Episode 56: Tim Cavey and an Educator's Podcasting Journey

The Stunt Brothers sit down with Tim Cavey, host of the podcast Teachers on Fire in this collaborative episode. They compare notes on creating content through the lens of an educator, what led them to explore the world of podcasting and how they discovered that podcasting can be a powerful extension of professional practice. Whether you're a seasoned educator or just starting out, this episode uncovers how sharing your voice can foster meaningful connections and amplify your impact across communities. This is a celebration of storytelling, reflection, and the art of elevating educator voices. Let’s dive in.
Learn More at stuntbrothers.ca

• The podcast aims to support teachers with free resources and advice.
• Engaging with dream guests can inspire new ideas and discussions.
• Building relationships with students is crucial for effective teaching.
• Podcasting provides a platform for professional development and learning.
• Consistency in podcasting helps maintain creativity and engagement.
• Community involvement enhances the relevance of educational content.
• Exploring diverse topics can enrich the podcast experience.
• Attention spans can be taught and improved in educational settings.
• Technical challenges are common in podcasting but can lead to creative solutions.
• Sharing personal stories can create memorable moments in education.

Keywords: education, podcasting, teaching, teacher wellness, educational leadership, interviews, community engagement, student relationships, professional development, educational content

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Transcript

Good afternoon podcast listeners everywhere. Welcome to After the Bell, a Stunt Brothers production. I'm Martin Stuible.

And I'm Roy Hunt and we share your pain, having taught a combined 70 years. 70. I know, wow. So get out your marking, organize your supplies or just pour yourself a coffee. 

speaker-1 (00:24.332)
I think I need something stronger.

That's okay. Okay. And listen, engage and interact with After the Bell, a podcast for you, the hardworking, dedicated teacher who wants free lesson plans, free advice and a free meal.

speaker-1 (00:36.494)
Free meal. I always show up for a free meal.

Can you hear me?

Yes, I'm getting used to having your voice in my ears all the time.

I knew from episode one that you have to have good sound. So that has been a steep learning curve being a podcaster, but that I knew on day one.

There are times when I'm sleeping at night I feel like I your voice in my ears. I don't know.

speaker-1 (01:07.298)
Well, you've heard it for 56 episodes. My friend, is episode 56.

Right? So that would be then if it's 56, then it would be season two, 27.

speaker-2 (01:21.464)
Okay, so I'm going to ask you question. ready? So if we only had five more podcasts left to do. No, it's not like I'm telling you something you don't know. Guess what, world? That I've done after five. Yes, I'm branching out on my own.

You only have five more? What? Yeah.

speaker-1 (01:38.136)
Did you sell? I sell this to Netflix or something.

Okay. Okay. Okay. So let's just pretend. Pretend. Five episodes left. Five episodes.

So it's laugh gotcha. You can invite anyone in the world to be on the podcast. They have to be alive. I think that'd be good. Really hard to talk to them.

Alive? Alive, okay. Okay. Okay.

speaker-1 (02:00.811)
This is a fantasy, True. Five episodes left. Who would be my five guests?

But I would like to. So it's left. And who would be your five guests? I already know your number one. Go ahead. I'll give you a little drum roll.

Well, number one.

speaker-1 (02:15.694)
Paul McCartney. Sir Paul. And I know Sir Paul listens to After the Bell. So Sir Paul, if you're listening, give my people a call and let them know that you want to come on After the Bell. Yeah. And already.

I'm Martin's people. So I have my phone on and I'm waiting for that phone call.

Okay, okay, there you go. How about you?

Okay, if we were to continue in this idea of peace, love, and understanding, I would say the Dalai Lama. I'd just love to be in the presence of the Dalai Lama and just to hear Dalai Lama's wisdom.

Okay.

speaker-1 (02:48.408)
Maybe we'll get his people to call us. Does the Dalai Lama even have a phone? What would he do? Well, speaking of maybe world leaders, people that I think we need right now in this world, I would have Barack Obama and probably Michelle too. The Obamas could come on the board. So again, I know they're listening. So come on, talk to my people.

to call a

speaker-2 (02:56.896)
I don't know, that'd be interesting. Yeah, how would they contact you?

speaker-2 (03:16.312)
I would love to hear what they have to say about some of the things.

Yes, would be fascinating. How about you? What would be another dream guest for Mr. Hunt?

Well, I have background in science. love science. I would love to talk to Bob McDonald from...

Of course, course, fantastic. I've listened to that for a long, long time. And that, so if it could be somebody who wasn't alive for science-based, I would have Carl Sagan on. He was always a big hero of mine. I wanted to become an astronomer because of him, but he's no longer alive. So I would say Brian Cox. Not the actor from Succession, no, the astrophysicist. He's a really cool guy. I think he actually was in a punk band in the nineties. Yeah.

And he is a great teacher of all things astrophysics and I just find him fascinating. Nice.

speaker-2 (04:06.318)
I would like Hayley Wickenheiser. that's perfect. Yeah, and just so you the Winter Olympics have been wrapped up and I would love to have her perspective on things in sport, women in sport and sports in Canada. It would be good one.

Perf. The Olympics? Yes.

speaker-1 (04:22.648)
Yeah, no, she... Someone who I read a lot of her books, a real great thinker, Naomi Klein. I would love to have her. No logos she wrote and I would just shock doctrine. Great, great writer, great thinker. Yeah, Naomi Klein. She's on, she's on.

Wow. I would love to listen to Stephen Lewis. He has such a great vocabulary. I think sometimes I get stuck on some of the words that he uses. listen to his voice.

