Celebrating resilience
Teacher and poet Clint Smith begins his TED talk with a powerful message about the horrible realities his students face every day. He then discusses how his students’ challenged his way of thinking and made him a better person. The rest of his talk focuses on the need for all teachers to reframe what they see in their students, because what we often see as troubled kids are actually resilient, courageous and brilliant students.
Clint Smith teaches English at Parkdale High School in Prince George's County, MD. In the classroom, Mr. Smith combines his passion for poetry and justice to teach students the importance of their own stories as catalysts for meaningful social action. Outside of the classroom, he serves as the school's slam poetry coach and is the founder of Parkdale Students for Social Justice, which empowers and trains students to become community organizers. In 2013, Mr. Smith was named the Christine D. Sarbanes Teacher of the Year by the Maryland Humanities Council. He has been featured in the Washington Post and is profiled in the book, "American Teacher: Heroes in the Classroom" (Welcome Books, 2013) as one of the top 50 educators in the nation.
In addition to teaching, Mr. Smith is an Individual World Poetry Slam finalist and was a member of Washington D.C.'s 2012 & 2013 National Slam Poetry Teams. His poetry has been featured on TVOne's Verses & Flow and at the International AIDS Conference, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, and Teach For America's annual alumni conference. In 2012, Mr. Smith served as a cultural ambassador to Swaziland on behalf of the U.S. State Department where he conducted poetry workshops on HIV/AIDS prevention, cross-cultural understanding, and youth empowerment. He is an alumnus of Davidson College and New Orleans' public school system.
Run time: 11 m. 54 s
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