It’s Friday afternoon, and the sunny classroom is quiet. One student is up front practicing her TEDx talk. Her voice starts out nervous, uncertain, but as the words roll out, her confidence grows, her voice strengthens, and passion floods the room.
I sit in a student desk, pencil in hand, ready to jot down notes – what to clarify, elaborate on, cut completely. But my mind doesn’t slip into teacher mode. Instead I marvel at where we are in this journey. What began as Dr. Walker’s idea, TEDxBattle has grown from a theme to real live student and adult speakers ready to share with the world. What a journey it’s been.
On the adult side, there have been many early morning meetings, coffee mugs clutched in our hands, bent around a couple tables in the media center, hashing out the details. Roles were assigned. Rules were read, studied, revisited. Lists were made of possible speakers – adults and students who had stories to tell. Schedules were created (and recreated), emails sent, favors asked. The Google Drive folder began filling with documents as Mrs. Pingrey and Mrs. Chipley-Foster organized our thoughts, our tasks, our speakers.
Slowly, it began to take shape. Students began meeting with Ms. Pozel and Mrs. Hairston – proposing topics, creating outlines, drafts. They met to refine their ideas, their messages, their presentation.
Then came the day when Mr. Smith walked into an early morning meeting with his laptop. “The commercial is ready,” he told us. The lights were dimmed. We all held our breath. There on the screen, shrouded in fog, were Brevinn, Lesli and Martana. Peace Frame Productions had done it – our planning and hard work seemed to solidify in that moment. TEDx Battle was real. Our strong students in our beautiful building, bringing this vision to life.
The set – with our cityscape logo, the perfect red, round rug, and the famous TEDx letters – emerged slowly and then all at once. The PAC transformed into a TEDx stage - ready for our speakers. Behind the scenes, Mr. Pingrey and the tech people worked to organize the cameras, sound, video and streaming so our class rooms, our district, our town and the world could watch.
We started making our event public – a blog post, tweets and Facebook posts, the final schedule. Mr. Leuchtmann and his students designed the amazing X poster and Ms. Smith and sent out invitations and contacted the press. Mrs. Villasana and her crew of volunteers filled swag bags, and organized all the behind-the-scenes help to make the day run smoothly. The kitchens downstairs filled the hallways with the delicious aroma of breads, scones and other delights as Ms. Baugh, Ms. Doerhoff and Ms. McGovern worked their magic.
I put my pencil down and shifted in my desk, my whole attention now focused on the speaker in front of me, sharing the obstacles she had conquered. Like Katherine overcoming the vision problems that had threatened her learning, our team had done it. We had speakers, a set, technology and a crew of volunteers ready to go. Swag bags were ready; food was being prepared; and t-shirts were in hand.
As April 22nd creeps closer and closer, I know our nerves and stress and exhaustion are there. But it’s OK. We got this. Because at Battle High School in Columbia, Missouri, we
TRANSCEND THE BLOCK.