Episode 57: Transforming Education With Dr. Misty Paterson

The Stunt Brothers are back on the road for another field trip and this time they’re sitting down with Dr. Misty Paterson, the educator and creative force behind Pop-Up Studio. Her work blends inquiry, hands-on materials, and playful exploration to help teachers and students become true meaning-makers. Misty’s work shines a light on the beauty of play and the power of intentional learning design. Let’s go!

key Takeaways

• The importance of inquiry-based learning in education.
• Pop-Up Studio promotes joyful experimentation in learning.
• Teachers need to create emotionally sustainable practices.
• Misconceptions about inquiry learning can lead to confusion.
• Tools and materials enhance understanding in students.
• Creating meaning through experience is vital for learning.
• Care and compassion are essential in educational settings.
• Transforming staff rooms can foster community among teachers.
• Creative exploration can alleviate teacher burnout.
• Building a caring village is crucial for teacher support.

keywords
education, inquiry-based learning, teacher wellness, Pop-Up Studio, Dr. Misty Paterson, creative exploration, teacher burnout, community building, caring in education, professional development

Learn more at stuntbrothers.ca

Dr. Paterson on LinkedIn 

Learn more about Dr. Paterson and Pop Up Studio       

Learn more about Dr. Paterson's PhD Dissertation 

Living Inquiry As Pedagogy by Dr. Paterson 

Dr. Paterson on Instagram 

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Transcript

Good afternoon podcast listeners everywhere. Welcome to After the Bell.

Stunt Brothers production. I'm Martin Stuible. And I'm Roy Hunt and we share your pain having taught a combined 70 years. 70 years. I know, wow. So get out your marking, organize your supplies or just pour yourself a coffee. I think I need something stronger. That's 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. Oh, I always show up for a free meal.

Well, Mr. Hunt, episode 57 of After the Bell. Nice, season two, episode 27. Wow, that just rolled off your You did not have to do any kind of calculations that, you know, an hour later he finally gets it right. I wrote it on my hand. Okay. I was wondering. If it works for you, that's fine. Well, it does, came up. I want to find what will work for me because I've had this cold for almost five weeks now.

And I have to hear this groggy voice when I edit this podcast and I'm tired of it. I think it's time to get that old ancient medical book out and find one of those nasty, kind of cold remedy things that seems like. I kind of envisioned Billy Crystal in Princess Bride, you know?

into the apothecary in him with his wife who placed his character in that, you know, her long fingers and opening up the book and finding some remedy for me. that what you're... Is that what you're getting at? That's what I'm thinking. Okay. If it works, I'll try it right now. Well... Because this is the cold that never ends. I've forgotten what your voice really sounds like. know. Exactly. That's what I'm worried about. I'm worried new listeners are...

What's up with that guy? That guy's got a frog in his He's got a froggy voice. Well, luckily I don't have to speak too long because we are going on a field trip. Yes, we are. love our field trips. We've had so many this year. Good ones, lots of good ones. Who are we going to see this time? Today we are going to meet with Dr. Misty Paterson. Fantastic. The educator and creator behind Pop-Up Studio. exciting. And I just think we've

had such a wealth of educators and other guests on our podcast that really to me, even if no one else gets anything out of it, I always do, right? Because I just find they bring a wisdom, a different way of looking at things that helps me kind of analyze and helps us, I think, try to get to the heart of what it is that makes our education system better, but also how we help with the mental health of our teachers and help get them through what is a challenging job.

That's right. But also probably one of the greatest jobs there is, right? So let's go.

Well, here we are. Today we're joined by Misty Paterson, the educator and creator behind Pop-Up Studio, a movement that blends inquiry, materials, and joyful experimentation to help teachers and students become meaning makers in their own learning. Misty's work across social media highlights the beauty of play, the power of intentional design, and the need for emotionally sustainable teaching practices. Today, we are exploring how all of this connects to student learning.

and wellness. Welcome Misty. Thank you so much for having me. This is exciting. We always start with ABC 1, 2, 3, which is just a little way of getting to know our guests. Don't think you have to overthink the answers. Just whatever pops in your head and we'll go from there. So Roy, we'll start with the ABC. I will. Right. A, paint or clay?

you already started with the hard one. I'm going to say clay. I like that tactile thing. My wife's really into clay. We got a big conk in the back of the card. You notice that every time you... All right. B, hands on first or discussion first? Hands on first. Number three.

No, which is C and rhymes with three. Calm and curated or playful and spontaneous? Another hard one. my goodness. Calm and curated or? Playful and spontaneous. Playful and spontaneous. Nice. OK, one, two, three. One, what was your favorite book as a child? Do you have one?

that you think back that stands out? One book that stands out is The Velveteen Rabbit. Why The Velveteen Rabbit? You know, now I can look back and name it differently than I could at that time. I think there was a magic about it that I could sense, but not really language. So it's hard for me to remember at the time, but it was definitely a feeling. And I think now it's that whole idea of love making something real. I love that. Number two.

you have a favorite teacher from your childhood that stands out, you know, had influence on you. I do. I do. mean, I have a few. Yeah. But one of my favorite teachers that stands out was my grade seven teacher, Mrs. A. OK. Yeah. And she stands out to me because she did so many real and exciting things with us. And now, again, I have different language than I did back then.