But, I could- And you know, maybe you don't know, his son is Abby Lewis. Okay. And you know who Abby Lewis is married to? Naomi Klein. What? See, yeah. Look at those connections. Wow. That is easy. Yeah, yeah. There you go. Anyone else?

is crazy.

I'm gonna sneak in my last one. My last one was Margaret.

speaker-1 (05:14.122)
I should have snuck in my last one. It would have been Margaret Atwood too. Wow. Yeah. She would be fascinating. Great writer, great Canadian writer. There you go. Huh. Wow. That's our dream list. That's the dream list. You know what? We keep having great guests on. Yeah. Right? And I think it'd be neat to do an episode and go on another field trip. We've been doing nonstop field trips since 2026 began. Because we've been talking to podcasts, but it's fine a podcaster to come on who's kind of doing what we're doing. And it's kind of a niche market.

Great minds think alike.

speaker-2 (05:35.436)
I've been joining.

speaker-1 (05:43.342)
There aren't a lot of teacher educational podcasts out there, but we've discovered Tim Cavey, who has a great podcast called Teachers on Fire, right? And I think we should have a chat and talk about his journey. He somehow manages to juggle being an administrator, teacher, right? So let's find out his secret and go chat with Tim on Teachers on Fire. And we encourage everyone to check out his podcast as well. Tim Cavey. Let's do it.

full time.

speaker-2 (06:09.975)
Teachers on Fire.

speaker-1 (06:16.558)
So welcome everybody, here we are on After the Bell and we're really excited to have a fellow podcaster on. Tim Cavey who has the podcast Teachers on Fire and we want to talk to you, the Teacher on Fire podcaster today. So thank you for joining us here on After the Bell.

Thank you so much for having me. What a pleasure to podcast with some fellow lower mainlanders.

Exactly, exactly. Just across the pond here. So we always start with, before we get into it, ABC123. Just a little bit of a questionnaire. Say the first thing that pops in your mind and just, was a chance to get to know the guest a little bit. you, are you gay?

Are you good? Let's do it.

Okay, all right, Tim, here we

speaker-1 (06:58.379)
Roy will do ABC first.

A, podcasting or teaching.

Teaching.

Okay, nice. B, night owl or morning person.

Morning person by necessity.

speaker-1 (07:16.65)
Yes. It's a dilemma of teaching. A lot of students think the same, I think.

For sure.

speaker-2 (07:22.958)
A C, passenger or driver?

Driver, for sure.

We have not met anyone who said passenger. I think everyone wants to be the driver, especially when you have them on as a guest. They're that kind of person. Okay, why? Yes, go ahead.

For the most part, it's gotta be driver. I will say when the inbox is really behind and overflowing, I don't mind the odd Uber when that happens. So I guess I don't mind the passenger at some point. What will really be nice is when my Tesla can finally drive by itself and I can get some work done on the commute to Vancouver. That will be the day.

Number one, did you have a favorite book as a child that you really stands out in your mind and you kind of maybe even reread once in a while or just thinking back in your childhood? Is there one that stands out?

speaker-0 (08:14.254)
Let's go with The Call of the Wild by Jack London.

classic. Yes. Yeah. What brought you to that? Why that one?

Well, I mean, I did read all of the Hardy Boys and the Tom Swift, and I'm sure you know some of those names, but I got into the Jack London books and I guess just loved dogs. always grew up with a family dog and I guess just really enjoyed his stories of the North. Yeah. And that really resonated. Yeah.

Okay, good. Number two, do you have a favorite teacher from your own childhood who stands out?

Yeah, I often, when I'm asked this question, I think back to my eighth grade and I had a teacher, I grew up in Winnipeg, grew up there and moved here in 2007. But yeah, back in Winnipeg had a teacher named John Bergen and he was from Saskatchewan and he had a lot of farming stories. And he saw something in me and really gave me some room to do some creative work. I remember.

speaker-0 (09:23.17)
He gave me permission to create a class newspaper. I know that sounds super nerdy and it is, but he let me create a class newspaper and post it up on the bulletin board. And it had stories from our school and from the Winnipeg Jets. I think just that latitude and that blessing to do these kinds of projects was really influential.

Yeah. It's, it's those teachers that do kind of recognize that in you, right? That stand out. Yeah. Cause as they say, takes several adults to kind of help you in life. And I think it's teachers that realize we're part of the village, they say. Number three, if you had only one piece of music that you could listen to for the rest of your life, you're on a deserted Island, you can't listen to anything else. You do not have to listen to it over and over again until you're sick of it. But is there one piece that you would choose?

that's so hard. I, this is going to be a lame answer, I know lately I've just been really enjoying ambient music. not a particular artist, but I really, there's one ambient channel on YouTube called Blume B L U M E. And I find a lot of great work productivity mixes. And I just really, really enjoy having that on in the background when I'm editing my podcasts or doing other kinds of computer work. So that's.

Okay.

speaker-1 (10:44.206)
It's called called Blume called Blume. I'll check that out. I love ambient music. yeah, it just, it helps the Zen feeling sometimes find their spot. Okay.

Take it away. All right. So Tim, could you tell us about your journey from teacher to podcaster?

I love telling this story. I, yeah. So I started a master's in educational leadership degree in 2017 at VIU, which is in Nanaimo. And I was teaching here on the lower mainland, but I hopped over there for a couple of summers. And in the process of doing that, I was also inspired.

