MS Academic Dean Attends TEDGlobal In Africa

Marti Lotman
Dr. Cristina James, Middle School Academic Dean, traveled to Arusha, Tanzania August 27-30th to attend TED Global, one of several TED events.

The theme for this TED event: “Builders. Truth-Tellers. Catalysts.” included a global array of TED speakers, whose talks focused on the future of Africa and ranged from a new genre of African science fiction to reviving the Arabic language with Legos. The Global conference returned to Africa this year for its 10 year anniversary.

“TEDGlobal 2017 was an important homecoming to the African continent, and a ton of work went into creating an authentic experience, from the curation of talks to the music to the graphics and stage design,” the TED Global website reads.

Dr. James says it took her close to 25 hours before she touched down in Tanzania, but the experience was well worth the jetlag! James explains that the TED talks were broken up into two sessions in the morning, followed by lunch and activities, and additional talks in the evening. 

“I met everyone from the TEDx community, including Jay Herratti, its executive director,” says James. Before the actual TED talks began, there was a day-long training that qualified TEDx organizers from all over the world to host an event for more than 100 people. James says she was inspired by presenter Elena Crescia, who hosts TEDx Sao Paulo, Brazil, who started with 200 people at her TEDx event and now has a packed soccer stadium full of interested attendees.

“The thing that really stuck with me was what Crescia said about growing your TEDx event into a bigger one: ‘Take a step in front of you and trust that the floor is going to extend beneath you to meet you.’ That’s what we’re doing here this year - we’re going to make TEDx The Benjamin School into a much bigger and more meaningful event. We're going to teach our students not just how to give talks, but how to start running the whole event,” says James.

James learned empathy for her students at the conference as well, after being asked to go up on stage in front of the entire TED conference and offer her reflections on a previous speaker's presentation and how it relates to teaching. James says that she didn't realize how much she was asking of her students until she had to go up and do this.

“I’m shrieking and my hand is shaking,” says James. At first, she says, she thought it was a wasted opportunity because the video of her speech felt embarrassing.

“Then I realized, oh my gosh this is perfect! I am going to show this to my students so that they know that everyone can mess up with public speaking and so that they trust me to help them with their talks. Because this is how you build a brave, kind classroom where people trust you. I’m going to trust you enough to allow you to watch this vulnerable moment. I hope it showed them that they shouldn’t be afraid on the big stage either. It turned out to be an amazing teaching tool.”
 
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A premier PK3 - Grade 12 independent, coeducational day school with campuses in North Palm Beach and Palm Beach Gardens. Since 1960, The Benjamin School has provided a challenging college preparatory education to a diverse student body in a structured, nurturing community environment.
 
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