Jonathan Tharin

Brainstormer, Change Agent, Educator/Teacher, Event planner, Foodie, Idea generator, Life mentor, Parent

I am a high school English teacher in the International Baccalaureate Programme. I am an avid TedTalk watcher and often incorporate great talks into my instruction as discussion starters--a fabulous way of connecting the books we study to the real world. Because of this practice, a few years ago some of my favorite students came to see me after school one day and said they loved the TedTalks so much they wanted to put on their own TEDxYouth event and they needed me to be the sponsor/organizer. This tradition has continued over the years as student organizers pass down their knowledge and enthusiasm for stories worth spreading to underclassmen who join the team. We have hosted speakers of all kinds and heard many powerful stories--some told for the first time. The TEDxYouth program has become a passion of mine for how it encourages young people to step up, take responsibility for something they believe in, seek out speakers who they want to hear from, and spread those ideas to the world in hopes of making it a better place.

I am passionate about elevating the voices of young people who so desperately want to be heard, about fostering that fire of rebellion and hope that they have to change the world and make it better. I am passionate about listening to young people and saying "Yes" whenever they need help, support, or guidance.

How students in my classes stood up to book banning in my classroom and spoke at school board meetings, ran protests, talked to the press. How this reflects student appreciation for difficult and challenging learning opportunities and the teachers who have the courage to offer those opportunities.

Education, Literature, Poetry, Presentation, Writing, Youth

I love TedTalks and TEDxTalks and regularly use them in my classroom as discussion starters. I particularly love how good talks, no matter what the subject, can lead to fascinating connections with other topics. For example, I love Aman Mojadidi's talk "A sense of humor about Afghanistan" and I use it as an introduction to a Socratic seminar on Italo Calvino's novel The Nonexistent Knight. The connections are tenuous at best, but students inevitably reach and stretch and find fascinating ways to elaborate on the complexity of both the talk and the novel. Because of these classroom experiences, some of my favorite students a few years ago sucked me in to organizing a TEDx Talk of our own. They said it was my fault they were so obsessed with TedTalks. They had so many ideas for talks they would like to hear and they knew speakers they were interested in hearing from, and they wanted the challenge of doing something so grand as organizing a talk. 5 years and 5 TEDx events later, I continue to foster that passion for ideas worth spreading in my students and in my TEDx teams as they strive for excellence and change in their lives and their world.

Cooking--I wanted to be a chef at one point. Videogames. Tennis.