Episode 099: Audio Clips from Past Guests! with Christine and Tammy

Seven familiar voices return with fresh proof that doing less can change everything. We asked past guests what shifted since we last spoke, and their updates land with clarity: SEL works when it’s who we are, not what we assign; attention thrives in short, intentional cycles; culture moves fastest when values lead the way.

Krista Leh reframes SEL as everyday presence, co-created with students and colleagues. Julia Skolnik brings brain science to planning, showing how 15-minute engagement windows and the science of mattering boost focus and belonging. Dr. Michelle Ogden shares a boundary that restores joy—just because you can doesn’t mean you should—helping us filter commitments by energy, not guilt.

We explore systems that support the human carrying them. Allie Rodman shows how AI can become a thought partner for rest, habits, and realistic routines, without surrendering privacy or agency. Dr. Phil Echols connects hopeful mindsets to team protocols, reminding us that beliefs shape behavior and that principle-centered meetings invite real contribution. Dr. Amanda March introduces one-minute value shout outs, a tiny ritual with oversized impact on identity, trust, and alignment. And Alina Davis sharpens family communication: fewer words, warmer tone, and simple reply frameworks that turn announcements into two-way partnership.

Across these updates, a pattern emerges: prune the extras, protect attention, and let values do the heavy lifting. When we design for human limits—and celebrate what’s working—schools feel lighter, decisions get clearer, and people find the energy to do the work that matters most.

If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a colleague, and leave a quick review to help more educators find a simpler, more intentional path.

This episode is sponsored by Plan Z Education Services. 

Transcript

Welcome And Episode 99 Setup

SPEAKER_04 0:13

Welcome to the Minimalist Educator podcast, where the focus is on a less is more approach to education. Join your hosts, Christine Arnold and Tammy Musiowski, authors of The Minimalist Teacher and your school leadership edit, a minimalist approach to rethinking your school ecosystem, each week as they explore practical ways to simplify your work, sharpen your focus, and amplify what matters most so you can teach and lead with greater clarity, purpose, and joy.

Why Reconnecting With Past Guests

SPEAKER_02 0:44

Welcome back to the Minimalist Educator Podcast. Today we are on the doorstep of something big, episode 99, just one episode away from triple digits, and we're definitely not taking this lightly. Before we get to the 100th episode, where we've got some familiar faces coming back, we wanted to do something a little different today. So we've reached out to past guests, and they've been kind enough to send us some voice messages and updates from their lives since they were our guests in previous episodes. In this week's episode, you'll hear from previous guests Chris Delay, Alina Davis, Julia Skolnik, Phil Eccles, Michelle Ogden, Amanda March, and Ali Rodman. It's a bit of a Where Are They Now episode. So grab a drink, get comfortable, and enjoy checking in with our returning guests.

SPEAKER_11 1:34

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 99 of the Minimalist Educator Podcast. Christine, how did we get here?

SPEAKER_02 1:45

Not sure. Not a clue. It's gone very quickly, but uh also very exciting to be here and almost at our hundredth episode. Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Krista Lay On SEL As Daily Practice

SPEAKER_11 1:56

The next two episodes are very special. This one today is featuring a few of our past guests who have sent us some audio recordings as well as one video recording. So we're going to be sharing some audios from a few of our past guests. And so it'll be just fun to hear where people are now from many moons ago when we started the podcast because a lot of these folks are from the first season or two. Yeah. So shall we begin? Yeah. All right. We're gonna start with Dr. Krista Lay. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_09 2:37

Hi, I'm Dr. Krista Lay, founder of Resonance Education, and the guest on episodes 18 and 71 of the Minimalist Educator Podcast. Here are two powerful reminders from those episodes. The first, SEL isn't a program. It's who you are and how you show up every day. It's most effective when caring adults can provide opportunities for students to discuss, co-create, practice, and reflect on these essential life skills. And it's not something that educators are meant to do alone. When a teacher focuses on what feels authentic within their instructional practices and their classroom context, focusing on their students' SEL needs, something bigger happens. Together, we create a web of social emotional support and growth opportunities that no single lesson or initiative could ever accomplish on its own. Congratulations to Tammy and Christine on 100 episodes of reminding educators that less pressure, more intention, and shared responsibility truly matter.