But I would say because she was really into the arts herself and the arts and culture go together, she gave us opportunities to tap into cultural things that were meaningful for her. And that brought joy to us too. Like I remember making Ukrainian Easter eggs and we had like real flames and that was a big deal, like real candles, you know? And she trusted us. Even though my class

My cohort, we were terrible. For like any teacher on call, teaching teacher on call that came, we were like so bad. And she's loved us anyway. And she just, I felt brought out the best in us. So, and then brought out the best in me. Yeah. It's funny you should mention the flames. I've had students talk about, I always did let it be with my class for remembrance day and they would, they would actually carry real flames and they, I actually have them waiting in the changing room.

I was always worried because we smoke detectors and stuff. But they always talk about how the fact that I trusted them with this fire. And I, you know, I didn't ask the administration. just did. Right. it's better. Yes. Beg for forgiveness later. for forgiveness. Well, thank you. And then number three, do you have a favorite piece of music that if it was the only piece of music you could listen to, you're on a deserted island, right? You don't have to play it over and over again until you're sick of it, but just, you know, that's the piece of music you can play. Is there one that stands out for you?

wow. Well, this may be because I've watched Stranger Things with my son. I think like the whole five seasons, like a couple of times. Yeah, Kate Bush is she's just she's so brilliant. And one of my favorite songs by her is Women's Work. OK.

I mean, Running Up That Hill is obviously made... Yeah, you say Kate Bush, hear that. Yeah, it's made popular again. Her vocals are amazing. She is a true artist and she, I think, retained all of her copyright. So, you know, and I remember I did some work in Brussels and my contact, and I think he's the director there, I might be getting his title wrong, but he's a Kate Bush fan as well.

And he was talking to me about how she would be very discerning about where she would perform. And he's like, know, Misty, you're like Kate Bush, you know, like you could, you're so artsy and like you could, you could just be really discerning about where you go and how you engage with the environment because it's important because acoustics was important to her. But also the,

the ephemeral nature of where she was, whole aesthetic. I understand now. I mean, I'm hearing it second party, so it might not be true, that's my response. there's certain artists that somehow stand out from the crowd. And, know, to be an artist nowadays, often you're put into a box. You've got to fit this mold. And there's people like Kate Bush that somehow transcend that, right? And it's amazing. So a worthy choice. Yeah.

So Misty, could you tell us a little bit about yourself and the journey that led you to creating Pop-Up Studio? A little bit about myself. Well, I am a long time educator. I'm a mom. I just finished my PhD. So I guess that calls me, you call me a scholar or a researcher.

You know, I'm a sister, I could go on and a daughter, and I'm really a work in progress. I really consider myself to be a lifelong learner through and through. And what brought me to Prop Up Studio is a little bit of a long story they'll try to make succinct. But basically, in the early 2000s, I was at a school that was facing declining enrollment. We needed to do something to save our school.

And at that time, the IB, or International Baccalaureate Primary Years program, was pretty new on the scene. In fact, there was only one independent school in Vancouver at the time, Stratford Hall, that was operating as an official world school. And this was a program that our superintendent at the time said, we think that this might be a good fit for the school. So we started to explore it. And because, again, we were declining enrollment, we had lost our vice principal.

because we didn't have the budget for it and I was invited to step up as a head teacher. So I did it scared. we did... best way sometimes. but curious. Scared but curious. I love teaching and very passionate. And we started to explore this program. And inquiry or inquiry is the primary pedagogical framework or model for that particular program.

Now again, this is the early-ish 2000s. think it was 2004 or 2005 we officially started our candidacy. So there wasn't a lot on this topic of inquiry from a teacher or student, like how to do this in the classroom, really practical kind of piece. There were some things. The Galileo Network had put out some things. Kath Murdock had put out some things.

And I was just desperate to figure out how to do this because I was asked, invited, told, challenged that I needed to have a classroom where colleagues could kind of see what this might look like. I was asked and invited to take on a leadership role. I was teaching grade six, seven at the time.

So I went off for IB training and, you know, of course it was helpful to a certain extent, but I didn't feel like I really got the manual that I was looking for. So it was a lot of experimentation. I was doing my masters at the time. I enrolled in in-campus program at the Center for Cross-Faculty Inquiry. At UBC it doesn't exist anymore.

Martin Stuible (11:52.884)
but I got a chance to take courses called Performative Inquiry, Living Inquiry. I was obsessed. Like anything with inquiry, give it to me because this is my job now. Right? So fast forward, I finished my master's. I have my daughter. you know, West Bay is the school that I was at and their official IB world school. It's 2008. And a couple of years later, I get seconded to the University of...

British Columbia in an inquiry cohort called CITE, the Community of Inquiry in Teacher Education. So by this time, it's 2010. Fast forward again another five years and our curriculum has been redesigned. And inquiry is a strong feature of that curriculum. I had also done some specialized training in concept-based curriculum and instruction with Lynn Erickson and Lois Lanning. Our curriculum is a concept-based, competency-driven model.

So I was well positioned because I had this, you know, technical knowledge and skill and specialized training, but I had also lived through this journey as a classroom teacher and as a pedagogical leader, a vice principal. I had studied this from a research perspective. So I had this, you know, sort of well-rounded view. I also had a young daughter at the time in a Reggio-inspired preschool that I had helped to grow.

