How I hacked the brain of dyslexia | Aggeliki Pappa | TEDxPatras

you to pursues that's kind of awkward by that's fine let's write a focus here because I think I have a good story to share with you today I'm a Gilkey I'm a teacher who tries to change the world with love and quite interesting activities with my students we rebuild the Palmyra monuments in order to teach vocabulary and also build our life skills I try to do design thinking and with Pinocchio mind mapping I try that it's simple future to my adult students I also find myself in refugee camps where my students become the teachers of refugee children and sometimes I find myself in nature with my students smelling herbs and then scanning QR codes to discover their magic powers but I guess I'm here today because I managed to hack the brain of dyslexia in I love this Lexia school this is the first and the only language schools langa school in the world where we teach English as a foreign language today with dyslexia learning differences in a holistic way and this is an award-winning school that gave me the opportunity the magical opportunity to find myself between the top 50 educators in the world for the year 2016 you think that that's why I'm here do you relieve it really that I'm on this stage because of only this know the real reason I'm here ladies and gentlemen is because I believe in fairytales and I dare to admit it right here in front of you I believe in fairy tales because these are the most real things in life and they do have one thing in common everything happens for a reason and the reason is always love and to prove that I'm right this is me in my office with my favorite painting in the painting see Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz she's wearing her magic red shoes you know why because they are powerful and they can take her anywhere she wants in a flash of a moment I always knew that I wanted this kind of magic pair of shoes because my life would be full of journeys and the first time I wanted these real magic pair of shoes was when I was 19 years old okay that that was my problem I was 19 years old and I wanted to teach but who would hire a 19 year old kid to teach in Greece more anywhere in the world nobody but I found a job all it was a little bit far away I had to travel from Greece Greece from Greece to others Greece to Spokane Washington do you see the distance I mean I lost myself in flight I don't know how many nights I was in and days in in flight and to tell you the truth you know this cheap kind of flight that they serve you banana every 7 hours you know how that was ok because when I landed and I found myself among my students I knew that that was exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life being a teacher and when I came back to Greece to continue my studies because in the meantime I took a semester gap from college I found myself being the super teacher you know why because everybody wanted to meet that little crazy girl who was willing to go to Washington State so Washington yes state not DC because in the beginning I was I thought I was going to this to the state then I realized that I was going to Washington DC state whatever my dyslexia so that's true so um yeah everybody wanted to meet that crazy girl and for seven years I was working in known formal educational settings and you know why because I wanted to prove to myself and the world that teachers matter and I did it I was the most perfect picture you can every you can possibly imagine all my students for seven years one had one success they had an EFL in all their feet AFL exams so I was like that's it yeah I'm the best til I get fired well yeah I remember that I wasn't I wasn't smiling or laughing at that day today I do I was fired you know why because there was someone there who could do the same job with me that's what she says with three euros less per hour three euros less per hour that's that was exactly how they valued my work three euros so I was really confused and I said my goodness this is so unfair but maybe it's because I need to change the page of my career and I need to go to the formal education setting not that non-formal may be there they would respect me and my efforts you know so after a while I managed to find out a work only to realize that there was a big problem there for me waiting dyslexia I found myself in a private primary school and I saw myself in a classroom with a lot of students with dyslexia and they were like ah means what are you talking about for the next four years of my life I lost all my super powers I was a completely full in the classroom having all these amazingly smart students in front of me it was quite obvious they were smart I was ignorant and I was ignorant because I told them you know I was really honest with them guys there are no master's degrees in the world for EFL on dyslexia there are no resources and tools out there there are no seminars what I was supposed to do you know just guys give me some time I need to find a way to really unlock your magical potential because it's very obvious that you're smart and I am very ignorant but I need your help guys can you be my teachers can you teach me how to do it so my students became my teachers and you know little by little we're getting better and I had some other tricks too I told them that I make spelling mistakes and it's true and they told me whoa now we can share our common secret miss Angela we're not going to say to anyone you're safe with us and then I told them you know do you like my t-shirt and I said yes Miss Angela we can't really read this word but this one I think has a spelling mistake and I said what you mean this K in the cat we said yes and said darling sorry but the fashion designer had this gay father this K is a piece of art and he charges this K for 150 euros how about that the theory of relativity explained you know so they were like cool I love spelling mistakes and we're trying to really connect with the heart and day of today we were succeeded but that was not enough I realized that I had to do something more drastic because there were so many students out there that they couldn't have a global voice just because some teachers thought that they couldn't so went to my colleagues and I went to the head director of studies and I went to the big boss and I said to them listen I'm going to leave school I'm going to go back to the desks I'm going to study cognitive psychology and anything that it takes for me to create all the tools that I don't have just to be able to support the rights of my students you know what happened I found out the teachers can be bullied too all of my colleagues were telling me what do you think you either you can change the system you're going to do this you cannot be back here and when I change you're going to change the way that we're teaching and my boss said to me well miss Popeye it's obvious that you want to invest on these kids well these kids are not on my agenda so maybe you have to think about another place to do it a month later I was fired again this time it was very serious because this time I start saying to myself you know you're not going to change your career page maybe you should change your career there's something wrong here everywhere