SPEAKER_10 3:42

Yes, all of that.

Hosts Reflect On SEL And Modeling

SPEAKER_11 3:44

Absolutely. All the time. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's such a good reminder right now. We're just past the halfway point in the year as this podcast comes out. Actually, we're getting into that final quarter, actually, for many schools. It's a rough time of year. So it that's a really great reminder that we are working with people, young people and adults, right? Can't forget the adults. We have to remember to just be human and not let the stress of all the parts of that year make us monsters. Because that's how I've felt many years at that time of year where it's just really rough.

SPEAKER_02 4:29

Yeah. And I think the reminder that it's not a program is always a great one. Because yeah, you can have important lessons and units of work that you do that are helpful. But if you're not inhabiting it all day, every day, in the way that you show up for the students, it's it's not going to be as effective, is it? If you like do one lesson about relationships are really important and this is how you promote healthy relationships, and then you're nasty to them for the rest of the day.

SPEAKER_11 5:02

Right. It's not going to be a good idea. No, yeah. There's no synergy there.

SPEAKER_02 5:10

Exactly. Exactly. So yeah, that's a good reminder from Krista. It is.

Julia Skolnik On Focus And Mattering

SPEAKER_10 5:17

Who have we got next? All right. Who's up next? Let's go to Julia. Yeah. Ooh, brain science. Oh, excellent. Julia Skolnik. Here we go.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

Hey, minimalist educators. This is Julia Skolnick from Professional Learning Partnerships. Thank you so much for having me back on to celebrate your 100th episode. That is so exciting. So you all asked me to think about what I've noticed in my work since we last spoke about brain science on your podcast. And I think I continue to value this skill of focusing on less because our world and our jobs and our families keep piling on more and more. So the tendency is to want to do more and meet those expectations. But I find now more than ever, it's so important to just stay small and stay focused on what matters most. So two things I've come across since I spoke to you last. One was a great book called The Power of Mattering by Zach Mercurio. And that book is all about how people fundament fundamentally want to feel significant and important. And if we can make that happen for people, so many great things come out of that. So that would be a place where I think in our minimalist scope, if we can keep ourselves and others feeling important and significant, that would be a major achievement. And the second idea I came across in conversations with Dr. Paul Zach, who's a leader in the neuroscience of trust, and Dr. Britt Andreata, who wrote the book Wired to Resist. I interviewed those folks for our podcast. Check it out. It's called Brain Space and Learning and Leadership. Paul and Britt talked to me about evidence that shows our brains can engage meaningfully for about 15 minutes, but after that, we start to lose focus. And of course, it's different for everyone. It's different based on how much you care about what you're doing. But there is some hormonal changes and some brain activity changes that have been identified after about this 15-minute window, which is kind of cool for us to know as educators that if we can create these bite-sized experiences where people are more passive and then jump into interactivity, discussion, hands-on learning, that might cycle better with people's brains and their engagement. So those would be two pieces that I would offer to you all. Congratulations on this major milestone and keep being minimalist. Thanks so much. Take care. Yes.

Attention Spans And Bite-Sized Learning

SPEAKER_11 7:59

Oh my goodness. So the book that she mentioned, The Power of Mattering, I just finished a book called Never Enough. And it's about, I mean, part of our research on perfectionism that we're doing. And it, the the author of that book, whose last name is Wallace, but I can't remember. She has three names, Jennifer Something Wallace, she really digs into the power of mattering and how that far supersedes academic achievement for students. So the perception that, you know, I matter as a child versus like what my achievements are, and how just really focusing on that can just reduce stress and have kids focus on, you know, like just being developing oh my goodness, developing themselves as people rather than as somebody that has to continuously achieve or do better or something like that. So I'm glad that she brought that up. That was that was super interesting.

SPEAKER_10 9:00

Very interesting.