So I was able to look at this thing called inquiry from lots of different perspectives and I started getting asked to come to schools and lead PD. Now typically PD is, you know, a half day or a day. This is our model. And to be charged with the challenge of taking something like inquiry that's actually really robust. I mean, we can simplify it and call it research, call it curiosity. But if we call it research that's

that helps a little bit more to kind of situate it as there's different methods. It's complicated, perhaps. Like it leads to different things. There's a journey involved, like all these things we kind of talk about and we know. But to try to convey that in a half-day workshop or a day workshop was really hard. And even though I had been apprenticing with, know, Lynn Erickson, et cetera, I found that just, you know, showing pictures of practice of

Martin Stuible (14:16.144)
my context didn't always resonate with the audience who may have a different context. So theoretically, we could intellectualize and go, yeah, I get this. But the constraints would come up and create this affective like dissidence, like, I can't do that or my kids can't do that. And I remember that feeling very well, because when I first started, we went off to Stratford Hall. I mentioned I was teaching grade six, seven.

They had a grade five classroom, which was the oldest sort of grade in the school. And their context looked quite different. They had a class size of nine at the time. They were using one-to-one devices for individualized research. We went away going like, well, even though we're declining enrollment, we still have like 25 kids in a class. We don't have an entrance exam. We accept everyone. We've got maybe more diversity in our population in terms of strengths and challenges, et cetera.

we can't do what they're doing. So I remembered that feeling of like, have to do something, but I don't have the conditions, or I don't feel like I have the conditions to be successful. And so I thought, I have to do PD differently. I have to offer something different. And so I realized I need to invite people into an experience firsthand, like being a student.

And I have to be really careful because if I only offer a singular experience, what I know about learning is we're going to translate because of our PD history and model of like a replication type of system. I'm going to show you something that you need to do in your classroom. You're going to need to learn it and you're going to need to master it by the time you leave this PD because you're going to have to implement it in your classroom.

And there may not actually be support to do that, but we're going to expect that you know how to do it because you went off to PD. We've all been there, right? And so I just thought, shoot, like I can't do this with inquiry. Like I can't offer a singular modality or a singular type of experience because I know that associations in the brain are likely going to be, well, this is what it needs to look like. And so I thought I have to give a variety of experiences.

So I started to ask for two spaces when I went to do workshops in schools or even at the district level or an association level. I asked for like a nest or like this meeting kind of space and then a classroom type of space. And the classroom space I called a pop-up classroom.

so to go back to one of the questions you asked about the, you know, hands on piece of the calm curated upon reflection, started with the calm curated because adult learners want to know like, what the heck are we doing here? So we would meet and kind of talk about what the heck are we doing here and prepare them for, we're going to go into a classroom space for you to have an experience as a student. And then we'll come back out and reflect. I didn't want them to go directly into the space because I did want some kind of schema.

you know, initially to be able to hold on to, come into that kind of playful space. And what I saw in that playful pop-up classroom space was unlike anything I expected, there was so much play and joy, like laughing. And there would always be some teachers that would come to me and say, my gosh, this is making me think about my childhood or like,

Or they would use language like this is magical or like this is transformative or this is therapeutic. Did many of them bring some misconceptions that you found that this took away? Like what were some of the biggest misconceptions about inquiry learning that you found? Oh, that's a good question. Okay, I'm gonna come back to that. But I just wanna say with these pop-up classrooms, I started having like the principals or some of the teachers contact me and say, we did a pop-up classroom with our...

with our students and they loved it. And the students who don't traditionally, I hate that word traditionally, that's not quite the right word in this context, who don't typically thrive or show their stuff, they were the ones that were really shining. And so what was so amazing to me about that is the transfer. Like there's transfer happening in PDE with something that's complex. Quickly.

joyfully and with unexpectedly positive results. So I was like, something's going on there. I had a chance to go to Harvard to do the Project Zero experience for a week in 2018. And one of the workshops I went to was studio thinking. And in that reflection, I went, oh, this is a lot about studio thinking and ways of being. This is a pop-up studio.

And that was quite perfect for me because at that point I didn't have a classroom of my own. I was like a prep teacher, a specialist teacher. So I was going into other people's classrooms. So I couldn't, I didn't have the, well, I have a maker space or I have a shelf with all the stuff because it was just me moving from place to place, whether that was conference halls or staff rooms or classrooms or outside or whatever. So,

Yeah, that's how Pop-Up Studio came to be. And at that time with these results, I was getting asked, Misty, could you write your approach down? Could you write a book? And I laughed and went like, I have no idea what my approach is. Like, I'm just doing it. It's hard to put into words sometimes, right? It really is. I I've had people say, so, you know, this is amazing in here. Explain it. And you go, how do I do it? Right? Yeah, it's a real challenge. But should be able to, though.

Yes. at of the day, right? That's the thing. Yeah. Yeah. You do want to be able to language. But it's hard. Yeah, but it's hard. And writing is, think, know, people talk about this, but I do think it's one of the best modalities to really synthesize your thinking and to get that clarity.

And so when I was working on, well, I thought it was going to be a brochure. I was like, I can commit to a brochure with a reading list. And the first edition of Pop-Up Studio was about 80 pages. And I was working with a teacher artist at the time. She was doing some iconography for me. And I was asking her about book titles. And I was like, yeah, you know, well, I just did this Pop-Up Studio. And she's like, wait a minute, Misty, her name's Amy Burvall. That should be the title of your book.

And so that's how Pop-Up Studio came to be. You asked about misconceptions. Yeah, just go back to that. you. Because of course there are many, right? Yeah. What have you found? Yeah. Wow. You know, it's interesting because I've been at this work around inquiry since I think I mentioned, right, it was 2004, I think formally. Formally. That's a long time. Yeah, over 20 years. It's my 22nd year.

