TED+Talks

** Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity? **
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 In this video, Sir Ken Robinson focuses on how creativity should be valued more in today’s schools. Throughout the talk, he draws attention to the fact that today we view failure as an unacceptable outcome. Robinson talks about how schools in all schools the arts are viewed as less important than the other core content areas. While I agree with Robinson that intelligence is diverse, I also feel that generally accepted academic intelligence is more useful in the real world. As an aspiring musician I don’t feel that schools should totally minimize the various forms of intelligence, but I do feel they should continue to focus most of their time on academic intelligence in order to create the most productive future citizens.

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 As a teacher you work to manage the sounds of your environment on a daily basis and this video lends credence to why you need to keep doing it. In this video, Julian Treasure runs through the different ways that sound affects us. He notes that sound affects us physiologically, psychologically, cognitively and behaviorally. Recently, I had a fourth grade student ask me why teachers were always getting on student to keep their volumes down. After hearing the question the first thing I was able to do was to show the video to my class. The students were amazed by the loss of productivity when there were undesired sounds present. This video draws attention to interesting facts and can also be used as a wonderful teaching tool for students.

= = =** Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry demo SixthSense **= = media type="custom" key="14807982" =

In this video it is clear to see that our future will feature amazing inventions. As a future educator the SixthSense device could offer virtually endless instructional possibilities in the classroom. This type of device would allow all schools to implement valuable technological instruction without the financial burdens or space limitations. The seamless access to so much information will help make all who use it more informed decision makers. After watching the video I have a hard time not drooling over the endless possibilities that this device could offer our world.

Tony Robbins asks why we do what we do media type="custom" key="16414332"

Over the years I have been leery of motivational speakers, so I was a little hesitant to watch this video, but it was amazingly insightful. The most important thing that I took from this video is the idea that decision is really the ultimate power. As an educator this is something that I want to impart on my students. I want my students to that they can make many choices throughout life that can ensure a successful life. After watching this video I now know that I want to nurture my students so that they can grow and give back to their world. I feel that by imploring and allowing my students to grow that I will arm them to make decisions that will change the world.