SPEAKER_11 9:00

What stuck out for you?

SPEAKER_02 9:02

Yeah. It made me think what she was saying about the 15 minutes, holding attention for 15 minutes, because you know, working with little kids, I don't know if I read it somewhere or someone told me, but I'd already always had this idea of that like you can hold their attention roughly for about the same age that they are. So if you've got five-year-olds, you've got about five minutes of them sitting and listening, and then you're done. Yeah, like she said, you need to do something active to keep them there. So I wonder whether that 15 minutes is is for everybody or if if it's for more adults. Have I been no-balling it and actually the kindergartners can listen for a bit longer than I thought? I don't know. So right.

SPEAKER_11 9:45

Yeah. Yeah. I think, yeah, and it might be dependent on what the content is, too, right? Because sometimes the five minutes for the littles seems like that's it. But then other times you can hold them there a little bit longer. I think too that the 15 minutes kind of coincides with those techniques like the Pomodoro effect, where you work for like 25-ish minutes and then you take a few minute break. So maybe it's like a range, you know, like 15 minutes is or not a range, average or something. Like maybe 15 minutes is kind of like the sweet spot. But depending on, you know, who you are and what it is that you're studying, because sometimes we can really tune in for longer periods of time if something's super interesting versus if it's not as interesting.

SPEAKER_10 10:31

So yeah.

SPEAKER_11 10:32

Yeah, that was a really interesting point too, for sure.

Book Links And Classroom Implications

SPEAKER_02 10:35

For sure, for sure. Yep. And I think, yeah, I think what she was saying there. I mean, obviously I haven't read the book Mattering yet. I'd love to check it out. But just thinking about, you know, how many stories you hear of people who can remember certain teachers they had along the way because for exactly that reason, like I felt like I was important to that teacher and I mattered to that teacher. So it seems like it would be intuitively very correct.

unknown 11:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:07

Yeah. Just from the title. Just from the title. Yeah.

SPEAKER_11 11:10

Yeah, for sure. It's super interesting. And it made me, I when we were listening to Julie, I was adding that book to my Amazon card, just I would remember. But yeah, just speaking to that, you know, you we remember how people make us feel versus the test that they gave us or whatever the assignment was, and that very much rings true, I think, for so many people. Because we do, whether it's positive or negative, you know, unfortunately, we remember the negative much more often, and it's what our brain does, but but we do have that emotional piece that just kind of tethers us to memories.

SPEAKER_10 11:48

Absolutely. That was a great one too. Yes, good to hear from Julia. Who have we got next here? Oh, it's Michelle. Okay. Love Michelle. Okay, Michelle Ogden. Let's go.

SPEAKER_06 12:05

Hi, Tammy and Christine. It's Michelle Ogden from Southern California. Big congratulations to you on getting to episode 99, and I'm so grateful to be a part of this. I just wanted to catch up with you regarding the tips that I left on the episode I was on about finding joy. I shared just because you can doesn't mean you should. And this continues to be something I need to remind myself of every day. As a classroom teacher, there are so many different things that I am interested in learning about and uh want to contribute. And I always have to ask myself, okay, is this really energizing me or is it draining my battery? And I still have to remind myself every single time a new opportunity comes up. But I am learning to streamline and to be aware before making decisions. So I'm not stuck in a situation where I'm thinking, oh, maybe I shouldn't have said yes to this. But you know, anything math related, I'm always yes. Anything about positive culture and you know, working with kids and getting to know them and SEL, always a yes for me. And the other stuff, sometimes I have to think carefully. But I am learning to do that even better, and it really does make such a big difference in terms of how I can find joy in my day-to-day work. I hope the tip helps everybody else and look forward to talking to you all again soon.

