Today the TED Prize announced a challenge in support of Dave Eggers’ wish to collect 1,000 stories of private citizens engaging in the local public schools. TED has been inspired by all of the innovative ideas pledged on Once Upon a School and through tedprize.org. These ideas and projects (building a tutoring center, developing a web presence for a local school, among many others) embody the spirit of the TED Prize. TED wants to support them and help spur more.

Now it’s your turn to join this group. Challenge yourself to participate in the lives of public school students. Be imaginative, dedicated, and enthusiastic. Then tell us about your work.

The leader or initiator of the three projects that best encapsulate the TED Prize spirit – vision, commitment, fun, partnership, and change – will each receive a pass to TED2009 in Long Beach, California.

Entries are open to the public and may be submitted by visiting onceuponaschool.org and will be judged by a panel of educators, entrepreneurs, and creatives from the TED Community. Projects will be evaluated on the following criteria:

· Innovation: Was a new model used? Is the approach creative? Were the students provided with access to something new?

· Collaboration: How well did the project leaders work with the teacher/school? Did the project address a specific challenge or need of the students?

· Impact: What changed in the life of the students, teacher, and school? Was the community affected? Did the work inspire other private citizens to get involved?

The deadline for submissions is October 31, 2008.

Find more information and commit to taking part in the challenge here.

Tags: challenge

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 at 2:38 pm and is filed under Dave Eggers' Wish Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.