TED Community » Sharon Turner

More About Me

I'm passionate about

people from all walks of life, art, physics, cosmology, languages, travel, books and ideas.

An idea worth spreading

is understanding the importance of silence. While living in Japan, I learnt an extremely valuable and sometimes excruciating lesson of listening to the silence. When I first heard about the importance of silence in Japanese culture I had no idea of what it meant, but as time went on I discovered that silence had many different shades, tones and feelings; that it was possible to communicate in the silent space. Imagine if we took time to be silent in the presence of others before we spoke and to listen to the silence, I wonder how much more wisely we would speak, how much more we would actually listen to what others are saying and how much more easily we would reach common understanding. Imagine how people could move forward together side by side and what endless possibilities they could create.

Talk to me about

anything and everything.

People don't know that I'm good at

creating and designing games for children as well as being able to mentally project images outside of my head in 3D.

My TED Story

One day a learner walked into my classroom in Turkey and said "Sharon' I know you like science and technology could we watch a clip at the end of the lesson in English. I think the other students would like it". Well what he went on to show the class was my all time favourite TED Talk: Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry demo Sixth Sense. I was blown away and so were the other people in the room. I went back to my office and started watching loads and loads of TED Talks. I have never looked back. With every new class I meet I make sure that I incorporate as many TED Talks into my lesson content to inspire learners to think, explore, experiment and create.

Comments

• TEDCred score: +651.80 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• A comment on Conversation: What are your questions about the new TED-Ed website? Conversation with TED-Ed staff!

  May 4 2012: Hi Stephanie,
  
  Thank you to you and your team for this great resource. I have used a a few videos and have now flipped my own. I am about to give a session in my department on how to use these as well as we use a lot of TED videos. I have a question and a suggestion:
  
  1-I am an English as a Second Language teacher so we also use the videos for language practice. We look at the content, we discuss the ideas so the areas at the moment are perfect for us but we need a language option in the BETA that we could manipulate for different questions and task types related to language as well as for real time discourse analysis. Is TED ED considering their use in English as a Second Language at the moment?
  
  2- Under the thinking section, when you create an open-ended question and you realise that you have made a mistake or need to reorder the questions you cannot re-edit the slides or move them around. This means that you either need to have perfectly scripted what you want to do or delete the whole thinking section and start again. Could there be more flexibility built into this part of the system as each time we review a material we change it based on the class, the students or what worked and what didn't.
  
  Thank you again for all you hard work on this project.
  
  Sharon:)

• A comment on Conversation: How might teachers implement sites like Facebook, Twitter, or Youtube to engage students in their education?

  Apr 21 2012: Hi Virginia, the blog post is here.)) Shh it's a Secret. Facebook groups in the classroom http://www.sharonzspace.com/?p=810. My students are university students so we are using secret/closed groups so that their posts cannot be read by other classes or future employers outside of the group because they are close to the job market we wanted them to have a free space to think critically and experiment in English. If ou keep the settings as closed or secret it also doesn't go down their personal news feed, which is important for students to keep their credibility. Setting up a Facebook set up depends on the age of the students you are working with. Here are a few questions to consider:
  
  1-What is the age of your students? Should you friend them or not? This is controversial. If they are under 18 friending them is problematic. The group structure allows both of you to participate without being friends with each other. They don't see your private life and you don't see theirs.
  
  2-For this to work you would need to have a facebook account. If you don't want to be found on Facebook and be in this community as some of my collegues do not want to go on Facebook for their own reasons we have found a way to do this so they only use their account for work. You do sign up under your name, put minimal information and no photograph of your face. You choose an object or abstract picture. A friend of mine who does not use Facebook for his personal life has done this and it is difficult to find. He has been enjoying using facebook for education which has surprised him.)))
  
  I hope that helps. If you have any more questions please feel free to ask.
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  A comment on Conversation: How might teachers implement sites like Facebook, Twitter, or Youtube to engage students in their education?

  Apr 20 2012: I have fully integrated Facebook into my classes. It is a really dynamic tool. Students use it in really interesting ways in and out of the classroom. If you want to know more I have a blog post on it with samples. Please let me know.

• A comment on Conversation: What's one thing you wish you had learned in school?

  Nov 3 2011: Instinctive geometry. I am 36 and I just really discovered that ı can do this but how do I develop it? If anyone out there in the TED community knows Iwould be fascinated to learn!
• +6

  A reply on Talk: Sunni Brown: Doodlers, unite!

  Sep 27 2011: Hi Davin, I think you need to see my lecture notes as they would be described as a doodle and I do have full recollection of a lecture with them. They help me not to drift and the lines are meaningful with the rhythm of the speakers voice and what was said. So much so that if I remember the doodle I can remember the whole lecture for years to come. Each person has a different use of tools so to say that the doodler is not focused I think is not true.
  
  Sharon.)

• A reply on Conversation: What is the value of gaining a higher education?

  Sep 3 2011: Yes, it does Silvia, hopefully, but the individuals involved need to be in a place of being willing to set sail to those horizons and due to various factors this is not always the case. Fortunately at my work we are encouraged to actively explore what we are interested in and to expand our own knowledge as well as encouraging learners to do so.)

• A reply on Conversation: What is the value of gaining a higher education?

  Sep 3 2011: Dear Jacqueline,
  
  I am also on a similar journey as the one you describe above. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could have this experience at 18, where we invest in the individual and their development. I am not saying that this does not happen but would be wonderful if this was the experience of every student at a younger age who enters higher education.

• A reply on Conversation: What is the value of gaining a higher education?

  Sep 3 2011: I agree Thomas that value is in one's head when it comes to education and it is down to each individual to decide it's value. However, within education and as an educator sometimes you are forced to promote a value in the syllabus, curriculum or certification aspect that you might not agree with. This is where education has to reconsider what that word actually is in our current world and whether our systems are really about education or producing employable people.

• A reply on Conversation: What is the value of gaining a higher education?

  Sep 3 2011: Yes, I know many people who are extremely educated but not certified. It is a shame that we need to jump hoops to be considered educated. Great questions Salim.)
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  A reply on Conversation: What is the value of gaining a higher education?

  Sep 3 2011: Yes Bakul, I agree with you there. I once left a job because the government explicitly stated that the whole purpose of the new system imposed on our teaching was to ensure economic success rather than enriching the individual. I could not continue knowing that this idea was consuming the whole of our education system. Education is so much more than business and jobs.