SPEAKER_11 13:28

Yes, absolutely. Actually, Naomi Church just put a post up on her LinkedIn yesterday. So, you know, time is irrelevant in this recording. But the she put up a quote and it was something about like saying no, like the power of saying no. And I was like, I just did that yesterday. Like I someone shared with me this really cool and fun opportunity. And I was like, oh, let me make let me see if that fits into my schedule. And then I looked at my calendar, I'm like, okay, well, I could do that, but my my pace of life right now, it just seems a little too quick. And so I'm kind of waiting for that bit of that lull. And that's where the lull was going to be, where I was gonna have a little bit of downtime. And so I just I've said no, even though I really wanted to say yes to that, even though you know I knew I would I know I would benefit from going to it, but just making sure that the the strategy behind like your your nose and making sure that you're choosing the things that bring you joy is super important. And again, this time of year can be rough. So you have to be really careful about that.

Guardrails For Energy And Workload

SPEAKER_02 14:48

Yes, always a good reminder because uh yeah, just as Michelle said, I often get very excited about all the different things that are going on. Yes, and I want to get involved in all of them. Yes, yes, yes, it is a good reminder. I I do try if it's like a glaringly obvious no, this is just gonna be draining. That's that's an easy one to say no to, isn't it? But sometimes it's it sounds like it could be energizing and fun and bring you joy. But you have to kind of look down the line a little bit, maybe, and sort of say, yeah, this might be fun once or twice, but is it gonna be in months' time when I'm still committed and still helping out with something? It depends what it is, right?

Allie Rodman On Systems And AI

SPEAKER_11 15:39

Definitely, definitely true. Thanks to Michelle for that one. Should we jump over to a video that we got from Allie? That'd be great.

SPEAKER_08 15:50

All right. Hi everyone, my name is Allie Rodman. I am the founder and chief learning officer at The Learning Loop, and I'm super excited to be invited to contribute to this 99th episode of the Minimalist Educator podcast. It's crazy to think that I was a guest back on episode 11 when we talked about the value of systems and the importance of scheduling time for yourself for that rest and recovery amid all of the other busyness in our day-to-day schedule. Since that episode, I have been working with educators to think even more deeply about what that looks like beyond just blocking out time on our calendar. One of the most interesting developments in this work has been considering the role of AI as we develop these systems for ourselves. Whether it be setting goals around the amount of time or how frequently you want to walk or get to the gym each week, or thinking about how many minutes or how many pages you want to read in your favorite book for the coming year. Working with different chatbots as a thought partner has helped to accelerate progress of so many educators as they think about carving out that time for themselves. The more information that you can provide around your goals, who you want to connect with, and how you are going to make sure that you are making yourself whole in those circles of being, doing, and relating can help ensure that as you continue to take care of our students and take care of one another, you're also making time to take care of yourself.

Using Chatbots For Habits And Balance

SPEAKER_11 17:35

Absolutely. Yes. I think probably many of us can relate to having our personalized chat bot help us out with a lot of things. Maybe even naming your chat bot. Mine has a name. And I feel like I feel like that just makes the experience even more personalized, right? Like it's funny how you put some information about your work in there and what your goals are. And then so mine's called Denzel. And then Denzel is just like, hey, this is great for you, or like, have you thought about this? And so yeah, there's just so many things I've put in there that have helped me kind of streamline my thinking or figured out how to organize something, whether it's a schedule or a piece of writing, that just saves that mental energy.

SPEAKER_10 18:32

So yeah, definitely for efficiency that has been helpful. For sure.

SPEAKER_02 18:39

I think it can be really helpful just to, you know, as we've talked about with other guests as well, just take off some of that pressure of the workload. It can be very helpful. But if we can utilize it to, yeah, help us with habits we want to build and planning out our time so that we've got more balance, I think that's fantastic if we can use it for that way.

SPEAKER_03 19:05

Mm-hmm.

Privacy, Boundaries, And Efficiency

SPEAKER_11 19:06

Yeah, most definitely. I mean, we have to consider like how much more information are we putting out about ourselves. However, it's already already, it's already all out there in some way, most likely. Just as long as you're not throwing your social insurance number in there, or social security number, your employee number, those, you know, kind of things that we hope stay hidden, but otherwise, like I think there's a lot of interesting questions that appear as we use these tools more, like yeah, can we what should we and shouldn't we put in, which ones we should utilize and for what reason.

