TED Talks in Education

I discussed the video above in my PLN blog. It is a TED Talk from speaker Isabel Wilkerson on the issue of the Great Migration when African Americans left the South and headed to the relative prosperity of the North. In my American Survey of Literature class we have recently been discussing Toni Morrison's famous Nobel Prize winning novel Beloved, which tackles the issues of life after slavery for African Americans and the devastating effects of still being treated as though they were sub-human. As I reconsidered this video, I thought about the incredible value the discussion in this video brings to either a literature class or a history class.

As I already pointed out in my PLN blog, the modern day debate over immigration is one that often tears our country in two. Shouldn't our students be educated on it as well? In a history class, watching a video like this that tackles immigration or migration within our nation during other points in our history can help students create a solid opinion on the issue in our day and age. In a literature class, watching a video such as this and discussing the issue of immigration while reading a book like Beloved, or another work that deals with race relations in our country could make for a powerful unit, for indeed, race is often a driving factor of opinions behind whether or not we should allow immigration to the extent we do.

TED Talk videos, as I already discussed in my PLN blog, are an amazing resource, not only for teachers to learn from, but for students. I definitely recommend using TED Talks for any age group, even older Elementary students. I am excited to find ways to incorporate them into my future classroom, whether it be a high school class or a middle grade one. Check out more TED Talk videos at TED Talk History.

Video source: Isabel Wilkerson on the Great Migration, or follow the TED Talk link to see Wilkerson's and other similar videos.