And it still eludes me. know, still like, if people were to say like, how do you define that word? Like, it's still a challenge. And I think, you know, that happens. I can't remember whose model it is, but they talk about like novice to expert and the closer as you get into expert and the deeper you get into the expert side of things, the more you say, trust me, it's complicated. Whereas a novice, it's like, yeah, I know that I get that. Right. So I think that.

in and of itself kind of answers the question in terms of the misconceptions that sometimes it can be overly simplified like, it's just questions. I encountered that just yesterday reading an article about it and I can't remember the writer, but he was basically saying kids are just plain. They're not getting any skills. not learning anything that's really deep curriculum. And he was arguing is actually destroying the ability of kids to.

develop the skills they would have in a previous generation. Yeah, thanks for adding that because that helps me actually clarify a point that I'd love to make about misconceptions around this work. And I've seen it firsthand. there can be a very damaging, and I'm going to speak very bluntly here and to all who are listening, I'm saying this bluntly and gently and lovingly.

for our profession because our profession is so complicated. So I'm really speaking from a loving place here. Unfortunately, sometimes the way inquiry is presented and translated, it can come across with language such as we follow the kid's interests. It's all about the child centered. And what can happen is

it can cause a lot of role confusion, role ambiguity for the teacher. And what it could translate for the teacher is like, I don't really have a role. Like, I don't know what to do. And it can be so hands off that there isn't the pedagogical guiding. And even that word of guiding, right? So that's where things can become.

really, I'm going to use the word damaging because it can, I mean, it could be a form of abandonment if, you know, and so then, or neglect, right? That pedagogical neglect, if we're thinking about what our role is in terms of helping children to become thinkers, helping children to become,

someone who can question, like I'm thinking about our core competencies, right? And being reflective. Even when we look at play, there's strong research to support that actually that guided play is, and I want to be really careful here because I know listeners are going to be like, my gosh, that's what is she reading? That's so not true. But there is a place for the guided play, meaning like,

We go back to John Dewey, right? And he has that classic quote of, don't learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience. It's the reflecting piece. And reflection can get a really bad name because again, sometimes it can be really singular modality. Like it's all writing and kids don't like to write. you know, so even reflection can kind of lose its charm and therefore its power. But it really is about helping to make connections.

which is rooted in meaning making. And that is the critical piece, is that it really needs to come back to meaning making. I like that. So then what does meaning making look like in real time for kids?

Yeah, yeah. So I'm just thinking like, again, off the top of my head. But if we think about, you know, a time and I kind of push it back to you, you both are long term educators. You both have children. You know when something is relevant and meaningful for your child. Like, how do you know that? Yeah. So how do you know? How do know something's meaningful for your own child? Well, they continue to pursue it.

for one, right? It's not just, well, dad wants me to read this book, you know, because he said, you know, this is important, you should read some Dickens or something, whatever, know, as a parent. So definitely pursuing. There's sharing, right? There's this idea that you might bring up a topic and then you know that you hit, made a connection when you're like, yeah, I like that. And here's...

connection I've made to that from something else in my life whether it's a text to text or whether it's an experience and that's that deeper understanding and that's that's that deeper learning right and those are the kids so you know I like I've hit it where you say how about this and crickets chirping

often think of a student I had, we did an inquiry project, I've always been a huge Beatle fan my whole life. And this was a great, my last year teaching. As in the music or as in the The music. I was like, are Beatles insects? that the right word? Insects fun. They're fascinating too. Our outdoor learning program? John Paul George. Yeah, yeah, got it. Yeah, with you. But he, I would always bring that, present that to the class, my joy of the Beatles. But this one student, he was...

and do this inquiry project and it actually was studying what the Beatles would have done if Ringo had not been their drummer. The original drummer was Pete Best, for those who don't know, right? He looked at their music, the humor and everything and this is a 10 year old who brought this all the way to the fact that he came to the conclusion.

John Lennon would not have been shot in 1980, which is just incredible. Because they would not have been as popular. They would not have been as good. He wouldn't have been the focus of this madman in New York. So that was just like, OK, this is something that they know my joy of. But this student is clearly not just parroting me. He got into this so full steam ahead that I knew that, OK, we're onto something here. Yeah. Yeah. So as I'm listening to both of you,

you know, pulling out some of the pieces if we were to imagine the sort of success criteria or compass or, you know, how do we know that something is meaningful for a child? You know, you just named a whole bunch of things. Like, they're in the middle of it. That's what interest is. know, Teteoki reminds us of the etymology of interest. The essence of being in the middle of something, right? You're into it.

And so how do we know someone's into it? Right? You talked about, they're sustaining their interest. They're led by curiosity. They're asking questions. I got to find out. There's this internal kind of motor or drive, right? They're making connections and the connections are so meaningful that they want to share the connections that they're making. There's a spark. There's a change in the, the tempo and the tone of the voice. So there's all these markers, if you will.

for meaning. And so that's sometimes what we need to do is go back to the child or back to a concrete example that we can associate with the thing that we're like, ah man, how do we know if something's meaningful? Take it back to real life and look at what's in there. And that might help to remember. Oh yeah, these are some And the importance of an adult that is aware of these things too, right? You need to be.

the radar needs to be detecting that the child's into these things. And if you're not, then how are you ever going to know, right? Whether it's your own child or a teacher. Yeah. And I think, you know, that that is such a powerful reminder as we go back and think about, you know, inquiry and, know, when it's done well, it's done with huge intention to relationships. You just talked about the word radar.