So that was kind of one factor. And then at the same time, I was also inspired by some very entrepreneurial podcasts that I was listening to at the time. And one of them in particular that still exists today was called Entrepreneurs on Fire by John Lindumis. And he put out, at the time he was putting out one episode a day. I think maybe now he's down to five per week or something like that. a day. One a my God. One a day. But he would batch record them. So he would do what we're doing, but

eight times in a single day. And then he would just release them one a day. And so he was, think the only one in his space who was doing them at that level of frequency. And I think the power, there's so much about the medium that, that we appreciate, I'm sure you do too. And just the fact that I guess I would say I fell in love with podcasting first because as a medium it's just so

speaker-0 (12:26.828)
Wonderful to be able to listen to good content and learn while you're doing let's say while you're washing the dishes mowing the lawn working out at the gym Driving a long commute and so I was listening for years and then he was the one who really inspired me to start creating my own and of course at the Beginning and I think it was 2018. I need to go back and take a look now. It's been a long time, but

At the very beginning, I had this naive notion that, I'm probably the only one who's thought of this, right?

And so I didn't corner the market by any stretch, but I did have a lot of fun with it. I started out interviewing two people a week. I'm sure like you guys, or maybe not, it was a very painful process to sort of learn the tricks of the trade. My first interview, I tried to record through an app called Anchor, which is the, still the host. It's now been bought out by Spotify, but it's still where I.

publish my podcast and it goes out to all these different apps and platforms. So I tried to record it live with a guest and it cut out about five or six times and it was a nightmare, very difficult. But over the years and tying it back to my degree, one of the books that they asked us to read in that first year was Growth Mindset by Carol Dweck. And I really connected powerfully with this idea that if I just stick with this,

I will get more confident. I will become more competent. And those two things, confidence and competence will increase over time with repetition. It's just inevitable. It's absolutely unstoppable. And so that was so powerful to me, just that idea that, okay, if I stick with this, I will just learn more and more. And I did. I learned how to use Adobe Audition. I learned about different platforms and apps and I'm still learning, still making mistakes.

speaker-1 (14:08.526)
Yeah.

speaker-1 (14:27.771)
steep steep learning curve, but you got to stick with it, right? You're going to University of Podcasting and you're just taking this course.

Right. Yes. There's so much to consider. There's so much to consider. I have taken some long breaks last year. I took about eight months away from the podcast. But what I found guys was I just wasn't creating nearly as much content. I sort of told myself, if I take this long break, I'll be free to make other kinds of audio and video content and it'll be fantastic. But I found that the weekly cadence

I really missed it. That obligation of connecting with someone else is really, really helpful for me to just stay in the creator's chair. so, and so, yeah. And I just kept meeting fantastic people like you guys and having great conversations. And even if there's just one tidbit that you take away from every conversation that gets you thinking or learning in some way.

It builds on the next thing, right? It does. We found, because we just started last January 2025.

Okay, congrats on one year.

speaker-1 (15:35.438)
Yeah, so we're at 55 episodes now. Cause we went through, we went all the way and we got to the summer, we were going to take a break and start season two, last September. But we actually said, no, let's do it in the summer. We call them the summer sessions. And we kind of talked about so many different topics and we just didn't have even to do with teaching, but we kind of missed it. So we just kept going and kept learning. We kept learning just the way we call it STS, shoot the shit, right? Cause that's a big part of it, right? Being able to do it on the spot.

And we find, you get to that moment where you go, maybe it's starting to plateau. Some little spark comes along. You have some guest on that kind of, you get excited about it you feel we're going to the next level. No, right. And that kind of drives us.

Also, another piece about the podcasting and podcasting conversations about education is that many of our American friends head back to school far earlier than we do. And so if you carry it through the summer, you actually hit a point in late July where a lot of teachers actually want to listen to education content. Yeah. So that's another good reason. I don't know if I will do it this summer, but that's not a good reason to keep it going.

What a professional development part of it. What do you teach?

I in Vancouver, 60 % admin. So I'm an elementary vice principal for 60 % of my time. And then 40 % I teach grade five, six and seven ADST, applied design skills and technologies. And I have a blast doing that. So it's a great mix because in the vice principal role, one of the roles of course is dealing with misbehavior and poor decisions. But on the other hand, I have these relationships that I've formed with all these little people.

speaker-0 (17:14.286)
I know two to 300 students by name and I have, you know, I greet them at the door every day. And so I'm, building trust and so it works really well together. And so I'm enjoying that mix.

Don't you find it, sorry Roy, but those relationships are the foundation of it all, right? We've both seen some amazing teachers, their curriculum was amazing, great instructors, but they didn't build those relationships and it was hard for them because of that.

Absolutely, and the kids still give me that spark of joy. I'm sure it's the same for you and others that we need in this work because it is exhausting work. But I find it's when I'm asked where my fire comes from, teachers on fire, right? It's interacting with kids and the opportunity to make an impact even for one student each day is hugely motivating.

I was going to say that that combination of being in an administrative position and being in the classroom, making those connections as an administrator, when you have to put that administrator hat on, I think that makes it so much easier for you because you have, you already have this connection. So you can say, I've seen you as a student in a positive light. And so this is a little glitch right now, but we can work through this, but you've already laid that emotional foundation so that

The student feels understood before you even deal with the situation at hand. no, I think that's a perfect role for an administrator.

speaker-1 (18:44.504)
And you you from Winnipeg in 2008? Yes. Were you teaching in Manitoba? Okay. And what were you teaching in Manitoba?

It was, yes. Yeah.

speaker-0 (18:58.888)
In Manitoba, I was teaching in a seventh grade homeroom. So that's where I started my career, graduated from the University of Winnipeg in 2001, and then yeah, teaching in a seventh grade homeroom. Are either of you familiar with Winnipeg?

I've been to Winnipeg, yeah, but a day or two, that's it.

Yeah. And I have family on the prairies in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. I've been there in the winter time. So I know the Prairie Gold. That's enough. That's why.

That's why you're here.

