- Passion
- Work
- Good (be good at what you do)
- Focus
- Push (pushing oneself)
- Serve
- Ideas
- Persist
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
TED Talk #8: Richard St. Johns 8 Secrets of Success
To begin the video, the speaker gave meaning to why he chose to speak about the topic: "What leads to success"? He explains that on a trip to a previous TED convention, he met a poor, high school girl on a plane who asked him the exact question. In his quest to answer this question, St. John interviewed over 500 successful people over a span of seven years and came up with some points. Here are his 8 points:
Monday, May 2, 2011
TED Talk #7: Adora Svitak
When the video first started, I was very surprised to see a kid standing on the stage starting to deliver her message. I have to admit that there was some prejudice in me at first in tems of me thinking that this video was going to be unprofessional. The message that was impressed upon me was quite the oppoite, though.
The first thing that Svitak did was very clever. She used ugly-seeming things and events (sometimes humerous i.e. George Bush) that adults are responsible for and the good things (Anne Frank and other good actions by children) that children are responsible for to prove the word childish can be obscelete. With this, Svitak makes the point that the word childish, a word associated with age discrimination and irrational thinking, should be abolished. After this, she did something that I thought was interesting. She brought up the point some of the irrational thinking that children can produce could be important for the world. To put this in context, she explains that the same grand ideas in children and adults are easier for children to see happening because they are not hampered by the idea that "it's impossible" or "it costs too much". She also brought up another point of how education can hamper ones dreams for the future. For example, a child might have the aspiration that no one go hungry but an adult may see how this has failed in the past and dismiss the idea. A major point that Svitak brought up after this is how she thinks that learning should be reciprical through teacher and student but the reality is that, right now, it doesn't work due to a lack of trust. An example given is that she thinks that some rules could be made by both kids and adults if the trust is there. To finish off her speech, Svitak makes the point that progress happens through generations building upon eachother. For this reason, she says, it is imperative that adults give children the opportunities to make new strives and "blow them away". Throughout the video, Svitak was very organized and precise with her speaking. This let her drive her point home with efficiency. Another thing that I noticed was that she built in time for the audience to react to statements. I was blown away by that aspect because that tactic is used by the best of speakers (Star Jones) and she completed it to perfection. Overall, this video was very impacting upon me. I don't know whether it was the comfortablity of a child giving the speech or the way it was given that did such a good job on making an impact upon me.
The first thing that Svitak did was very clever. She used ugly-seeming things and events (sometimes humerous i.e. George Bush) that adults are responsible for and the good things (Anne Frank and other good actions by children) that children are responsible for to prove the word childish can be obscelete. With this, Svitak makes the point that the word childish, a word associated with age discrimination and irrational thinking, should be abolished. After this, she did something that I thought was interesting. She brought up the point some of the irrational thinking that children can produce could be important for the world. To put this in context, she explains that the same grand ideas in children and adults are easier for children to see happening because they are not hampered by the idea that "it's impossible" or "it costs too much". She also brought up another point of how education can hamper ones dreams for the future. For example, a child might have the aspiration that no one go hungry but an adult may see how this has failed in the past and dismiss the idea. A major point that Svitak brought up after this is how she thinks that learning should be reciprical through teacher and student but the reality is that, right now, it doesn't work due to a lack of trust. An example given is that she thinks that some rules could be made by both kids and adults if the trust is there. To finish off her speech, Svitak makes the point that progress happens through generations building upon eachother. For this reason, she says, it is imperative that adults give children the opportunities to make new strives and "blow them away". Throughout the video, Svitak was very organized and precise with her speaking. This let her drive her point home with efficiency. Another thing that I noticed was that she built in time for the audience to react to statements. I was blown away by that aspect because that tactic is used by the best of speakers (Star Jones) and she completed it to perfection. Overall, this video was very impacting upon me. I don't know whether it was the comfortablity of a child giving the speech or the way it was given that did such a good job on making an impact upon me.
TED Talk #6: Dave Eggers
To begin the speech, the speaker introduces the topic of the necesity of one on one attention for students when there is no way for each teacher to do this. I noticed as he was introducing this that he was very loose and casual with his posture and speech. To try to solve this problem, the speaker and some other people took an open store and converted it to a publishing/tudoring/retail store named 826 Valencia.
To get the rent to support the store, the front room was converted into a pirate shop with items such as peg legs eye patches and replacement eye balls. I thought this was a very good idea because from my point of view, I would rather walk into a tudoring store with pirate goodies than a very formal office space with tudors. With this store, children could come in after school and get help from writers, editors, and authors serving as tudor. With the children doing their homework at the store with the converted tudors, it provides a gap between television and other activities that the speaker says is important to not combine homework with. The store also lets students write stories to possibly put in stories. They found that the motivation of kids to get their stories in books can help them get interested in learning. One thing that I thought was interesting is how the idea of a joint tudoring/retail store can spred from San Franciso all the way to Brooklyn, NY with the similar idea of a retail store with goodies (i.e. superhero item store).
To wrap up the speech, the speaker talks about how we need to share our ideas with the world and get things out there as what we think could make a large impact. Overall, I thought that Eggers had an excellent message. I loved how he used creativity to bring together children and the writing community together for a good purpose of teaching students. The use of hand gestures were good because, for some reason, it helped tie me in to the speech. With that said, I wish that he would have been more fluid with his talking as he was spastic in his talking and very choppy with his message.
To get the rent to support the store, the front room was converted into a pirate shop with items such as peg legs eye patches and replacement eye balls. I thought this was a very good idea because from my point of view, I would rather walk into a tudoring store with pirate goodies than a very formal office space with tudors. With this store, children could come in after school and get help from writers, editors, and authors serving as tudor. With the children doing their homework at the store with the converted tudors, it provides a gap between television and other activities that the speaker says is important to not combine homework with. The store also lets students write stories to possibly put in stories. They found that the motivation of kids to get their stories in books can help them get interested in learning. One thing that I thought was interesting is how the idea of a joint tudoring/retail store can spred from San Franciso all the way to Brooklyn, NY with the similar idea of a retail store with goodies (i.e. superhero item store).
To wrap up the speech, the speaker talks about how we need to share our ideas with the world and get things out there as what we think could make a large impact. Overall, I thought that Eggers had an excellent message. I loved how he used creativity to bring together children and the writing community together for a good purpose of teaching students. The use of hand gestures were good because, for some reason, it helped tie me in to the speech. With that said, I wish that he would have been more fluid with his talking as he was spastic in his talking and very choppy with his message.
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