St. Thomas hosted its first TEDx Talk Wednesday night, featuring eight different speakers, ranging from teachers to students to musicians, to let local educators come together and share ideas about improving education.
A TEDx Talk is a speech that focuses on a central issue. The “x” in “TEDx” denotes events held in smaller communities focused on a common issue. Each speaker had 18 minutes to divulge his or her individual ideas about re-imagining education.
Mark Salisbury, dean of the College of Education, Leadership and Counseling at St. Thomas, was the driving force behind bringing a TEDx Talk to campus.
“It struck me that the university and the education department was uniquely positioned to take a leadership role in taking a look at some of the serious issues around education, starting with this TED Talk,” Salisbury said.
Salisbury said a TEDx Talk provides the structure needed to raise awareness and make real changes.
“We recognize with education you can’t have a small group of people tell the rest of us how we need to do this,” Salisbury said. “We need to open a venue for all of these voices and taking advantage of the TED model is a way to get our ideas out in the open.”
Thomas Rademacher, 2014 teacher of the year in Minnesota and a speaker at Wednesday’s event, said he thinks the TEDx Talk exceeded expectations.
“I think the atmosphere in that room is about as cool as I’ve ever spoken in,” Rademacher said. “I’ve gotten a lot of feedback already, and it seems like the people who are here are the ones actually trying to learn things, and they are excited by the ideas that are popping out.”
St. Thomas helped connect the speakers with speech coaches over the summer to enhance their messages.
St. Thomas student Corey Kemp went to the speeches, but he had a different outlook as not only a student, but as the nephew of one of the speakers, Artika Tyner.
“I’ve really enjoyed all the speakers,” Kemp said. “I think they all have unique ideas about how to change education – things I’ve never really thought of.”
Tyner, a 2006 St. Thomas School of Law graduate, spoke on the importance of breaking through cultural barriers in education.
“I wanted to share my stories about how we were taking just a classroom and making it just a place,” Tyner said. “Tearing down the walls of the university and bringing the community in.”
Tyner said the talk is a stepping stone to take action and achieve change in the classrooms.
“TED Talks are about innovation so it brings the thinkers and dreamers together to say what the future could be and to problem solve some of the issues in our culture, which this talk has helped inspire,” Tyner said.
Luke Moe can be reached at moe95234@stthomas.edu.