Right? And that, we might use the word attunement, just like a radio. We're tuning into the station. Well, that's kind of fuzzy. Ooh, that's clear. Yeah, we got something going on. And, you know, the head starts nodding and the shoulders start moving because we found a beat that we really like. Right? But there's an experimentation with the radio of like what channel, you know, maybe we don't always want to listen to the same channel. We wanted to like change it up. Right?

So in my book, Pop-Up Studio, I talk about responsive teaching. I actually don't language like inquiry per se. I talk about responsiveness. And I use a metaphor of a DJ and that, you know, we as teachers have these different dials on our DJ board that we can play with. And so the more attuned we are to the children, the more we can then play with the dials with them.

of like, okay, are we going to nudge this like conspiracy theory piece on the Beatles a little bit more? Or are they kind of done with that and we need to look at a different angle here? Do they need more time? Do they need like a different piece of writing to look at this or a different perspective? Right. And yeah, it's so much easier to do when we know our kids. So Missy, why are tools and materials so powerful in thinking and understanding for kids? Yeah.

And for students for sure, but and I'm to say students of all ages. And part of the reason why there's a bunch of reasons why, but part of the reasons why if we think about learning, right, and we think about math as an example of this, generally speaking, we move from concrete to abstract.

When we're dealing with much of our curriculum, especially in the more senior grades, whether that's elementary school or secondary school, the curriculum in British Columbia, anyway, becomes a lot more abstract, right? The concepts are more abstract. So let's give an example of this. In social studies, in kindergarten, we're looking at family, right? And kind of like a system of family.

When we get into grade seven, we're looking at civilizations. Now, we might not think family and civilizations go together, but if we look at them from an organized group that has roles and responsibilities and works together for a shared outcome or shared goal, you can hear a whole bunch of concepts or ideas, right? A goal. We're not born knowing what a goal is. We acquire that understanding over time.

So the material aspects of things gives the abstract something concrete. So let's go back to ancient civilizations for a minute. When I was teaching before our curriculum changed to an inquiry based curriculum model, yes, I did the Sugar Cube pyramids.

Right? And we all did. And that's not bad. And that's not necessarily bad. Although it's a lot of sugar cubes and a lot of glue. So, you know, I don't know. You could look at it from that kind of perspective of waste. But all of those things bring to life these abstract notions because we can't, we don't, well, I don't know. I don't have a time machine. Maybe others do, but we can't go back and have that physical experience.

with those abstract concepts. So working with a material can give us the concrete experience with the abstract. And that helps us to remember that we can change our minds that our thinking, the idea that we have about something can shift as well. So I'll give a concrete example of this. I'm running right now a little pilot series called Evocation. It's a creative vocational wellness series and I have

nine dedicated, passionate teachers ranging from different stages in their career in this little pilot. And yesterday we were last night when we were meeting, we were working with watercolors and I'm not a technical artist. I have a PhD in arts education, but I'm not a technical artist in any modality. Okay. So I'm calling up my, you know, artist and Attila Rista friend, Maggie Chow, and I'm like,

Can you remind me how we did the wet on wet technique? Because I'm not looking to create a portrait or a landscape for an art gallery with these nine educators. What I'm wanting to do is offer an experience where we don't have the same control. We're not working with this defined outcome. These, again, abstract ideas in pedagogy of

Well, we don't always know the end in mind in an inquiry, right? That's why you do research, because you don't have the answer. Sometimes you do research to prove that you're right about something. But in art space research, that is very much not the case. You are really going into something that you're curious about, but you don't know about it. So that's why you're researching it.

So we're playing with this wet on wet technique and you know, we're dropping watercolors and it's on zoom. So, you know, people are doing their thing and, and as we're going and we're getting into it, I just invite a little bit of reflection on the experience of, you know, what are you noticing about these materials and the interactions together? Are there any reminders for you pedagogically? Are there any like lessons about teaching that live here? And.

what we generated was amazing, I thought. It was like, yeah, this can actually, not knowing can be fun. That's pretty powerful to remember that not knowing everything can actually be fun because- That's scary for lot of people. Exactly. Like generally we feel like we have to know everything. Like we're the walking textbook, which is no longer possible.

For anyone. We are in a knowledge era, information era. We cannot do that. For myself, my takeaway from working with the artwork was around pressure. Sometimes more pressure is actually needed and it's okay because sometimes I feel worried that I'm putting too much pressure on the teachers I'm working with explicitly or implicitly.

Again, know, if going back to those sugar cube pyramids or building a city out of blocks, you know, as I did with grade sevens, as we're thinking about community and citizenship, giving that physical experience helps us to think, okay, well, if something's really far away from something else, like, are the citizens going to be able to meet their needs very well? Like, how does proximity to essential resources

play a part in being a good government. So those are very abstract concepts. If we extract all context and we're just asking kids this, they find it hard because there's no site to make meaning. So the materials in summary offer a concrete site for meaning making. If we allow it and if we can think with materials as being thinking partners. That makes me think of, because when I would do government,

grade five students. always would, they'd create their own parties, they'd come up with their own bills, resolutions, and then we'd have an election. whole, they actually, the leaders would have to make a speech in front of...

the whole school and then I'd create a parliament and I would announce the results across Canada and I'd be the speaker of the parliament and their ability to talk about that when I saw these students years later remember versus a textbook which would just be memorizing facts because it became real to them and they weren't copying they made their own parties up so it was their own issues their own party so they understood the concepts and just it's that realism to education sometimes we forget right and and what I think you're you're talking about there are a couple pieces

that I'm hearing is you gave an experience that happens in the real world. So it's a simulation. And we know that that can be really helpful. The other piece that I've learned through my PhD that's magic about what you did was you, and you repeated it think twice, the children created their parties. That word create is really, really.

