Kate Anders

Artist, Change Agent, Educator/Teacher, Event planner, Global soul, Social entrepreneur, Writer/Editor

I have been a teacher and administrator at the middle and high school level. However, during my career, I have taught kindergarten through university. USA Today selected me as an outstanding teacher in 2000. The U.S. Department of State, through American Councils, sent me to Russia to help build relations with teachers in 2002, and honored me with the Excellence in Teaching Award. I hosted an award winning cable television show for high school students for five years for the City of Calabasas. I have presented workshops on teaching and learning and metacognition for a variety of educational organizations locally, nationally and internationally. For two years I worked at the International Film and Video Workshops in Main teaching filmmaking. This January, I was invited to attend Dgree’s Summit on Restructuring Higher Education sponsored by the Lunina Foundation. I love to paint and write poetry. I am on the Board of Directors of Culture Wrap, a non-profit organization that works to connect cultures around the world through film. Recently, I attended a workshop with Jean Houston on Social Artistry to step into the role of advocate to transform and reimagine education.

I am passionate about students discovering what they love, becoming reflective and imaginative thinkers and understanding how they are connected to their community and to the world.

Reimagine education and rethink curriculum (K-12) and completely change the current format of mass education that is a hold-over from the industrial revolution. Connect communities, businesses, and parents to engage students in their passion and global awareness. I'd like to play with ideas including the TED format and the International Baccalaureate model to empower students to transform the world.

Art (paint, sketch), Connect people, Education - Curriculum Development, Orgainzational Leadership, Poetry

As a teacher and administrator, I was looking for a better way to engage students in their own learning. At a meeting of our Area Coordinating Team, I talked with Don Levy about a book I'd recently read, The Art of Possibilities by Zander and Zander. Don read it immediately and a month or so later, Benjamin Zander was a speaker at TED in Long Beach and Don was there to see him. That is when our coversation turned to the idea of a TEDx event for the school district. I believe we were the first TEDx event for a k-12 school district. We had 27 presenters and a sold out theater. I felt that this was the beginning for me to look at reimagining education and Don encouraged me to attend TED Global. I have around 200 students who will follow my blog from the event who are anxious to being planning our next TEDx event, March 26, 2011.

I love planning events and working on the layout and design of programs. Most peope don't know that I paint and write poetry and have self-published two books of poetry and art.