TED-Ed Village Talks- Club Founded by Students

TED-Ed Village Talks- Club Founded by Students In December of 2017, students Vy T. and Tom N. were interested in beginning the first TED-Ed club at The Village School, so they applied with the TED-Ed Student Talks program, which allows students to initiate and apply to be an official TED organization. Over the past two years, Vy and Tom have led club meetings, recruited speakers, advised members, and organized events like the recently held TED-Ed Village Talks.

In December of 2017, students Vy T. and Tom N. were interested in beginning the first TED-Ed club at The Village School, so they applied with the TED-Ed Student Talks program, which allows students to initiate and apply to be an official TED organization. Over the past two years, Vy and Tom have led club meetings, recruited speakers, advised members and organized events like the TED-Ed Village Talks. Students Chiara F. and Jessica H. also took on leadership roles and helped to make events and meetings meaningful.

 

Through this club, students meet once a week, after school, to discuss controversial topics, pick apart effective/ non-effective public speaking styles, play games and begin thinking about talking points students feel are important to discuss on a school-wide level. In just its second year, the club has 20-25 members. At the most recent TED-Ed Village Talks event, 18 students participated, discussing a myriad of interesting topics they felt were valuable to share with peers and the community.

 

Below is a sampling of topics our students delved into.

 

Olive H. "Passion Begins with a Start"

Olive brought us out of our apathy and inspired us to take a look at our lives--What are we doing, day-to-day, to actualize our dreams and passions? What is stopping us from doing what we know we can? Life takes on a whole new meaning with that first step.

 

Akabarali A. "Words from a Wordsmith"

Published poet and well-known motivational speaker at the Village High School, Akabarali Aziz inspired all of us to find the poetry in our daily life. When we see how life can imitate art, we can find the best in ourselves.

 

Rohit A. "Perspectives"

Many of the problems we feel we are drowning in are mitigated when we take a look at the grand scheme of things. Rohit's stories and experiences gave us an opportunity to open our minds and our worlds to other perspectives in order to change our own.

 

Ida B. "Left Brain vs. Right Brain"

Ida exposed the fallacies associated with "left brain" and "right brain" learning styles. In her journey as a student in the IB program, Ida had to make difficult choices for herself. Once she freed herself from the constraints of categorized thinking, she had a much simpler time making the decisions necessary for her to be happy and successful. The impact of "left-brain vs. right brain" fallacies in education still continue today. Ida suggests they can be mitigated with the incorporation of learning styles that unite seemingly disparate subject matters, like physics and art.