And again, it's one of those words we use all the time, but it's actually magic. Because when the children create something, as we talked about with the meaning making and you've talked about this project with the Beatles, that child created their theory. They made it up. They made the connections based in interest, doing their research, and they shared something out of like, I'm claiming this and I'm going to be able to defend this.

And if it's from their heart and their mind, that connection is so powerful. It's memorable because they made meaning. It's just cramming for a test the night before. Yeah. week later, you've forgotten. Yeah. And so again, those sugar cube pyramids, like, well, I learned more about the pyramids. Now we can layer that up with so many things of like, let's learn more about the architect and the challenges they were facing and how might they have been thinking through these things. So there's all kinds of ways to take that model that

we're building and amplify it even more conceptually to develop the more deeper rich thinking. And this is sometimes missed. So this is where again, sometimes as you talked about like types of pedagogy can get a bad name like, play base, they're not learning anything. Well, it might be that whoever's making that judgment isn't privy to some of the conversations or maybe some of the explicit conversations aren't being had.

But if they were being had, then we would see that amplification. And then you would get the double win of the joy of playing and creating and building that model, especially for kids whose those modalities are really important. I would say most children and learners. they're getting it as much. And they're not getting it as much. they're not getting it as much. it's the pairing of the concepts and the materials.

and the experiences. in Pop-Up Studio, that's the alchemy that I was able to articulate when I was looking at these examples of, holy beep, kids are super engaged. And the teachers are like, how are you doing this so quickly? And I'm like, I don't know, but it's amazing. But looking back at and patterning, it was like, these are the elements. Concepts are at play. We're talking about ideas. We're talking about big ideas. And kids are connecting.

these ideas of conspiracy, fame, popularity, skill. Those are some of the concepts I heard in your Beatles example. Right? So they're connecting these big ideas together. That's what big idea statements are. They're connecting concepts in relationship. This relates to this and this is how. And it's experiential. And if it's experiential and it's highly tactile, we're moving and creating things, we're creating the manifesto, we're...

you know, creating the report, we're creating the model. We've got that magic of creating happening as well. And then we're lighting up the whole body in terms of embodied learning, cognition. If our bodies are like houses, like my colleague, Calder, Shevery talked to me about, we're so used to, unfortunately, in a colonized curriculum of lighting up the prefrontal cortex, right?

the critical thinking zone, which we know is the longest to develop. And what we have to remember, which comes from indigenous wisdom and Eastern traditions, we need to light up the whole body because we are whole body people and our spirit doesn't just rest in prefrontal cortex.

Now you mentioned your dissertation a few times and when did you have to present that? I defended in September. Okay. Fresh. So you have your PhD. I do. We should have said Dr. Misty Patterson. Thank you very much. Now you're not in front of the panel right now so no stress.

an absurd question to ask, but could you present a Cole's notes of your dissertation for our listeners to hear? for sure, for sure. So the dissertation title, and it's available for free to read online from the We can put a link on. we in the show notes. So the title is Making Care Matter Through Co-Inquiry, The Heart of Well-Becoming.

So anytime you're writing a book or you're looking at a book, you're looking at the title, probably the author has spent considerable amount of time debating their title. And that was definitely the case for me of, know, like, what's this really about? Because my dissertation, you know, is the result of a four-year inquiry, really. I mean, very deeply, like two years.

You know, once you get through your coursework and kind of start figuring out what you want to hone in on, right? And for me, because I have the privilege of working with amazing teachers all over the world now, I was noticing a pattern whenever I was talking and working shoulder to shoulder with teachers, regardless of where they were coming from in the world and context. Independent school, wealthy, impoverished schools, public schools, small schools, large schools, etc.

Everyone's talking about the same thing and that is stress. Anxiety, angst, polarization, really difficult affects. And it doesn't matter how passionate the teacher is. This is a struggle that our whole of humanity is facing right now. We've got poly crises going on. So there's very good reasons we're feeling like this. And I had talked to a young person who had

was in high school at the time, grade nine, and they had said, you know, the teachers say that they care about us and they care about our mental health. You know, they tell us the hotlines, they put up the posters, they even like teach us some strategies, but the way that they teach us destroys our mental health. And I think any teacher listening to that would feel heartbroken because we are so dedicated to what we do, right? And so,

Back to my sharing about Pop-Up Studio and these expressions from the teachers of like, this is healing, this is magical, this is therapeutic. And that was not my intent, friends. Like I was there to teach about inquiry, not like, you know, have a therapeutic experience, but something was going on. So that's where I was like, how do these things maybe go together? How might, this work that's happening in Pop-Up Studio.

be a response potentially and what's going on because something is happening with the materials and the creating, which is what led me to Arts Ed because I'm a curriculum pedagogy person by trade. Remember, I have no technical skills in artists at all. And so the dissertation's really about what happened when I met with nine amazing teachers across British Columbia.

diverse experiences, diverse stages of their career, diverse ethnicities. I even had an indigenous elder as part of the group. So amazing. And everyone was coming because they had some kind of experience with the power of creating. I want to be careful with art, but the word art is used. The power of art making to support children.

in the affect that's needed for learning. It's this bridge and that it can be bridging for families too. So at the time I had met Barbara Bickel, Dr. Barbara Bickel and Dr. Mikal Fischer. had a book, they have a book called Art Care. It's got a longer title but I'll just keep it to that. And I saw such, I found such synergy between their work explained as art care, art hyphen care.