That's why I'm here and it's, I was just saying to someone yesterday, it's so hard to consider ever going back when you live with the ocean and mountains. do get a little tired of the constant rain, but here we are. this next part might be a little different on the North shore, but I heard on CBC yesterday that Vancouver may experience its first snow-free winter in 43 years. Wow. Which is pretty incredible for this guy from the prairies.

speaker-2 (20:03.042)
and I'm from Southwestern Ontario, just South of London, Ontario, near the Great Lakes in the snowbelt. I'm used to not the extreme cold temperatures of the prairies, but I'm, I'm used to seeing snow just as high as my head. in Ontario, they have a lot of snow. And I know my family tells me I sent them, I sent them a picture of me near the waterfront.

Yeah.

speaker-2 (20:32.75)
at 15 degrees in a park and there were carroquises in bloom.

So when it comes to podcasting, what are the biggest joys you get from it? I you refer to some of them, but things that stand out, is it just something that's different or what is it?

Yeah, I, where my mind goes first is back to what I alluded to a moment ago, when I take something away from a guest and I'm thinking about writing a blog post this weekend to just talk about, I had a guest a few weeks ago who is a principal in New Jersey and he was talking about the importance of delegation and he talked about how he's trained a group of students at his school to do the announcements and how that's just a load off of his plate.

And so I actually was inspired by that to do something a little different about the way I do my podcast at my school. And so I've started bringing in elementary students in sixth or seventh grade to join me as co-hosts every week. And I've found I'm a lot more consistent doing that because again, I have this social obligation with kids. So if it's just left up to me and no one's

Yes,

speaker-2 (21:39.842)
Yes.

speaker-0 (21:43.544)
forcing me to make a podcast for my school. It's just something cool that I like to do. But if it's only up to me and there's no commitment, then it's actually hard to be consistent because I've got all these other duties and on the triage chart, it sort of falls down as a priority. But if I've made an engagement to sit down on Friday lunch break with four seventh graders and do some recording, I'm going to keep it. So I want to thank Rich for that inspiration. That's one answer to your question.

I guess another is connecting like this with other creators. There's so many amazing creative educators out there and you learn from them and you're inspired by them. I just had a great conversation this morning with a, a, an AI expert down in Seattle, not too far away from us. And so you're just constantly learning. So one of you said a moment ago, it's, it's like weekly professional learning and that's, that's such a joy. That was another thing that I found last year when I took an eight or

nine month break, whatever it was, that I wasn't, you know, I tried to read education content, but I wasn't being engaged and my mind wasn't being sharpened the same way that it is when I'm in these conversations.

Yeah, I agree. It's that one way where you have, you're reading material and you're reading it and you're trying to absorb sections of it. You're trying to process it. It's so different when you're able to have the actual author of that document and you're looking at them. There's one to one discussion. You're pulling little...

So.

speaker-2 (23:21.878)
strands of the fabric out and having an analysis of that. And by doing that, I think that's what we often talk to our students about deep learning. That's the deep and I love those opportunities to have those discussions.

I need to work up the nerve guys to have or to invite Dr. Peter Liliedal. I don't know if you know that name. He's the author of Building Thinking Classrooms and he operates right in our news.

We looked at that book and I really would like to get him on.

Yeah, and I'm presenting on building thinking classrooms in a couple of weeks at with some of my teachers. And so I thought it now is the time I need to reach out. So I haven't yet. So hold me accountable on that. Okay. Because there is even after all these years, there's still some doubt, I guess, or you look at some of these big names and like Jonathan height is another one who would be such a dream to have on.

That's where I've, so Tim, at first I would think, they never would care about us, right? I'm not gonna, but now I just, I just send emails. I just do it. I just get the idea. And I sent an email to Jonathan Haidt. I said, come on our podcast. I got the most lovely response from his publicist. She said, she was so kind. She said, he's all booked up right now, but if there's a free spot, we'll let you know. And then I didn't hear from him for six months. So I sent her another email and I said, we really love what he has to say.

speaker-1 (24:46.316)
You just warm my heart by your request, she said. Now, I don't think he's going to appear on our podcast, but it shows you. Just go for it, right? Just go for it.

Yeah, mean, worst that can happen is a decline. really, mean, what does that do? We move on with our days, so.

I was trying to get a hold of Dr. Jared Covey, he just wrote the Digital Delusion or something, it's similar to John Cullen. yeah, Cullen? Yeah, he's an American based in Australia, so I sent him off and I haven't heard back from him, but they're just people that fascinate me, so I find I just let this reach out.

You're talking about

speaker-1 (25:26.318)
Okay.

So on the other side, what are the biggest challenges you have in producing the podcast and the things that go, the many things that go with producing a podcast?

The backside of it is waking up at 6.30 on a Saturday morning. So I, because my body really doesn't want to, I often want to sleep in. I'm exhausted from the week typically. And so it's a good reminder for me to go to bed at a reasonable time on Friday night, or I will pay the price. So I have to, I need to get up early to make sure I've sort of set up my, I usually record in my...

at the bar in my kitchen where the lighting's a little different. I'm trying my office this morning. So just getting up early and preparing and then going through the editing process, it's all a joy. So it's hard for me to say it's a challenge. And then there are technical glitches that happen. They are. I've got a six-year-old MacBook that is doing some weird things sometimes. I had a glitch this morning, actually.

We might talk later about Riverside versus StreamYard, but I've been using StreamYard for years and I always record local copies of the video on my computer and on my guest's computer and those copies are higher quality and then later I take those versions and I edit them and then that's what I end up putting on. I put that back on YouTube and then also on my podcast on Spotify.

speaker-1 (27:00.544)
Okay.

