4-2 We Are Unique and That Matters

In this video, you're going to watch a longer but AWESOME video where a middle schooler talks about how important it is to have a unique perspective about the world. The student talks about how his autism has led to his way of seeing the world. He wants his audience to understand why that matters.

Activity 1

Watch the video titled Forget What You Know. You can watch this in 2-3 settings if you want but you'll probably want to watch the entire thing at once because it kind of grabs hold of you and won't let go.

Forget What You Know Links to an external site.

After watching the video, make a shorter (2-3 minute) video about you. Pretend you are describing how you see the world to an audience. This might be hard for you to do at first but it's worth the effort to think about it. If making a video all about you just freaks you out, you can make a poster, create a cartoon, do a Prezi, or even write a poem. The main point of the activity is for you to think about how you are unique and then share that with someone who might not know that unless you tell them.

Before you start, a secret you must not share with anyone is about to appear on your screen.....(keep reading)

The secret is....

Teachers don't know "how you are unique" just by looking at you. You have to help them understand the way you see the world. You can use the technology we have given you to help you do that job of explaining. And....if you don't like explaining who you are in front of the entire world (class in this case) you can use technology to connect with your teachers more directly via e-mail or text. Once teachers know how you are unique, they can help you learn even the hardest subjects.

By the way, did you happen to see how many people watched this video? Go back and look if haven't. He has 2,979,406 views. Do you think this kid would be the most popular kid in the average middle school or do you think he might be the kind of student who could get bullied? Sometimes being unique doesn't get appreciated in such a dramatic way but we can't be our best learners until we understand how being unique shapes our way of understanding things.