And the work I was doing in Pop-Up Studio was like, this explains why I'm getting these kinds of results. And so as we were meeting together, we were meeting around the art care principles and practices and spontaneous creation making is one of the methods in art care. And it's exactly what it sounds like. Like there's dedicated time to create and whatever that means for you, very open-ended with whatever is around you.

And then we bring our creations back into a circle and we talk about them. But we talk about them as if they're like newborn babies. Like they're these brand new creations, because they are. So we treat them with awe and wonder and appreciation and not judgment or pathology. So that's where, you know, it's not art therapy. We're not there to diagnose anyone or pathologize, but we're there to hold space for what needs to be discussed. And

We met over five days in the afternoon on Granville Island. It was really magical. And the first day we talked about like, what does it mean to have a caring or careful conversation? And the care piece really came because I kept hearing like, well, no one cares about me. Or reading this in publications as well, like kids will say, well, no one cares. Right? Teachers are saying, well, who cares? No one cares about us. Right? There's a seemingly lack of care. So I thought there's something here.

So we met the first day, well, what is a careful space for a conversation? What requires care? So we kind of set up our ground rules. And then for the next three days, we had a lens per day. So our first lens was what feels like it needs care in your personal life as a teacher, because we know that teaching is highly personal. The next day was in your professional life as a teacher. And the third day was around life with students and curriculum.

and then the last day we consolidated. Yeah, so the dissertation explains that process and some of the things that teachers shared with me about what requires care. And the biggest piece was the affect. So again, I keep talking about affect because we know emotions are central to learning. We know how we feel about something really matters. And what was so cool is the affect that was generated

in this small group is exactly the affect needed for flourishing schools. Trust and collective teacher efficacy are two of the cornerstones for flourishing schools. And this is the affect that's created. So it's like we met for two hours and we didn't even really get into it for two hours, because of course we had a slow start and you know you're wrapping up.

We used recycled materials and materials that were found in the environment. No technical arts skill needed, high facilitation skills needed. That's true. But we're getting this affect that we desperately need right now. So if you're interested in any of those pieces, you'll find those pockets in the dissertation. And what's handy about this dissertation is that it's a manuscript or paper-based dissertation, which means that each chapter is its own arc.

Yeah. So I would encourage you read the whole thing. It's got beautiful imagery. There's lots of full color photos and it's stunning. you can just read like chapter two because that's published in an arts and teaching journal right now. The other two are coming out this year in their full publication form. What you're seeing in the dissertation is modified from those publications. But yeah, you can just sit down with chapter three and read you stressed that because often people hear the word dissertation, they're going to go,

that's great. That's gonna be above me. It's so visual and so beautifully presented that I think it's important to get that across. Well, I've had a lot of feedback around it. And if anyone reads your dissertation, that's a big deal because typically there's not a lot of readership. But the librarian that helped me work on mine, we had to do something in the publication and we looked it up. She's like, Misty, I just want to show you the readership, like the metrics.

And I was like, why does she want to show me this? But at that time, and I think that was like a month ago, there was like over 350. And when she's like, I just want to put this in context. And we were looking at dissertations that were published around the same time. And most of them had zero, which is typical, sadly.

that you spend all this time with people who don't read it. Your heart and soul, you've bled on that thing. Yeah, it's true. But teachers have been reading it, even the opening. And what I keep hearing is, Misty, how did you know my story? And we've never met. That says a lot. And often lots of tears. really is touching the reality from.

I think for many teachers right now. So how do you feel when you hear that? know, it almost brings me to tears talking about it because, um, I mean, I've had, and I'm having a most incredible career. feel so fortunate, um, to be here and to be here with you and to, to be a teacher. I mean, I think it's just the most amazing profession. Um, I think it's very.

It's a huge honor. It is a huge honor. so, um, you know, yeah, when I hear like that, I've touched someone else in this profession where at times I felt deeply lonely and deeply misunderstood. mean, I'm a fast thinker. I'm creative. I'm super passionate. So at least annually I get called intense. And I used to think that that was, I used to feel ashamed when I heard that. And now I say, yeah.

I have huge vitality and our profession is asking for that. your passion is clearly this, Yeah, yeah. love connections and I love relationships. I love culture and I realize more and more like, yeah, this is about culture. Yeah. Yeah, this is about being human in the more than human world. Wow. Yeah. How does creative exploration help with burnout?

with the stress that teachers are facing. Yeah, thanks for asking that explicitly. So, Garber Mate, of course, is very popular. If you don't know who I'm talking about, if you Google him, you will see many, like, YouTubes and Reels and things We've had him speak at a Pro-D conference. amazing. Amazing. Yeah, I he, I always forget, you he's actually a Vancouverite. yeah.

