Imagine a room full of people, and the first words our teacher Ms. Banerjee said: “This is a family and a safe space.” Our TED Ed club was like none other, it paved a path for many young kids to success. Here is the story of how our voices became one.
It all started when Ms. B. asked us to just come up to the front of the room and give a TED-style talk. She wanted to know a little more about us through our experiences. But we all learned a little bit that first day.
Our first 3 months went just like that — she gave us sheets of paper and activities that helped us learn about ourselves and others to build up what ideas we might have. Soon after, she gave us our notebooks said, “You have to write whatever you think about. I don’t want to see only a few pages filled out by the end of this club. I want you to be asking for another one.”
From then on, we recorded everything in our notebooks, whatever came to mind: questions, answers, experiences, memories, and of course, more activities.
We consistently had a couple of guest speakers throughout the club. They told us stories and inspired us to only talk about what we are passionate about, to not take ideas from other people, but to come up with our own and be proud of them because every idea is amazing and needs to be talked about. So when Ms. B. asked us to write down whatever ideas came to mind, some of us may have only written 5 while others wrote 30. But it didn’t matter how many we wrote, only that we wrote what we were passionate about.
Ms. B. was always kind to us, always bringing our notebooks for us, our explorations, and even snacks! She always wanted us to be prepared to focus entirely on the task at hand and nothing else. But she was also extremely supportive, and that made us feel comfortable. She always says that she will support us all the way until our TED talk because she believes in us.
Once we had written our scripts after we finalized our ideas, we shared our TED talks out to the class, and while we were sharing our TED talks, everyone realized how someone can see another through the idea they pick, even if they don’t have a story to go along with it.
Days later, we found ourselves sitting in the cafeteria of Clarke Middle School, ready and prepared to give our talks.
Our club was not just a team, it was a family, and everyone was supported. Their ideas might have not been too relevant to the world, but they were relevant to themselves and others around them. But the people around us, our teacher, believed our club was a safe, calm, beautiful place, and they were right. Our club impacted everyone in so many different ways, for some, it might have been to gain confidence, for others, public speaking, or even working on speech. And some may not join next year, but our club will always remain as a family, and we cannot wait to see what will happen next.
Myra Luharuka is a rising 7th grader at Clarke Middle School
Kudos to Ms. Banerjee for her dedication and commitment. Reading this article felt like being in her class. The impact of her mentorship is clearly reflected. Let the club keep rolling with more interesting activities!