But this morning, somehow it did not record local versions. And I don't know if that has ever happened before. it's kind of funny timing that we're talking about this. Something new. So I have the cloud version. I didn't waste my guest time. It's on YouTube and I can edit that and put it on my podcast, but it will be sort of a jar from my usual workflow. So those things will happen when you're podcasting and you just have to roll with it and sort of shake it off and move on to the next conversation.

Tim, I'm impressed that you do this with a full-time teaching career and being an administrator, because we both retired a year and a half ago and then we the podcast. Roy Teele sees, but like Wednesday is our podcast day, so it's, you know, middle of the week. do, you know, I work on it throughout the week and that kind of thing, but I don't have to juggle that anymore with the classroom.

still in the cloud

speaker-2 (27:51.374)
And what I find being a TOC, we call it TTOC, a substitute teacher, I get to go into a lot of different schools and that works so well for our podcast because what I've been able to do is I'll teach in that day, I can see what's going on in school. We can talk about things, themes like the school environment. And I think what we really get

some good material is when I'm in the staff room having lunch and just the conversations that come up, the challenges that teachers are feeling at that point in time right now, it's getting close to report cards and there's, so there's, there's, can feel it in here. but it's wonderful because they, the teachers, I flaunt the fact that I'm a podcaster to every school I go, I leave.

We have kind of like after the bell business cards, I put one on every desk every time I go. And that's how we increased our listenership. But of also the connection that I've made with staff members. And sometimes they say, Roy, you might want to try this idea for your podcast. it gives us material without us thinking, you sometimes you try to come up with an idea and it's almost like kind of the shotgun approach. say, what do think, Martin?

What do you think we go online? We see, you know, what are some of the discussions in educational forums and then let's put this together and throw it out there and see if it, if it hits some of the, of the thinking of our listening population.

Yeah, I love that model. That's so smart. And that was going to be one of my questions. Are you leaving stickers or cards behind? So you are. that's just great. That's great marketing and promotion.

speaker-1 (29:42.009)
We do some TikTok videos. I'm kind of silly. But we, the last one we just did, we got 17,000, uh, hello people. Yeah. Yeah. It hit a nerve. was about, it was a little clip about the FSAs. Yeah. It, wow. It hit a nerve, right? So people have shared it. have over 200 comments on it. So, but Roy, tell him, him in his class. So, uh, great seven.

boy.

speaker-2 (30:04.782)
The school I retired from, they call me back anytime they're looking for someone for replacement. I go into the school and there's this cheer. The kids, Mr. Hunt's here today. And it's just that feeling. And it just fills my heart so much. And then my grade sevens, and as we probably all know, in that grade six forum, they spend a lot of time on social media. Right? So I've walked down the hall and every once in a while, one of the older students will stop and say, I saw you on TikTok. And so,

I was in a grade seven class and they know that I'm a podcaster. And so as soon as I got in there and we sat down and took attendance, I so Mr. Hunt, we've been watching your TikToks and we really liked them to make us laugh. But one of the students said, asked to me, said, so can you tell us what is your best TikTok so far? And I said, we just had one two days ago. It's at 17, actually over now, 17,000.

views and then this one student stood up and he went and then the whole class stood up and they all applauded me because it was it's something that resonates with them they they know about that social media world but was so funny that was more meaningful for me than the 17,000 views

Yeah, well, I think it's great modeling, right? Our students see us creating and there's always a bit of a wonder about how it's perceived by some of our colleagues. But I've found for the most part, they're very supportive. And yeah, I think for students just to know that, because like you, they discovered that I have a YouTube channel, that I have a podcast, but I think it's good modeling and I hope it inspires others. I talk to kids who are starting up YouTube channels and I definitely encourage them.

Yeah. I do get a little bit anxious when kids tell me they're watching and listening because the algorithms are paying attention to that too. And so the algorithms are sizing up like, this content is popular with children. We'll show it to more children. No, that's not my target. Yeah. No, it's a lot of fun when you, mean, hearing the, the welcome you received Roy is really heartwarming. And I just love the idea that you have as a TOC, if you're

speaker-1 (32:08.182)
but no

speaker-0 (32:20.61)
I don't know if you're in every district, at least in your district, you're keeping the pulse of what's going on. that's just really cool for your podcast.

Tim, is there one guest you had on that really stands out? It was just like, that was the best guest I've had or somebody that you just learned so much from?

I really struggle with this question because there have been so many great ones over the years. One name I guess that I would go back to is a guy named Danny Bauer, who is a great coach. He's a great leader, great thinker. He's got his own podcast, which I can't give you the exact achievement, but I know it's one of the highest rated education podcasts that is out there. It's better leaders, better schools.

You can look them up after the conversation and connect with them. But he's just a really smart guy and left me with a number of gems. couldn't recount them to you now because it's been five plus years, but I still see him on LinkedIn and I enjoy his books. So that's one that comes to mind.

Excellent. Good. Just to flip that a little further though, let's say, let's say, okay, you're making your last five episodes of your podcast, but it didn't have to be educational. You could have anybody and they're going to come on your podcast. would be five people that you admire? I mean, you mentioned Jonathan Haidt, but it could be anyone in this world who's alive. Are there five people you can narrow it down to? They'd go, okay, it's like Colbert's having five, he's ending his show, right? So you're, you're ending your show.

speaker-1 (33:50.444)
You're making millions now. You're this amazing podcaster. Who would be the last final five guests?

