They say you can
take the girl out of the school, but you can’t take the school out
of the girl. So while I am officially on summer break from teaching
at Lewis and Clark Community College, I am still thinking about my
teaching. This is my first column in Ruby Magazine and I am excited
to start a new feature: TED talks club…it’s like a book club
without the guilt of having to read an entire book and the ethical
dilemma as to whether you can still participate if you’ve only read
the first chapter, Cliff notes, or nothing at all. It’s summer
after all, so let’s go easy on ourselves.
TED talks combine
two of my favorite attributes: they are INSPIRATIONAL and they are
FREE. So, just like a good bargain, I’d like to share them with my
friends at Ruby.
You’ll want to go
to www. Ted.com and look around. If you would like a little
background on this amazing site, here is a very brief one:
TED was founded in
1984 as basically a one-time event. In 1990, TED began to meet as a
yearly conference (reportedly there’s a 3 year waiting list to
simply attend this $3,000 conference). These conferences meet at
cool international locations and film the speakers to post on this
site so that we can be enriched for free. There are smaller
conferences such as TedX which can attract a more local audience…with
a shorter waiting list for attendance. I’ve heard that Maryville
University is planning one soon.
If you sign up as a
free Ted member, you can get weekly emails of new offerings. While
most lectures are 20 minutes, they have recently added shorter ones.
The first one I would like to watch together has implications for us
as women, mothers, and friends and looks at the constant process that
we engage in of self-definition. You may have seen it as it was on
Facebook in the past and can be found on YouTube here.
(Yes, certain Ted talks make it to youtube too, but I encourage you
to still visit Ted and look around.)
Then think about
these questions:
- What words do you use to describe yourself?
- Whose words are those? Yours or those that have been said about you?
- Do you like the chosen words? How often do you redefine those words?
So that’s enough
homework for now. It’s summer after all…enjoy! See you next
month with another Ted talk to check out. Ted’s slogan is “Ideas
Worth Sharing” so don’t keep it to yourself…pass it on.
Cheers.
By Elizabeth Grant
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