TED TALK FINAL

So for my 8th and final TED talk project, i watched Ric Elias talk about his very close encounter with death. He talked about how his life flashed before his eyes, but he later goes onto talk about his reality check, and the rearranging of his priorities. I haven't had a close encounter with death, but my brother Adam's close call really had the same effect on me. While longboarding down the street behind behind our house, Adam fell. Now, he made three mistakes. First, he decided not to wear a helmet. Second, he decided to go longboarding on the steepest street he could find. Third....he fell. Bbeing an 8 year old, I didn't understand the danger. Adam had developed a blood clot right on the back of his head. The clot would have to be removed with a surgical proceedure with a fairly low survival rate. Seeing my brother roll into the room where the procedure was to be done, I couldn't help but think.... What if I never see my brother again? What about all the things I never got to ask him? These questions were pretty deep for an 8 year old boy. Yet again, I found myself looking for the small things too. Like, what would happen to playing catch in the yard? but then I looked around the room and saw Mitch.

Adam survived the surgery, but the entire situation got me thinking, "what would I have wanted to tell him if he did die?" So although he probably didn't understand it becuase of all the pain pills he was on, I told him everything I wanted and or needed to say. Now, some people you just don't know well enough to tell them what you think. But you probably want to get to know them. So I challenge you to go home, and tell your entire family what you have really think about them. For example, "Mitch, you're my twin brother and my feelings for you are like the weather in Colorado. I could hate you in the morning, and want you as my best friend my that night."
"Adam, after your accident, you've never been the same. Sports may have been taken out of your life, but no matter what we will always be your family. Whether your in Centennial Colorado, or 3 hours away in Fort Collins."

So as a recap, I challenge you to tell your brothers and sisters what you really think. If everybody knew what people thought abou them, maybe you could make somebody's day. Thank you.

TED TALK #8 Ric Elias

Ric's TED talk
While listening to Ric talk about his Plane crash, and his front row seat on flight 1549, (which landed on the Hudson River) I thought about the instense experience of when my brother Adam almost lost his life. Ric speaks about how his near-death experience changed his outlook not only on life, but also about the way he was raising his children.

While my brother laid on the hospital bed with a 7 inch gash in the back of his head, I could not help but think, "What if he died? What about all the things I would never get to tell him?" With all of these questions running through my mind, my eyes started to tear up. Not only would I not see my older brother again, but all these questions would remain un-answered.

Tying this back to Ric, he talks about how he saw his daughters 1st grade play. He speaks about how it wasn't the best piece he had ever seen, but yet he was still crying. This reminded me directly of playing soccer in my backyard with my brother after his recovery. This reality check in my life made me look directly at my priorities. Although everything that I attempt in life is important, some are more important than others. Family is always first. This is what I believe creates opportunies later in life, and also the way you treat your peers and loved ones.

To me, family is the most important thing no matter what. With absolutely no exceptions. Although most families are close and are always looking out for the best opportunities for their familty members, some arent like that. In the following video, you see a man named Flash. Flash talks about how his mother was a monster and his father wasn't around. Flash is also covered in tattoos. I personally believe that his decisions to get those tattoos were influenced by the way he was raised.

Everybody in the video clip answers the guiding question with the same answer. While being asked, "what is family to you?" they all tend to respond with, "to me, Family is very important."

Now before watching Ric speak about how his thrilling experience and the effects on him personally, afterwards I feel inspired to make my family better, and keep their best intentions in mind at all times.

TED talk #7

After watching My seventh TED talk on Mr. Arvind Gupta, I realize that many people in todays society do not have the necessities that a human being needs to survive. His talk incorporates the thought that if other meet the needs of others, He creates toys out of trash that help people learn. Living in India, Arvind realizes the stuggles that many poor families face everyday. The fact that he uses essentially trash inorder to teach science, math and basic shapes, helps the children that learn with visual techniques better then just a teacher writing and explaining what the words mean. The most break through toy he shows to me was the wool drawings. This may not sound very "breakthough" but with the 12 billion blind children in the world, this drawing pad theaches them to draw and lets them figure out the different shapes needed to create these images. This cheap tool may not only revolutionize the future for kids  with disabilities, but may also lead to the advancements so that children with disabilities can live a life extremely close to a normal kid without disabilities. growing up with friends effects by these challenges makes me think, "if only this someone had thought of this ten years ago. If only someone had looked through the trash instead of asking for more funding from the government, would kids i grew up with would have been 'normal'."

Dave Egger, TED TALK #6

After watching Dave Egger’s TED talk, the ways that he gives up his flexible hours back to the community by tutoring children who go to schools with too many kids for an hour with their teacher. He shows that if you give time for a good cause, people will give back to you too. When he talks about how his Pirate shop was actual making money because the kids were grateful for their learning experience that Dave gives them. This one-on-one learning experience has children raising their grades, and actually loving to read and write. His wish that everybody involves themselves with public schools in order to change the way children learn in not only this day and age, but the future also.    

John Hunter TED TALK #5

After listening to John Hunter talk about how the future of our world being in our children's hands, He really shows that the kids have the right ideas, but we need to teach them how generate these ideas into solutions for today’s problems. After listening to John talk, I can't help to think that personal problems get in everybody's way. While looking at the way that the United States Congress addresses the issues of our country, their politics and family matters get in the way. This is John theory, and to tests his theory, John gives his 3^rd grade classes a list of the issues. While a 40 Year old has lots of issues to interfere with his decision making, a 3^rd grade boy only takes in the facts and says what he thinks about it. The simplicity that the problems are addressed with causes the children to look at the issues with best intentions in mind. While almost everybody with power would look at a solution that they can benefit from, children do not look at their decisions on the broader scale. The future does not have as big effect on their thoughts. So I encourage you to listen to John’s TED talk and think about, “if you were to have the power to make decisions for the world, would personal issues influence you?”

Sir Ken Robinson

After listening to Sir Ken Robinson Speak about the different ways in which modern school systems take creativity out of their students, I also took away more then just what he said. I learned the best strategies in a TED talk. The best strategy that Ken uses best, is the use of comic relief. The joke that lighten the mood, yet still keep the topic very serious. this keep the audience interested while also adding a person touch into the entire speech. His topic in this particular TED talk was the ways school systems take kid's creativity, and "mold their brains" into what the teachers want instead of whats best for the student. He brings up the scenario of a dancer who couldn't sit still as a child. The unusual ways of diagnosis in which the doctor gave her intrigued Ken since instead of just giving her medication for A.D.D., the doctor turned on music and watched the end result. He saw none of this happening in school systems, and just the ordinary teaching strategies. He believes that if teachers were use other teaching strategies, that the future wouldn't look so bleak for our generation.