Neural Ed Meets TED: Brain-Based Strategies to Capture Attention

It’s the first minute of the first day of school. A room full of 8th grade students stare at you with rapt attention. They are curious about you, your class, and what the next ten months will be like with you as their teacher. You have their full attention. Enjoy it - because by day three their attention will be grabbed away from you by the students sitting next to them, the snaps that might be collecting on their phone, their homework schedule and 100 other things. We are teaching the first generation of “cell phone babies” whose lives have been dominated by scrolling through 15 second videos and the never ending interruption of a buzzing phone in the pocket. How can we grab and hold their attention? How can we sell ourselves and our ideas to them?

I found excellent answers to these questions in the book Talk Like Ted - The Nine Public Speaking Secrets Of The World’s Top Minds by Carmine Gallo. Gallo makes the point that, “Ideas are only as good as the actions that follow the communication of those ideas.” In his book, he subdivides his nine key points into three sections: Emotional, Novel and Memorable. 

Emotional communication must

1. Follow your passion - share what “makes your heart sing.”

2. Master the art of storytelling

3. Have a conversation - use your body and speaking voice effectively

Novel communication must

1. Teach listeners something new

2. Deliver “jaw dropping moments” (like when Bill Gates released a swarm of mosquitos during his Ted Talk)

3. Use humor (Gallo reminds us that observations work, but jokes often do not)

Memorable communication must

1. Be brief (18 minutes for a Ted Talk)

2. Use multiple senses (brains are wired to receive visual information)

3. Stay in your lane - be authentic and speak about what you truly understand

Each of the chapters in the book is supported by examples from successful Ted Talks, as well as evidence from the latest neuroscience research. Gallo reminds us that great communicators have changed the world (think Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Steve Jobs), and poor communication is a road to failure. As teachers, we “sell our ideas” on a daily basis - whether that’s  directions about how to change seats or the consequences of climate change. 

Thinking about each lesson through the eyes of a TedTalk seemed like a fun way to start my school year. Could I capture their attention in a positive and meaningful way - and avoid the pitfall of the attention-striving-rabbit-hole? How could I avoid pleading for my students’ attention?  

Over the course of the first eight days of school, I tried to incorporate ideas from Talk Like Ted (affiliate link). On the third day of school, the lesson plan called for a lot of clarification of rules and procedures. Using the idea of “Be Novel and Teach Them Something New,” I handed students a colored bead as they walked into the class. “John - you have a red bead. Sally - you have a green bead. What is your name again?... Sorry, Tim, you have an orange bead.” Once the students were in their seats I asked them what color bead they had. All of them were now holding white beads. I gave them two minutes to figure out how to turn the bead back to the original color. In each class period, It usually only took about 30 seconds before someone asked to walk outside, where they saw their beads turn back to the original color. Once all of the students were outside with their colored beads, we talked briefly about UV rays and their effect on their beads, as well as the potential dangers they pose to their skin. The students then returned to their seats, handed me their beads, and had more interest in the rest of the class. In Neural Education, we often refer to this type of experience as disequilibrium. These moments of surprise, or cognitive dissonance, cause learners to lean in. Their brain’s natural curiosity is sparked and they can’t help but become more focused and engaged.  

During the second week of school, I did a lesson about the four neurotransmitters - dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin and endorphins. To capture student interest and attention, I started the lesson with a good story. I showed them a photo of my friend, then in high school, lying on a skateboard with his hair peeled back, his old shoes taped together, no helmet, and the blurred background showing he was clearly moving fast. I told them the true story of the photo - how at 17 years old my friend rode in this position on his skateboard for over a mile while the rest of us followed him in an old van, sliding door open, so I could photograph him. After the photo was taken, the heat of friction caused the wheels of his skateboard to melt and fly off, causing my friend to skid on the asphalt to a full stop. The driver of the old van screeched to a stop behind him, sending the sliding door crashing forward and shattering the window. This story led to the question, “Why do teenagers do risky things?” Students loved the story, and over the course of our lesson they learned how a “dopamine high” leads teenagers to much of their risky behavior.

“…my friend, then in high school, lying on a skateboard with his hair peeled back, his old shoes taped together, no helmet, and the blurred background showing he was clearly moving fast.”

The following day I wanted students to make posters about the different parts of the brain. As they entered the classroom, I was playing the song, The Brain by Mel Brooks, which was used in the musical Young Frankenstein. As most of the students were seated to start class, the finale of the song could be heard, where the chorus sings “I love… the… Brain!” The students were lost in their own world and didn’t seem to notice the music. So I played it again, very loud, held my foam brain model with the two hemispheres separated and my head in the middle, and sang along. Now they noticed the song and laughed along with me. It was a great way to lighten up the start of the class, and it definitely got their attention!

What makes the ideas in Talk Like Ted powerful is not that they are new and novel, but how they are demonstrated to be effective through the most popular Ted Talks, and how experiments and research using the latest brain scanning technology show us why they work. Gallo interviews neuroscientists and shares how their research supports his nine essential communication ideas. I look forward to continuing to find ways to capture student’s attention through the use of these powerful techniques.

Neural Education’s Neuroscience of Attention Institute (January, 2026) is another great opportunity to learn these techniques and others, and to learn about the neuroscience that supports them!