by manipulating various bouncing balls, how the smallest adjustments from frame to frame can make all the difference. Watch this TED-Ed Lesson below.

3. Animation Basics: Visual storytelling in action

How can animation convey complex, intangible concepts? A visual metaphor, or an idea represented through imagery, can take an idea as massive as Big Data and tie it to the familiar depiction of a growing tree. TED-Ed animators explain how to make an abstract idea come alive visually. Watch this TED-Ed Lesson below.

4. Create a pop-up book…and then bring it to life

In ‘The Pangaea Pop-up’ Lesson, animator Biljana Labovic decided the best way to illustrate moving, shifting tectonic plates was to use a physical object that could also move and shift. Here, Labovic explains how she and her team of animators created a pop-up book to visualize Pangaea — and how you can make your own. Watch this TED-Ed Lesson below.

5. Make homemade special effects

Animation is used everywhere to communicate big ideas — in movies, television, and media. Here, TED-Ed animators show just how easy (and fun) homemade special effects can be. Watch this TED-Ed Lesson below.

To learn more about ideas in animation, sign up for the weekly TED-Ed newsletter here >>