15 Inspirational TED Talks for Teachers

Sometimes, 20 minutes is all you need for a motivation boost.

TED Talks were created for this purpose—to give busy people an opportunity to learn, recharge and get inspired with new ideas and strategies. Educators are particularly fortunate, with many effective talks dedicated to identifying common professional challenges and how to address them.

From rethinking creativity to tackling systemic inequalities, these 15 TED Talks feature expert speakers who understand what educators face every day. Viewers walk away with new concepts to explore, ideas to brainstorm and a classroom full of students ready to engage.

Listen on a commute, during your morning routine, while making dinner or any other time you find 20 minutes to spare.

The Danger of a Single Story

Speaker: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Length: 19 minutes, 16 seconds

Renowned writer and speaker Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie discusses growing up in Nigeria and her experience reading books with scenes and characters that did not represent her life. Instead, the books available represented foreign, typically British, characters. She explains in this speech how discovering African writers changed her view on what characters could be. When she moved to the United States, she experienced Americans’ singular experience with Africa and how sharing only one story does not provide all the information needed to understand big, layered cultures.

Do Schools Kill Creativity?

Speaker: Ken Robinson
Length: 19 minutes, 11 seconds

Since this TED Talk debuted in 2006, it has hit a nerve, becoming the most-watched TED Talk of all time. And in these few minutes, viewers understand why. Ken Robinson discusses how education runs deep in people, but we are educated out of our creative capacities. He argues the necessity of injecting creativity into schools and how doing so can transform learning.

Every Kid Needs a Champion 

Speaker: Rita Pierson
Length: Seven minutes, 34 seconds

A Rutgers Alternate Route favorite, Rita Pierson discusses the necessity of every child having someone in their corner and the importance of teachers investing in relationships. Pierson believes human connection is key to successful student outcomes and shares how teachers can lead with humility and care.

Help for Kids the Education System Ignores

Speaker: Victor Rios
Length: 11 minutes, 53 seconds

The school-to-prison pipeline is a way to describe how systems and limited resources set at-risk youth up to fail, which can often lead to criminal activity and incarceration. Victor Rios was part of that pipeline, incarcerated in juvenile detention three times by 15. He didn’t believe he would make it to 18 years old—until he had a teacher who listened to his story and honored his family and culture. Rios used that encouragement as a launching pad to graduate high school, earn a Ph.D and is now teaching as a MacArthur Foundation Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

How to Fix a Broken School? Lead Fearlessly, Love Hard

Speaker: Linda Cliatt-Wayman
Length: 17 minutes, 7 seconds

For 20 years, Linda Cliatt-Wayman worked at low-income, low-performing schools in Philadelphia and found a culture of fear amongst students and teachers. As a school principal, Cliatt-Wayman shares how low-income schools are often not treated as schools, giving that fear space to grow and take over. She shares how she found success by developing a leadership team and creating an actionable list, like resetting lockers, adding more color in the hallways and removing outdated materials.

Teach Teachers How to Create Magic

Speaker: Christopher Emdin
Length: 6 minutes, 54 seconds

Teachers want to be effective in the classroom, but, according to Christopher Emdin, have been too removed from storytelling. He uses an example of a sermon within a Black church, with the pastor enthusiastically engaging with the congregation, and them engaging back, as an example of the magic that connects students with what they are learning.

Math Class Needs a Makeover

Speaker: Dan Meyer
Length: 15 minutes, 48 seconds

Dan Meyer’s job is to sell a product to a market that doesn’t want it, but he says he is “forced by law to buy it.” He’s talking about math and how the U.S. education system perpetuates false attitudes about the subject. We often give students problems and focus on the answer rather than the journey to get there. Meyer puts emphasis on this journey to help build stronger critical thinking skills and better math retention.

The Myth of Average

Speaker: Todd Rose
Length: 18 minutes, 26 seconds

An Air Force researcher proved 60 years ago that one-size-fits-all models don’t work for pilots and their cockpits. The same goes for schools, according to Harvard faculty member Todd Rose, who uses this example to compare it with how education is structured. Rose argues that when you try to cater to the average, you end up catering to no one, highlighting that every student has a unique learning strategy to honor and explore.

Nature Is Everywhere… We Just Need to See It

Speaker: Emma Marris
Length: 15 minutes, 52 seconds

“We are stealing nature from our children.” Emma Marris begins her TED Talk with a gut-wrenching truth. We’ve changed the chemistry of our land, soil and water, which is why, she stresses, our relationship with nature must evolve. That evolution looks at nature in every space, including bustling spaces that support many creatures, from a caterpillar in a parking lot to the squirrels in the backyard of an apartment complex.

The Power of Vulnerability 

Speaker: Brené Brown
Length: 20 minutes, 49 seconds

Now a well-known podcaster, Brené Brown holds bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in social work. Her experience and research have brought her to the forefront of the speaking circuit, with this 2011 talk digging into the sometimes-uncomfortable topic of vulnerability and how humans are hard-wired for connection. While not directly about education, strengthening connections and understanding is necessary for teacher-student success.

Reinventing the School Lunch

Speaker: Ann Cooper
Length: 19 minutes, 42 seconds

Ann Cooper oversees 7,100 meals a day and was responsible for implementing a healthier salad bar in the school cafeterias as an option for students. Cooper’s ultimate goal is to show students that health and the Earth go together and how investing in a healthy Earth contributes to healthy bodies.

Should We Let Students Use ChatGPT? 

Speaker: Natasha Berg
Length: 14 minutes, 15 seconds

AI’s rapid growth has sent educators into a ‘collective panic,’ according to Natasha Berg, who is a multimedia and technology integration specialist. She points to the internet as an example of how we had to learn to quickly evolve, while still noting that navigating AI is a challenging technological leap.

Teaching One Child at a Time

Speaker: Shukla Bose
Length: 16 minutes, 53 seconds

This TED Talk reminds us that less is more. Speaker Shukla Bose shares her experience working to bring education to slums across India, focusing on one child at a time and building from there. By getting to know the children and families one by one, Bose and her colleagues better understood the personalities and needs of each slum, enabling them to best meet the education needs. Within six years, they educated 1,100 students across 28 slums and four orphanages.

Teaching with the World Peace Game

Speaker: John Hunter
Length: 20 minutes, 27 seconds

Public school teacher John Hunter shares how he introduces fourth graders to complex geopolitical crises through executing a role-playing game. Each student serves a unique role, including a prime minister who chooses their own cabinet, as well as a ‘sabateur,’ employed as a ‘troublemaker’ who secretly tries to undermine everything in the game. How did students navigate these complex themes and new challenges? They solved global warming in a week.

Teaching Arts and Sciences Together

Speaker: Mae Jemison  
Length: 16 minutes, 18 seconds

Arts and sciences are often separated, purposely so. Speaker Mae Jemison discusses what revitalized arts and sciences frameworks would look like. Recorded in 2002, this talk is packed with messaging that is important today: arts and sciences can come together in education.

If you’re considering following your dream of teaching, Rutgers Alternate Route can offer you the support and training you need to succeed. Be sure to follow Rutgers Alternate Route on Twitter and sign up for Alternate Route’s monthly newsletter for more information and stories from the field of education.