Wow. That's fun. Okay. Let's, let's have some fun with that. you mentioned Stephen Colbert. So I'm going to put him as one of my five. He's an interesting dude, right? I, I'm sure he would have a lot of thoughts about education because just listening to him over the years back from the, the Colbert report or was it Colbert report? Yeah. Yeah. let's put him down. Let's say,

okay.

speaker-1 (34:19.982)
Yeah.

speaker-0 (34:24.686)
I already mentioned Jonathan Haidt. Let's say Elon, not because I admire everything that he does, but he is a name in the tech space. fact, mean, having any of the tech giants on would be interesting to be able to give them, sort of put them on the hot seat a little bit and get their vision for the future. And let's see, that's such a great question. I mean, there's so many...

sure.

speaker-0 (34:53.781)
One that I have admired for some time that this may be a name that you know is Dean Shoresky. And I'm looking forward to having him on my podcast. He filled out my form this week. So that's a fist bump. He's a Canadian education leader. And who else? Let's take a big name in assessment like Dylan William. He's another one that I haven't reached out to yet that I probably should, but he's the author of many assessment books. I believe...

how we assess, and I do believe frankly that BC is the leader in assessment nationwide and maybe internationally, but I do think how we assess is sort of the backbone. It's sort of the foundation behind how we teach, how our education systems operate. So I would love to speak with him. I feel bad that I listed five men. There are many ladies that I would love to speak

Okay.

speaker-0 (35:49.002)
Let's say Cody Sanchez would be one of the ladies. She's a fantastic entrepreneur and has got a lot of great ideas. Any of the entrepreneurs that I listened to, someone like Pat Flynn or John Lee Dumas, I feel like they must have a lot of education opinions about how our education systems should be teaching financial literacy and creating space for more entrepreneurial work.

do things like entrepreneurship fairs, which I'm sure your schools have had.

And you do have some amazing guests we had Andrew Cantaruti on. fantastic. We just met with him a couple weeks ago and he's going to be on a future episode. We discovered him on your podcast actually and then connected with him. And I thought this was great. I've been looking for someone like Jonathan Haidt, right? That kind of person. And so he was a Canadian person that kind of has been dealing with the walled gardens concept. And that was thanks to you. So I appreciate that you brought him to our attention. Yeah.

yeah, right yeah.

speaker-0 (36:49.026)
Well, thank you for listening to Teachers on Fire. For anyone listening who's not familiar with Andrew.

Give a plug for your teachers on fire. Where can people find it?

Yeah, it's very Googleable. if whatever platform you're on, and by the way, gentlemen, I don't know how you've set up after the bell, but what I advise would be podcasters and creators is try to own the same handle in every space. Even if you're not going to be in that space a whole lot, if you don't own it, someone else will eventually own it.

If you can, so in my case, I've got at teachers on fire on just about every space that you can think of just about Andrew. would say his thing for anyone listening who's not familiar with his content is attention should be the curriculum and they really need to build what we're doing around attention. And so there's, it's a really interesting time in education. Like I said, this morning, I just spoke with more of a pro AI person who has published a book called AI optimism.

And she would be an advocate for thoughtful use of AI, especially in our high schools. But then you have these other voices, like some of my other guests. Another great one is a Dr. Zach Rochelle, who is really calling for a return to traditional instruction and getting distractions out of the classroom and saying, hold on, all of our use of devices is not really helping students learn.

speaker-0 (38:17.186)
There's a great tension happening in education and I'm here for it.

I like that there's attention because I think there hasn't been that conversation. think it's because AI for a lot of people has come on so quickly. mean, obviously it's been behind the scenes, but suddenly people go, whoa, what's this? So it's causing a conversation that we haven't had.

I'm a bit of a pause. Yeah. Yeah. think, and sort of a reflection looking at, guess, kind of that the original of the analog based school, if you want to think of it that way, there's like things that are hands-on approach. We, instead of that fractured, fragmental learning that occurs, stop, start, stop, start, but we have something more prolonged. think that the buzzword that's been around for a long time is that deep learning. Like how do you do that?

And when you're talking about something deep and sustained, then what you're really looking at is more time focused, more sustained attention. And that's a capacity that when we talk to Andrew, that's a capacity that we can build. you, can we wean our students off technology in the daily confines of the school, but still see it as a productivity tool that can advance them. You know, it's kind of like,

It's like dessert. Dessert's amazing. know, but if you have dessert every day, there's going to be a problem later on with your health. Right. Right. And so, so can you have it just as a, as, as a dessert at the end of a meal, at the end of all this deep learning that occurs, the fact that you can sustain your attention for a period of time and go, okay, so we have some dessert today. Maybe that's the kind of analogy we need.

speaker-0 (39:57.518)
Yeah, it's a good one. like you, gentlemen, I'm sure I started at a time when there was no technology in the classroom, or the only technology was an overhead projector. That was it. Have I got the right name?

Chalkboards. Original chalkboards, right?

And one of the, one of the, I have so many thoughts on this topic, but one of the things I think back to gentlemen is the way that some of my middle schoolers would manage their binders. Remember they would have these massive binders and it would go every handout and every worksheet from every teacher. And you'd have that percentage of, now let's be real, usually they were boys who just could not manage it for whatever reason. And so it wasn't organized. It was just stuffed in there.

and papers would fall out. And if you ever asked them to find an assignment from last week, it was hopeless. And so that's one, I guess a win from technology or something I've considered a win for a long time is that these learning management systems actually provide the structure and organization for some students. But I know there are so many facets to this conversation.

But I like the way Andrew talks about how attention can be taught. Like I think we've all thought, well, attention spans are done. They're 10 seconds long. And no, we need to slow down and think, actually, you can teach attention. Kids can focus for longer than we think. Let's not give up on that either.

speaker-0 (41:21.422)
It's true, yeah, and I agree with that. A lot of educators, I think, have sort of given up or said like, okay, we're dealing with the TikTok generation, so we have to assume attention spans of one minute or something. And I agree, let's push back on that and let's build that muscle up.

