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TED-Ed Educator Talks

The TED-Ed Educator Talks program provides a rigorous professional learning experience to a select group of distinguished educators throughout the world. The goal? To help them develop and share their ideas as TED-style talks.

A male presenter with hands clasped, beside a screen displaying an image of a smiling horseA male presenter smiling at the audience with hands in an outstretched open gestureA female presenter looking toward the audience with a smileA pregnant presenter looking toward the audience, beside a screen displaying "TED-Ed Educator Talks"An audience applauding
A presenter giving a TED talk

Why educators?

Educators are overflowing with brilliant, resourceful, innovative, and — in all likelihood — extremely under-circulated ideas. We seek to celebrate and elevate those ideas for the sake of improving student outcomes, bettering the experience of youth & adult learners, revolutionizing education and learning practices, and transforming the education landscape as a whole.

A man describing an idea

About the TED-Ed Educator Talks program

If accepted, program participants will join a cohort of selected educators and engage in a 4–6 month* learning journey utilizing both synchronous and asynchronous modalities. The goal of the program is for educators to develop their own TED-style Talk with help from TED-Ed staff and coaches. The TED-Ed team will then work to amplify finished and approved talks.

*Timeline is subject to change.

A presenter with hand raised while speaking

Tips for ideas

We ask applicants to think deeply about specific ideas they have connected to their work, research and experience. To formulate an idea worth spreading an applicant’s idea must be new, unique, or can offer an insight or a new way of thinking to a large audience.

A TED Talk usually has a topic and an idea.

A topic is the high-level issue or subject — the general direction you want to take the talk.
E.g. Students are dealing with a lot more trauma and mental health concerns.

An idea is a specific angle that stems from the topic — a unique message, solution, or insight that only you can share.
E.g. When recurrent traumatic events happen, here is how we get students back to a place where learning can happen.

2023 selection cycle & program timeline*:

*Note that the selection cycle is subject to change through the year. Please check our website regularly for timeline updates.

Late Spring

Applications open

Summer

Application reviews, candidate consideration & selection

Fall/Winter

Educator Talks program & talk recordings

The application process

1

Application Stage 1

Submit an application form to apply or nominate an educator. The form contains open-ended questions to learn more about the applicant and their idea, along with space to share links/attachments to relevant articles, clips, etc. related to the idea.

2

Application Stage 2

Applicants chosen to move on to Stage 2 will hear from our team. Applicants will then have limited time to complete and answer prompts via recordings using a smartphone, computer, or another audio-visual recording device.

3

Application Stage 3

Applicants selected to join the program will receive an invitation from our team, instructions to join the program, and the syllabus for the 4–6 month learning journey. This year’s cohort will meet starting the Fall of 2023.

Apply here

Examples of educator ideas

11:06

3 Steps To Help Kids Process Traumatic Events | Kristen Nguyen | TED

TED-Ed Educator Talks

47,733 views

09:32

3 Skills Every Middle School Boy Needs | Jerome Hunter | TED

TED-Ed Educator Talks

42,682 views

12:33

What losing my vision taught me about access | Luis Perez

TED-Ed Educator Talks

11,008 views

15:44
10:36

How do you teach empathy? | Jonathan Juravich

TED-Ed Educator Talks

108,685 views

13:57

Educators must be more than allies | Kelly D. Holstine

TED-Ed Educator Talks

41,862 views

08:12

Making the student-educator connection a priority | Jerry Almendarez

TED-Ed Educator Talks

4,615 views

10:14

We owe all students high expectations | Shemeka Millner-Williams

TED-Ed Educator Talks

13,365 views

08:40

The overlooked art of receiving feedback | Russell Lazovick

TED-Ed Educator Talks

15,326 views

Frequently Asked Questions

We know that the field of Education is vastly complex, contextualized by location, and constantly evolving. Because of this, we believe and define “educators” as those who impact learners and may or may not be directly situated in a school setting. Therefore, for this program, we select participants who:

  • Are brilliant, values-driven, innovative leaders with demonstrated results and commitment in the field of education, human development and learning
  • Have a track record for leadership in nonprofits, for-profits, and/or schools designed to aid the learning experience & development of youth or adult learners
  • Are adept at public speaking and wish to deepen their strategic communication skills
  • Are eager to build relationships with other educators across the country and world
  • Can speak to the demographics they work with, the impact of their work, and how equity plays a role
  • Have thought deeply about their idea and have experience and data to speak to the idea
  • Are fluent in English
  • Are ages 21 or older