Donaghey Building

Transcription

>>Cameron Brown: All right, your thirty seconds... Begins right now. >>Student: Let's confess the U.S. is a mess, we are a mess, our country, one of the richest and most successful in the world, isn't even on the top twenty list of healthiest countries. >>Student: Our TED Talk is about the fact that our country needs to step up their game and improve themselves, if we exercise or eat healthier, our country can bring themselves up to the very top of the list. >>Cameron Brown: One of the great things about using missions to teach is that students really get hooked right from the start, something that we try to make really relatable to them. I mean it's something that they can be excited about. For example, with my TED mission that we're working on right now, it's giving students a voice to give their opinion and I think at this age it's so important for students to really think about what they believe in and start to share that with people around them. >>Student: I think really the nice part about this was we were only given a general subject. We got to pick what we wanted to do inside it and I think that's the really best way to engage children, is to make sure they get to have their own input. 'Cause if they don't feel like they're having an input, they're not really interested. >>Cameron Brown: To me, my favorite part about the Quest model is that it's so grounded in skills and real-world topics that students are interested in. Using a mission throughout a trimester is a great way to not have me stand at the front of the classroom and say, you know, "Today we're gonna talk about the food pyramid." Okay, and we go through the food groups, we talk about each food group, and there's really no context for students to what that really means to them. To them it's-- you know, I find in a traditional model that's something that they would just look at on a screen, they would take their notes on it and then they would move on. But integrating the learning into a mission model that we have here at Quest is so important because we find ways to relate it to the students in their everyday life. >>One of the unique aspects of hosting this TEDx event is that the students, they really take ownership of it. Okay? So at the start of the trimester when we start to talk about possible topics and ideas that they could present about, I don't stand up at the front of the classroom and say, "Here's a list of five things. You're gonna select one and you're gonna present on it." We work through a series of lessons where students start to identify interests and passions that they have that would be related to fueling their body. >>The presentations are gonna start in a couple minutes from now? So from this point forward I want you guys to be quiet, Michelle, I want you guys to be quiet and thinking about what you're gonna be saying tonight in your presentations. You guys put in a lot of hard work and now this is the pay off, okay? So, David, Caleb, let's do well tonight, you guys are gonna do a good job, so remain in your seats, please. >>Within this model as a teacher it challenges you to be a learner as well. In a traditional classroom, you know, you can stand at the front with you textbook and this is what you have to teach. But within the Quest model there's so many moving parts and things that are changing and things you have to adapt to and as someone that's passionate about that, you know, we love to get better at what we're doing. So I think that that really piques a teacher's interest. >>And for the second year in the "Wellness" domain we are excited to be hosting TEDxQuestSchool. >>Student: I'll admit: Games are addicting. So what I believe we should do is cut down slowly. [laughter] You might want to cut five or ten minutes a day so you don't, like, come off it too quickly. [ laughter ] >>Student: And then this, like, meat is, like, all gross. [ laughter ] >>Student: I have a plan to fix this, I call it the "Ten-mile Plan," you run at least ten miles every week and that can be split up into a running, biking, or swimming. Oy, so I know what you're thinking, "I don't have enough time to run ten miles." Raise your hand if you have a TV, who has a TV? Raise your hand, oy, so if you don't have time and you have a TV, then you obviously do have time to run, like, two miles a day. >>Student: I hope we all fight for our hope and get help. [ applause ] >>Student: It was exciting to present your work to a group of people that you've never really known before, but it was nerve-wracking 'cause you didn't know what they were gonna say or react. >>Student: We were really nervous before and, like, while we were presenting. Like, we were giggling a bit, but it was really good. Like, all the attention was on us. >>Cameron Brown: To me, the most interesting part of this trimester and this mission is when the students find that topic that they're interested in and then they see this TED platform for them to voice their ideas on it. And when they get that idea and they're like, "Wow, this is cool and I'm sharing it with the world." You know, I was looking on the TED website yesterday and they're approaching their one-billionth view of their talks. So this is a massive platform and I think when the students find what it is and they start working towards being on this website, it's an amazing thing.