Tim, how do you decide on topics that are worthwhile bringing into your podcast? What process do you go through for that?

Yeah, thanks for the question. I appreciate it. And I've seen many of our peers sort of select more of a niche in their education podcast. And I like the title of our podcast because it sort of leaves it open, right, to a variety of topics in education. So in terms of how I select a topic, I think it would just be what resonates with me. I learned a while ago,

And I'm sure you gentlemen are at the stage where you're getting many requests, like they kind of start coming in every day. They they do, yeah. And from all over the place and often from third party agencies that are trying to find podcasts for authors and speakers and so forth. And I've learned not to accept those very quickly because if a name and an individual doesn't resonate with me and their message doesn't resonate with me, I'm not going to really enjoy doing it.

So I try to stick with people that actually attract my attention first. And, you know, in the case of my guest this morning, I was just seeing her. Now I featured her about five years ago, so I knew her already, but I was seeing her, she's been doing more TikTok, what do you call them? TikTok walks. And where she just sort of rants about, not an angry rant, but she just...

speaker-0 (43:01.134)
sort of rants about her thoughts about AI in education and what's going on. And while she walks. And I just was finding, oh, every time I see a video from Becky, it's really pushing my thinking in this space. And so I wanted to feature her voice. So to get back to your question, I would just say any topic, any speaker out there in education who's doing interesting work that gets my attention, then that is...

she was.

speaker-0 (43:29.794)
justification for me to reach out to them.

And I think when you approach it that way, it's endless actually, right? You can make anything, right? It's not narrow, it's not just focused on classroom only, right? It's just education is part of everything, right? And the way we create society is part of everything. And I think it opens up to those moments and guests that just are so satisfying as the podcast host.

YouTube featuring people who are not directly in K to 12 education?

Yeah, we have. Yeah, we had a physical therapist on, for example.

And the physiotherapist is actually my personal trainer. So what happened was I started to develop a hip problem that manifested into the need of a hip replacement. so I am one of the things I said to myself, I'm not going to let this get to me. She offered some great advice. And as she did that, for me, it was a moment of reflection about, I could have gone on a different

speaker-2 (44:27.918)
I could have felt sorry for myself. I could have gained a lot of weight waiting for the surgery, but I didn't. And that was partially for the inspiration from working with someone like Andrea Brennan here in North Vancouver. And she just has a bubbly personality. And I know our listenership bumped up. That episode had a lot of attraction for a lot of our listeners.

you do you you're totally open you just go again your interests and not think how does it fit as it they don't have to be an educator for example.

try to actually, I try to stick pretty closely to education. I'll often say that, and sometimes when people reach out, I'll say that, no, sorry, I'm trying to stick to K to 12 educators. I might make rare exceptions. Like for example, Jonathan Haight, he's not an educator, he's not in K to 12 schools, but his message is so relevant that I would find that easy to make that connection. But I'm trying to keep it.

within education. would love to have a podcast that is, you know, the Tim Cavey show where I could just focus on absolutely anybody. But yes, I'm trying to work within a niche so that any educator that tunes in can hearing something education.

That's certainly still our niche. we're still, it's about teacher wellness. So it's going to be on wellness issues. It's going to be on someone like social media implications. Well, how's it affecting teenagers? Well, that affects teachers because they teach teenagers, right? So definitely we have that connection with every episode for sure.

speaker-2 (45:59.79)
There are lot of strands that, while they're not specifically in the education world, that there are connections to education. We had a really good episode with Joanne Griffiths from Backpack Buddies. We were able to go and talk about food insecurity and see, we saw the production facility. We met Joanne and her daughter who had this idea of providing food.

for students who didn't have food for the weekends. Their mandate is on every Friday, but they're so big now, it's not only Friday, it's Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. They deliver bags of food for students around BC, and those students take them home for the weekend, and they have a set of weekend meals for that food insecurity. That's not specifically education, but that makes a connection to

to our students and the needs within our communities. And I think that's kind of the outside the walls of the school. There are things that affect what's going inside the walls of the school. that was really warm my heart to see that. And both of us wanted to make sure that we gave backpack buddies as much of a shout out as possible because they're doing some really good things to support our students and in our community.

I would love to feature them as well. I agree. think it's very relevant if you're serving students. We know that students can't learn if they're not feeling loved, safe and fed. It comes back to Maslow. yeah, I think that sounds fantastic.

I mean, saying all that, I'm a big Beatle fan. Paul McCartney wants to come on my podcast. He can come any day.

speaker-0 (47:45.73)
Well, I mean, and you two gentlemen, maybe now that you're in this delightful retired chapter, maybe you need to start a second podcast too. might be a possibility.

Yeah. So we appreciate you've given up a lot of your time. Roy, when do think of that final question?

One question for you. to wrap it up. Because we have a story that goes with this, but I love this question. is, what is the weirdest or funniest technical issue you've had while recording?

While recording, I was ready for in the classroom, but while recording.

Yeah.

speaker-0 (48:24.748)
Well, can I tell a classroom story? It's not very technical, so it is a great story though. So in about 2011, 2012, I was living on my own in East Vancouver in a basement suite. And one night before school, I had the unfortunate circumstance of putting my elbow through the wall of my shower. it, I slipped.

and my elbow went through the tile and it sliced my elbow wide open. there was, it was a gory, it was a scene. clean that all up. And then living as a bachelor at the time, I thought, okay, I'm just going to patch this up, go to bed. It'll be fine in the morning. So I did not want to go sit at the Burnaby emergency room for hours and hours. thought I'll just, it'll be fine. Wake up the next day.

