Dave Eggers' Wish: Once Upon a School

1. What are your take-aways from this video?
2. What are the speaker's effective speaking techniques?
3. What is his/her presentation style?
4. What matters from this video? How does it connect to you personally? To education? To the world?

One-on-one teaching is more effective than normal class-size teaching.Teachers have to deal with students that are not on grade level especially in reading in writing in under-funded schools. However, this can be overcome if adults--even if they are not educators by profession-- take part in ensuring that a child learns essential skills like reading and writing.

Some of his effective speaking techniques include starting off with something funny and making lots of jokes throughout his presentation. He also uses much gesticulation. He almost constantly engages the audience with humor, which is an extremely effective way of communicating his ideas.

He is very informal in his presentation, talking about his nervousness and pointing out the clock. He doesn't really rely on the PowerPoint. He is the guiding force, not the PowerPoint.

I can apply this to my life because it teaches me that one-on-one education is important for my learning. Therefore, I should seek often as possible one-on-one communication with teachers. Teachers can use this information because it not only gives them a better idea of how to teach their students; it also gives them valuable information about motivating their students: when students know that their work is going to be permanent and viewed by others. Finally, this presentation is important to the world, because it shows that kids can find it fun to learn, read and write, that it doesn't have to be a burden on children to do their studies. It also shows that when people are willing to pitch into projects like the free tutoring center, lots can be accomplished; it is better to do this than to require it, because, as I learned in Daniel Pink's book Drive, this would destroy the intrinsic motivation and therefore it would probably greatly decrease the progress and the efficiency of this type of activity.