SPEAKER_02 19:45

So I think these are some great questions to consider while also trying to make our workload a little bit better.

SPEAKER_10 19:54

Absolutely. That was a good one.

Phil Eccles On Hope And Mindsets

SPEAKER_02 19:58

Thanks, Allie. That was nice to see Allie's face. Yes. All right, let's move on to Phil, Phil Eccles. Yeah. Let's catch up with him.

SPEAKER_00 20:12

Hi, everyone. I am grateful to reconnect and be a part of the celebration of growth and success of the Minimalist Podcast as we celebrate episode 100. Celebrate a new season. It's just been a wonderful journey watching the growth and success and insights and community that's being built around all the things that are being shared and all of the insights that the guests have shared. And so I'm grateful to be back to share a little bit of where my thinking is since we were last together. And in the episode that I was a part of, we talked about people and protocols. We talked about meetings, the importance of roles and finding balance in systems and in our meetings and in our teams. And something that has really stuck with me has been just a spirit of hopefulness. And I know that hope is not a strategy. And it's important to recognize that all things flow from our hopefulness in supporting groups. And so our mindsets guide our behaviors. And so whether we believe a group can or can't, we're right. Because the things that we believe, the things that we believe to be true, manifest in our behaviors. And so when we see a group's potential, when we see that, when we see a group for who they could be, that is when our behaviors align and the resources and supports that we can put in place to support that group can be put in place. And so as we think about leveraging diverse perspectives in a group, as we think about you know, navigating conflict and managing conflict and normalizing conversations around conflict, that all starts from a place of hopefulness that positive things will happen, that a group can be effective and efficient, and it's important to just be principle centered. As leaders, as teammates, and as colleagues. And so, you know, as I reflect on the book and alignment with my thinking, you know, some of my biggest takeaways from your book was just being clear about your purpose and your priorities. And so I think that has become more clear for me over time is that being principle-centered, being aware of your mindsets and how your mindsets are influencing your behavior is essential as not just as a leader, but as a teammate, as a colleague in our relationships, like in our in our homes with our friends, like mindsets guide behaviors, and that's what's becoming more clear. Again, thank you so much for all that you all are doing. I appreciate this opportunity to reflect with you and continued wishing you all continued success. Thank you.

Confirmation Bias And Team Protocols

Amanda March On Value Shout Outs

SPEAKER_11 22:53

So good to hear Phil's voice, and I often watch his reels for his do better Instagram because he's always so positive, which is so nice and hopeful. But what he said about your mindset dictates your behavior is so glaringly true in so many ways. And I just am thinking about some classrooms that I've been in this year, and how a teacher's mindset really does influence how they interact and teach their kids. So the when the kids are doing well with their interactions and that it seems like they're making progress, it seems like teachers have more hope and their behaviors and actions and teaching is more feels more hopeful. But when things when it seems like student progress is stagnated or slower than they want, it really brings them down. And so I've had some conversations with teachers about like keeping that hopefulness and rather think rather than thinking of the scarcity or deficit in that situation to think more of abundance. Like, what can your kids do to use that as the foundation for the next thing that they're going to do? But that's it's can be very it can feel so challenging. And so this was a great reminder about what we think and what we tell ourselves is what we believe, and that reflects in what we do.

SPEAKER_02 24:43

100%. It reminded me straight away of of that confirmation bias, right? So if you believe a certain thing, you're just gonna look for more and more evidence that it what you think is true. And yeah, 100% you're what you were saying there about the teacher's mindset, but I think it's also about things like new initiatives. If you go into a new initiative, immediately cynical, this isn't gonna work, we can't do it here. You're gonna just look for more and more evidence for why that's true and why it couldn't possibly succeed rather than actually giving it a fair shot. So yeah, it's quite interesting what he said. Hope is not a strategy, but I I can see what he's saying there too. It's still so important to hold on to it and have have that open mind to to be able to look on the bright side and maybe be surprised by something that you weren't expecting.

SPEAKER_10 25:40

Yeah, absolutely. Oh, great reminder from Phil. Love it, awesome. Yes. Okay, and we have Amanda March, yay!