you go people find you you know and I said okay maybe I will become a singer I have a good voice or a fashion designer and I can combine all the knowledge they have for dyslexia creating tissues like this make a living or maybe go back to desks because the eyes of my students were there and they were telling me miss Angela you have a responsibility you need to help us you are our only hope we love you please do not abandon us and I couldn't sleep at night honestly I couldn't sleep at night so I found myself after 11 years of teaching back in the desks trying to figure out how I'm going to hack this brain creating all the resources the tools that I needed in order to be able to do it and you know what after years of great effort and passion I did it I had all the tools that I wanted and then I came back to Greece only to realize that they there was another problem the problem was that there were no job opportunities for the Nutri profession I had accidentally invented you see there were no teachers that they EFL teachers that I taught English as a foreign language the students with dyslexia learning differences and there were no job opportunities for me so what did I do I decided to hire myself how well I guess this time nobody could fire me well I invented every single penny I had I was broke for years I managed to find funds from the European Union for women and apprenticeship I trained the best teachers in the world and I loved dyslexia door opened for the very first time the first school in the world highly specialized only a falen dyslexia and it opened its hug to 10% pen to 20% of global population to have the right of a global voice and guess what happened 100% access in no EFL exams finally after so many years I found my superpower back you know and another amazing opportunity also happened a big private school came and they told me you know amazing what you have done is a miracle how did you do it what we don't care how did you do it back come with us let's combine our forces the formal education with the non-formal education and see what's going to happen and I said yeah that's it we're gonna change the world now yeah now I got it you know well you know what happened after a few months when I went to that private school I felt and I was treated like a famous new product that attracted new customers no mission no vision nothing everything was empty once once again the same story once again just what time for goodbyes one more time well this time I wasn't fired I resigned that's a change yes only to find myself back in my global mission for all students right for a global voice and and I found myself you know my magic shoes again you see where did you go would I go everywhere Uppsala Sweden Boston Harvard everywhere you can possibly imagine to train the teachers to share my knowledge share my experience share my tools most of the times on a volunteer base and after all these journeys after all these magic moments I found myself on the stage of the global teacher prize between the 50 top educators in the world looking up in the sky because I knew that only the sky's the limit for the power of love only the scar the sky is the limit for the power that every single human being has if he or she decides to use it but you think that behind this face there were no problems oh no oh no hours of that states my friends with no government support and not graded bullying from a big foundation Anton NGO that supports students with dyslexia you know what happened with a big foundation they call me the first day after my nomination they told me miss papa oh my goodness we are so embarrassed because you haven't received the scholarship from us and I said please don't be embarrassed they just you know try to work here together and I said yes this time at big Foundation is with me I'm gonna change the world you know well no you know what happened a week later I found myself these big offices with this big long you know tables with all the serious people behind with the ties and everything looking at me like and telling me miss Papa we're trying to find you in your civvies and everything we're trying to you know study your work but we didn't find you anywhere why they told me these who cares because at that moment I realized that the most important thing is that the bigger the problem the greater the possibility maybe that's why I found myself after a few days right next to the most influential political and educational leaders in the world I met my mentor Irina Bokova she's the general director for nesco designing with her the next education for the 21st century education for sustainable development maybe that's why I found the cards when I came back to Greece from Dubai to change the transform I love dyslexia to fleed Alexia so I can actually support the right for quality education not only the students with learning differences but to every single student on this planet maybe that's why it's time for me to say a big thank you and express my gratitude to all these people who gave me all these huge problems you know why because they helped me to get lost it is only when you get law that you have the potential to find your purpose in life your real purpose in life and also to find the inner strength to follow it and I need to thank my wonderful colleagues my wonderful friends and my wonderful family without them nothing would be possible it's only the team that makes you to do something important it's never only one person it's a theme and we need to understand this there are so many people around us that they can support there are so many people that they can't they are all very helpful all very helpful actually the same helpful but above everybody and everyone I need to have to say the biggest thing in the world to the most amazing amazing students that I have the students with this amazingly different brain that is 100 years ahead of us believe me that's why we cannot understand these people they are ahead and even when they are 70 years old because I have 70 euros all the students they are there thirsty for knowledge proving the teachers matter and I need to thank them you know why because they taught me that I don't need these shoes anymore I don't need my magic red shoes anymore I really don't you know why I don't need them because I have finally found my way home you know where is home home is this heartbeat right here in front of you this heartbeat that beats with so much passion to change the world with love this heartbeat that is the most important thing in life that we all have and we all share but we need to hear to hear closely what it wants to say to us this heartbeat that whispers me what Aristotle said that educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all at the postal indica OVAs Carlos more so Telus in Ewa Meza Poole a connectivist Oprah nerve mejor este cardiology Vanina Pavia helado a Koosh Koosh lava I just hope that by now you have figured out how I managed to hack the brain of dyslexia I love you thank you very much

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 118,529

Rating: 4.6714101 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Greece, Education, Brain, Love

Id: 4mNY6YZ-xqg

Length: 18min 47sec (1127 seconds)

Published: Tue May 31 2016