One of the sites I frequent often is posting new videos this week, as the TED conference for 2009 is happening right now. Yesterday I was talking with Andy Pai from our Coaching Education Program department, and realized he did not know of this website, which I share at every CAP, IMPACT , Webinar, or clinic I teach at since the TED.com site inception years ago. So today, I simply want to say,
Go browse it.
You will hopefully get lost in the options and ideas, get inspired and learn - as each remarkable presenter speaks for their maximum 20 minutes on whatever topic they are covering.
My favorite is Sir Ken Robinson, called "Do Schools Kill Creativity?"
It is humorous, brilliant and applies to our entire sports pipeline, not just schools. Take 20 minutes and watch this as soon as you can, if you have not seen it yet. When he speaks of Sirena, it is an 11 year old violinist who can be seen in the clip.
The one that may help others learn of TED and the ideas therein, is this week's Bill Gates speech.
The former founder of Microsoft talks first about his Foundation's new work on eradicating malaria, and brings the point home by releasing a bunch of mosquitoes into the audience as "there's no reason only poor people should have the experience,” Then, at exactly eight minutes into the clip, he asks "How Do You Make a Teacher Great?"... Some very interesting facts come to light - including (at about 12 min) that after three years of teaching, their teaching quality does not vary. Overwhelmingly it is your past performance that determines teaching quality. Knowledge Is Power (KIP) Charter Schools are covered on how they make teaching better - ideas which transfer to sport in its dynamic environment - setting the right tone and involving everyone. What these great teacher development schools are doing is found in a book called Work Hard, Be Nice, and Gates said he will send everyone attending TED a free copy of the book - I guess that is today's purchase...
Amazingly, Teacher improvement data has been blocked in New York from being used in teach evaluations...Sharing great courses can be shared by online video and DVD, which is exactly what we are working on at USAV for coaching education...This summer you will find some of these great ideas coming to life online when the USAV/NFHS/AVCA project is finished and available for all. For now, it is off to Washington DC to do a clinic with Stacy Sykora and Tom Hogan, including some economically disadvantaged program outreach there as part of growing the game...