SPEAKER_11 25:53

Yeah, she was on not too not too long ago, and I saw her in person recently, which was so lovely to just be able to see someone face to face and talk about all great things. So I'm excited to hear what she's got today.

Identity, Alignment, And Simplicity

Alina Davis On Clear Family Communication

SPEAKER_05 26:07

Awesome. Hi, Christine and Tammy. It's Dr. Amanda March. Thank you again for inviting me to contribute to your 100th episode celebration. It's such an honor to stay connected with your community, especially around the topic that continues to grow more meaningful in my work: giving value shout outs. Since our conversation on episode 89, I've been paying close attention to how teams recognize or really don't recognize the values being lived around them. And what I've noticed is this when organizations intentionally acknowledge values in action, even in small ways, it completely shifts the climate. Over the past year, more schools and districts I work with have started implementing a simple routine at the beginning of meetings, a one-minute value shout-out. Someone highlights a colleague who embodied a core value, whether that's collaboration or curiosity, courage, equity, or whatever the team has defined. What's powerful is that these shout-outs don't just affirm behavior, they reinforce identity. They remind people who they are at their best, and the ripple effect is real. Teams become more aligned, decision making gets clearer and easier, and people start looking for the good in each other, which builds trust in a way that no initiative or framework can replicate. I'm also noticing that the practice supports simplicity. When educators focus on values instead of volume, on what really truly matters rather than everything they could do, the noise quiets. People feel less pressure to be perfect and more motivated to be purposeful. And that's where the real transformation happens. So, since our last conversation, my biggest takeaway has been this value shout outs are not just a feel-good activity. They're a strategic leadership lever for connection, clarity, and sustainable change. They anchor us in what matters most and help us let go of what doesn't. Thank you again for giving me the space to reflect, reflect on this, and congratulations again on your 100 episodes. I'm grateful for the work that you do to help educators simplify, realign, and thrive. Thank you all so much. Congratulations again.

SPEAKER_11 28:35

I love the intentional value shout out as a meeting opener because I know, you know, we used to do icebreakers and now it's connectors. And, you know, it's still sort of the same thing, but not quite. But it's a great way to connect with people and get people focused in on the meeting so that everybody's brain space is really in what they value. So yeah, I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_02 29:04

Absolutely. It reminded me a little bit too of I'm I'm terrible from remember remembering where I saw things or who said it. Sorry, everybody. Um, but no, I remember reading about leadership, and it was talking about how every leader will have different strengths, and it's actually quite foolish to try and be strong in every area of leadership because it's not possible. And if you try for strength in every area, the best you're going to achieve is like average, right? So if you actually focus in on a few strengths, then you will be like held up for having those wonderful strengths, and you can, you know, not worry as much about things that aren't your strengths. And I that really jumped into my mind there when she was talking, because if you have that sense of of your identity as a community identity around your values, and you can really lean into those and make those your strengths and make sure that you you're seeing it everywhere around you, then you can really you know embrace that.

SPEAKER_10 30:21

I think that would be yeah, awesome.

AI For Tone And Two-Way Dialogue

SPEAKER_11 30:24

It would be wonderful. Seriously, wonderful. Because we do we do agree.

SPEAKER_02 30:30

Schools try and do everything. We try and do everything for everyone, be everything for everyone. And it's you can't you can't possibly succeed. Right.

SPEAKER_11 30:43

That was great. Good message from Amanda. Love her. I think we have one more from Alina. We have Alina.

Takeaways And Tease For Episode 100

SPEAKER_07 30:52

Strong communication is key in our work with students and their families. We continue to live in a world where our communication channels are flooded with too much information, and determining how to lead out all that noise can really be a bit much. Our important messages might be lost or misconstrued in the way they're read or heard. And we're learning that less is more. And what I mean by that is not less communication, but less words in your message, less fluff. During the time since the episode on navigating the art of parent-teacher collaboration, I've personally begun using AI more frequently as a tool to refine my messaging. Not only tone, the the objective, and really just the length of it. By simplifying this process, our parents and families will be given clearer messages, which is intended to not only be more accessible, but also to provide an open space for their input and participation in the communication. Parent-teacher communication, it's supposed to be two-way. And you know, we only have control over our side. And so creating a message that is clear and purposeful opens up a space, a safe space for those conversations to take place back and forth. We want our parents to also be able to share their thinking and to provide their input in by giving a structure, if you will, or a framework by the way that we communicate with them, then we can get successful communication coming back the other way.