And I can see that the wound hasn't quite healed, but I sort of patch it up, go about my thing, get to school. And I purposely wore a long sleeve shirt and a long sleeve black sweater. And I thought, okay, if there's any bleeding, no one will know. Well, guys, it opened up and my elbow opened up and I could not stop the bleeding. So long story short, was, my students became aware that I was having this problem.

This is so, this is so awful. It's so grotesque. I can't believe I did this, but at one point in the day I was like, I would cover it with bandages and whatever I could find and nothing was stopping just because of where the cut was, right? my elbow. I was literally sitting at my desk, holding it over a garbage can at one point. so my, my students were forever traumatized. became a legendary story for years.

Imagine. People will remember that for rest of their life.

speaker-0 (50:23.674)
And, they might, they might, I'm embarrassed to say not my most professional or decision, but as soon as, and, I should say, I was only a teacher at that point, but as soon as the day was over, I rushed over to the hospital and got it stitched up, but I'll never make that mistake again. That was, that was,

But what a metaphor for teachers.

Yeah

Yeah, we can't afford, but yeah, we keep going. That's right. That's the positive take.

We'll share it with you one issue that happened.

speaker-2 (51:02.894)
we did a summer session or actually it was the beginning session September where we went to Manning Park. We went camping and so we called them the Manning Park episodes, talked about things that came to us. We saw the first, most likely the first field trip of a high school at Manning Park. They were canoeing and things. So, okay, let's do an episode on field trips. And then as we're doing the field trip one, we're sitting at

at the table and we're listening to all the animals around us. And it's just beginning to September and this we're recording this red squirrel comes up and it's down at my feet and go, so cute. Look at that red squirrel. Martin looks and red squirrel jumps up on the bench and then jumps up in the table and then runs across Martin's computer. Just hits everything.

We're recording, we're recording

speaker-1 (51:53.102)
deletes everything. It deletes it all. When it's not video, I do it on Logic Pro. I edit it on Logic Pro and then I upload it to Buzzsprout. They host our non-video component, but that was gone. Couldn't figure out how to it.

list.

speaker-2 (52:08.11)
It took forever. But then that was the inspiration for our next another episode at Manning Park, which called the uninvited guest. And which basically the examples are when you're teaching a class that things are kind of going crazy. And then, you know, your assistant superintendent is standing at the door watching you, you know, in action.

at your

your worst moment, right? So that became the title for our episode, The Uninvited Guest.

take off.

Guys, that is hilarious. Thanks for sharing that. I've never had a squirrel cancel a recording live. Yeah. You couldn't make that happen if you tried, right? Although I will say at many of our lovely BC camp locations, we get a lot of friendly chipmunks and squirrels who have been conditioned, right?

speaker-1 (52:45.582)
think that's pretty original.

speaker-1 (52:58.348)
Yes, they have. That's why this squirrel was up there. Well, thank you, Tim. We really appreciate it. We encourage our listeners to check out Teachers Hunt Fire. It's a wealth of guests and information and we enjoy listening to it and we know our listeners will as well. And thank you for giving us your time today. Thank you.

Thank you

speaker-0 (53:17.592)
Thank you so much for having me on. What a pleasure to connect with you guys and I look forward to seeing you on TikTok. That's the first stop we'll make after this conversation.

There you go. Okay. Thank you.

speaker-1 (53:33.868)
Well, thank you, Tim. We appreciate you coming on and here in your podcasting journey.

It's wonderful because I know we did some reading, but our podcast was organic. we developed it, we worked it, and then as we started drawing from other podcasts, some ideas from podcasts, and then I remember reading about educational podcasts and Teachers on Fire came up and it was really great to have him.

talk about his process and the things that he went through to develop his.

the way he shared some of his personal stories and I really liked that last story. What do you think?

Well, it was based on that question that I gave them, right? And the question that, what is the most or the funniest technical difficulty that you've had in producing your podcast? Then he said, well, could I use a classroom experience? And we said, okay. And then he shared that story about putting his elbow through the tiled wall in his shower. And then from that point,

speaker-1 (54:30.894)
I didn't it was going lead to blood.

speaker-2 (54:48.686)
through the entire day, just blood dripping. That's right. I've heard people go powering on through a headache. I've heard of people powering on through, you know, a cold, not something that requires stitches.

They power on through

speaker-1 (55:04.715)
Old Nanoco-

speaker-1 (55:09.39)
And he used the word crime scene and it reminded me just last week we were were a dog sitting. mother-in-law's dog, Grace, great, great dog. But she went out into the garden and cut her paw. And I didn't realize that at first. So she came into the kitchen. Suddenly, we want a crime scene, blood everywhere. And I just had to keep her, first of all, didn't want her to get on the white carpet to stay in the kitchen. Trying to do that. Look after the paw, clean it.

And then I had this kitchen to clean up. So I'm there and down on my hands and knees with a bucket and a rag and wiping away. And if anybody walked in and saw me smearing, cleaning up this bucket, it was like something out of Breaking Bad. I don't know. was like, what was going on there?

We have a call from a postal employee who just happened to peer through a window and see a man mopping up blood on a sketchy

Exactly, one of those moments. So there you go listeners, thank you for joining us on After the Bell and it was great learning about another podcasters journey and we want you to stay healthy, stay fit and join us again next time here on After the Bell. This podcast is organic, taking shape with each episode. Building resiliency for teachers everywhere. And our website is stuntbrothers.ca.

That sounds great.

speaker-2 (56:23.95)
That's StuntBrothers.ca

We will chat again.

after the bell.

you