TED-Ed Club Meeting #1

A few weeks back, I heard about this new TED-Ed Discussion Club program being piloted by the TED-Ed folks.  Because I've seen quite a few great things coming from the TED-Ed folks (love their literary analysis cartoons!), I told them I was interested in piloting a club here at WO.

During the meetings, led by a different student each week, club members discuss a TED Talk chosen by the club leader for that day.  My student co-facilitator extraordinaire, Michael Sandoval, agreed to help me kick things off, co-host meetings, and drum up interest.

Today, we held our first meeting.  To help get kids interested, I used pizza as bribery an incentive.  Surprise: the pizza was well-received!  Ten kids showed up, and we viewed this video about curiosity.  Then, we all introduced ourselves and created Alphabetical Awesomeness lists.  I gave them an idea of what each club meeting would look like, and Michael showed them this TED Talk that he particularly liked.  We briefly discussed that TED Talk, but many kids were hesitant to join in the discussion.  I hope this improves, but it's certainly understandable.  There were a few freshmen who may have scared off the upperclassmen with their, um... high enthusiasm, but hey... different strokes.  I'll be asking the social studies department to help me get kids interested in joining the fun next week.  Looking forward to what future meetings look like!