It took a village...and a lot of passion!

This is about a dream. A crazy, big, seemingly impossible, personal passion of a dream that came true.  

And it took a village.

That village included 140 wonderful members of the Rundle Academy community, who, because they believe in the magic our little school works on a daily basis, came out and gave their heart and soul to TEDxRundleAcademy's inaugural event and the rest is, well, history. 


There is much written about how to organize and curate a fabulous TEDx event for your community. There are ample resources, examples, and legions of engaged, innovative TEDx'ers out there who will bend over backwards to help first-timer's out.  But, what about writing about the collaborative energy and spirit it took for such an event to occur? 

What about writing about how to launch an academic club that involves reading, writing, and public speaking in a school where every student struggles enormously with those aforementioned learning tasks? 

What about writing about how, back in October, I had to practice entrepreneurship beyond my wildest dreams to get our TED-Ed Club off the ground.Or, how about writing about realizing that you now are the curator of a TEDx event and you have the monumental task of creating the vision of an event that just seems so impossible. 

Or, how about writing about how liberating it was to realize, a few months in, that the voices  of our TEDxRundleAcademy,  despite how unpolished, young, and nervous they might be, would be and will continue to be primarily the voices of the students who attend our school.  We might never get a talk onto TED.com, we might never go viral, but our talks will always represent the heart, soul, spirit and mission of our community which is to make learning and dreams possible for students with often very challenging learning disabilities.


 How about writing about how frightening and exhilarating  it is to open up your very private dream to your entire staff and trust completely that they will take that dream and run with it and then see the utter magic that they create? 

How about writing about the hours and hours of time put in by so many people so that TEDxRundleAcademy could happen?  



How about writing about the incredible effort and grit that 7 young speakers demonstrated over the last 6 months? None of these students find writing or public speaking easy. Many of them were incredibly scared and constantly dealt with nerves and anxiety about our event but they believed in themselves and did it. 

How about writing about the tears that ran down my face on the day before the event, when as I  walked down the hallway and saw, for the first time, that everything would come together; that my students, colleagues, and parents totally and utterly believed in and were excited by my vision. 



How about writing about the incredibly deep feeling of satisfaction and joy that your students LOVED every moment of the event and can't wait until the next one. 



That was the day when 15 years of teaching came together. I realized that everything I  had ever done professionally was coming together at the right moment with the right people in the right place and that THIS was that moment by which I might later define my career. 

Sometime you dream big, and your dreams as a teacher are often gigantic. And, you hope more than any thing that those dreams come true, because, after all, they are the dreams of your students.  And those dreams matter. 

TEDxRundleAcademy gave a voice to those dreams.