If you had to find time to watch one thing on the web or download and watch one video podcast, I'd hope it would be a TedTalk. TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design)is an annual conference of "inspired talks by the world's greatest thinkers and doers." It. Is. Simply. Awesome. And it's free. Every couple of days they release a past talk by some amazing person about some amazing thing. Some of the talks are great for sharing in the classroom. Some are great for personal learning.
Here's the latest video that was released. Dave Eggers talks about creating 826 Valencia, a writing center in San Francisco set up to tutor kids. It's an inspiring, creative, passionate statement by someone involved in writing, and I'm sure it's very relevant to us.
If you like what you see and decide you want to subscribe to this podcast via iTunes, then go to iTunes, do a search for TedTalks and subscribe! By the way, there's something there for everyone. There are talks from leading economists, writers, artists, performers, scientists, humanitarians, politicians (only the good ones, promise!), technological groundbreakers, and many many more.
2 comments:
I found this to be an extremely interesting and informative video, and I am happy that I took the time out of my day to watch it. The wish that, “you personally and every creative individual and organization you know- will find a way to directly engage with a public school in your area and that you’ll then tell the story of how you got involved, so that within a year we have 1,000 examples of transformative partnerships.” This message is uplifting enough to motivate anyone, mainly teachers into wanting to do a service for children, moreover than what they are doing in the classroom from day-to-day. This idea of creating a center for one-on-one tutoring is extremely beneficial to students, and has clearly demonstrated through just 826 Valencia. Just as other locations have popped up around the country, I find it tremendously necessary for them to continue to appear for the future success of our students. The fact that the centers don’t appear to look like an educational facility, and in fact are quiet fun, makes them less overbearing on students. Altogether these centers and the message are a fantastic idea for students in order to expand their knowledge in subject areas.
CCF
CCF - I really like the tone of the centers. It has the feel of the sense of humor that creative people have. It's like tongue in cheek, yet ironic, yet inclusive, yet irreverent. Or something like that.
It's also interesting to look at what cities these centers have popped up in. New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles. Cities with a strong "creative class" (a la Richard Floria).
I wonder if this sort of thing could ever happen in a library at a public school in Western New York. Too beaurocratic? Too many rules? Too many excuses "why not"?
If you think about all the human capital we have in colleges alone then something like this could become a reality. Wonder where Eggers got the original funding from.
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