SPEAKER_10 32:50

Yes. Right? Just absolutely everybody today.

SPEAKER_11 32:54

Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean that it's it's hard to disagree when people have thought to just make sense, right? I think the point that Alina made there about also providing the parents a structure to communicate with, because we have a structure, right, for clear communication, or we what we hope is clear communication. But if we don't provide something back for them, that then we we're still gonna have barriers. And what we know, there's a number of barriers to communication. But I think that's a really great point to be able to provide that to families. Not, you know, not everyone has to use it, but maybe it is helpful for people to just have some kind of framework or outline or something to ensure that a message is communicated in the way that they want it to be received.

SPEAKER_03 33:47

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 33:47

Absolutely. I thought that was quite interesting that AI came up again then as a as a tool to support our work. So very indicative of of what we're utilizing in our work at the moment.

SPEAKER_11 34:02

Yeah, for sure. I know in our in our second book when we were talking about communicating communications in general and then also with families, I don't think we mentioned AI at all purposefully. Right. Like there's, I mean, it's a great tool to use. And it's another place where I too will be like, okay, these are all my words. Can you just make this concise for me so that my point is very clear? And I think it's a great tool to use to ensure that the tone is not getting misconstrued or you know, there's just too many distractors in there. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:42

I think the the tone one is is is quite a useful one because so often, still I'm amazed that people send emails when they're angry. It still amazes me. Like, how are we in this year of our lives and you haven't learned to like walk away from the computer and come back when you're feeling calm? Right. But if you, you know, if you are responding and you can feel that you're still not happy about a situation, my goodness, what an easy way to just ensure that you're not gonna escalate any problems and just run it through.

SPEAKER_11 35:20

Exactly. But just the whole pausing is like it's easy to just mark it on red and come back to close your laptop or close your screen down and just leave leave it be for a little bit.

SPEAKER_10 35:32

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_11 35:38

Yes, it is. It is. This has been a fun episode to listen to these recaps from folks and just kind of hear back what messages were, see where people are at, things that have kind of come up in their work since we last spoke to people, and just to hear their voices again. It's always nice to hear those. Yeah. Yeah. And I I know this is a bit of a longer episode for our listeners, but I think it's well worth the listen to revisit some of the messages from our guests over the last few seasons.

SPEAKER_02 36:20

And give you a tiny little taster of what to expect for that hundredth episode as well.

Sponsor And Closing Calls

SPEAKER_11 36:26

Yes, yes, yes. That is a special one. And I had lots of fun recording that one. So I'm excited for these couple of episodes. I mean, I love talking to our all the people that we've had and when we have our own discussions, but 99 and 100 are really special for us. So very much excited to get them out there. Yeah. Well, thanks so much, Christine, for just the reflection review and the listening party that we just had. And yeah, our listeners can join us next week for our special 100th episode.

SPEAKER_02 37:03

Can't wait. This episode is sponsored by Plan Z Education Services, supporting educators with forward-thinking professional learning that puts both student impact and teacher wellness at the center. Driven by a vision to teach less, impact more, they help educators find purpose, prioritize what matters, and simplify their practice. Learn more at planzeducation.com.

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Thank you for listening to the Minimalist Educator Podcast. Join Christine and Tammy and guests again next time for more conversations about how to simplify and clarify the responsibilities and tasks in your role. If today's episode helped you rethink, reimagine, reduce, or realign something in your practice, share it in a comment or with a colleague. For resources and updates, visit planzeducation.com and subscribe to receive weekly emails. Until next time, keep it simple and stay intentional.