And he amongst others have talked about, you know, trauma, right? And that, you know, yes, trauma. Well, I think he actually he has a quote that says it's not what happened to you. You know, it's it's not being witnessed and around the feeling of what's happened to you. And so if we and it's in the dissertation and I'm slightly misquoting, but the the aspect

of being witnessed is really important in what you're going through and a place to process what you're going through. there's a story in, I think it's in chapter three in the dissertation and it's near the beginning, but I'm in my mentorship role and I'm with a very passionate, very dedicated, very strong teacher. I have to stress this, very strong.

was put in a leadership role pedagogically. And there's a violent incident that happens. And I'm there and I'm privy to it. it was like, wow, this doesn't typically happen in the context that I tend to find myself in this particular work. And we handled it professionally. We followed protocol. But it was scary to see two children become

physical with one another, you know, in the classroom it happened, you know, just after break time as that transition time. And it was very difficult for this teacher and she talked to me a lot about how thankful she was that I was there to talk to about it. Because in the busyness of school, and this is not to throw shade on anyone, but in the busyness of school, we don't always

have the time or remember to go, how are you with this? Because the administration has huge responsibility. So they're going through protocol and needing to handle their responsibility at a time when there's so much responsibility. And the portfolio is insane. Portfolio is insane for the teachers too and for the school counselor. So everyone's running on a thinning.

institutional system and structure of support, what gets dropped sometimes? Like, how are you with this? As a human being who's deeply caring, and how is this for you professionally? And doing that in a way that's so tender without judgment is really hard, even at the school level, because we have a hierarchy. It's a colonized system.

Right? And so even if your boss is asking you however loving they are, in the end, you know, there's a power hierarchy there. So it's difficult. Who is caring for the teachers who are carrying huge load? it's the same for admin and leadership and in some ways even harder for them because the way our system is structured in British Columbia, as you well know, is our leader.

School-based leadership is not part of the union. no, they're very lonely. and they're lonely. Yes in many ways and I've always said teaching is such a lonely profession despite of course being with 30 kids every day you you you go through such Challenging moments alone. and then administrators, you know These teachers sometimes have a chance to get together and talk but administrators often feeling alone in his whole building Yes, her building and I often think

We have to recognize that. Yeah. and to go back to that trauma in the creative space and bring that full circle, we think about this loneliness and we know globally we have huge issues with loneliness. Yeah. And it's kind of crazy because we are the most populated.

than we ever have been on the planet. We have more people than we ever have before. We're the most digitally connected than we ever have been before. ways we can connect are more plentiful than they ever have before, yet we're the most lonely. But with that, also because of all of the opportunities through social media and everything, is also where we get the most criticism. It's where we see more of the

negative things of going on around us and hearing it. And I think that drives a lot of people to insular that they disconnect. And that's the reason why they feel lonely because sometimes through social media, it's a cruel place. Yeah. And I think, know, that kind of to go back to the creating piece and yeah, you're right. know, there's so much input.

around things that can hurt our heart. Whether that's from social media, that's from interactions in our schools, that's from just living as a human in today's very intense world. There's a lot of wounding. And so if we don't have places to process that wounding, where does that wounding go? And again, Garber Matahiza,

co-author and I'm, I'm forgetting his name and I might even be miss, miss citing who it is, but, but, I think it's like the body keeps score is the name of the book. but the whole idea is, know, with, with Garber Mati's work is that, you know, the conditions that we are having physically do have a connection with what's happened to us emotionally or socially emotionally. And so going back to the art and we were talking about this more like in.

linking it to academic subject matter like ancient civilizations. But the idea is still the same of when I'm making that model, other ideas or other areas of interest become visible to me. how did they line up the square blocks? I was in Egypt and it's amazing to look at how they line things up. They didn't have the same tools. My dad is...

is in construction and things. And he's like, it's amazing. I was looking at the pictures. was like, that's why I took closeups for you, dad. He's like, they don't have the lasers. Like they didn't have the tools. And yet they were able to accomplish this. So these, you know, specificities and areas of interest, we talked about interest being in the middle of something, come into view when we're making an experience concrete and therefore tactile and we can move it around.

we can transmute it, right? We can transform it. And so what I was finding, and again, not art therapy, we're not pathologizing, but we are offering a creative meaning-making site with a very specific affect that allows us to mediate this pain, this wounding into compassion, compassion.

passion together, feeling together. And that is, as I learned from psychoanalyst and artist Braca Ettinger, her work is very much formed in the dissertation and linked to in the dissertation. That is a healing process. So, know, for giving kids opportunities to transform, which is what materials can do, we are having a concrete experience with transforming reality.

Is that not what we want our kids to be able to do? I remember we're talking about being a TTOC or substitute teacher. I was at a school and it was my lunch break and I was sitting in there organizing things for the afternoon. And as a TOC, you feel separated from what's going on in other schools. And I remember someone knocking on my door.

and saying, I don't know if you know this, today's soup day. And she said, OK. And I said, and I don't know if it's your thing. And you can come and have some soup, and eat your soup, and then you can leave. And she said, I'm going now. Would you like to come with me? And so I followed the teacher to the staff room. And I looked in the staff room.

and it was a hubbub of activity. There were two different kinds of soup and there was bread, but the conversations and the connections, and as someone who's outside of the school, I felt brought in. Someone gave me a bowl, and that connection to the staff and the dialogue that happened, I stayed in the staff room, ate my soup, but connected with them.

And I really felt for that moment in time as part of the staff. And it was just such a wonderful experience. And one of the things that I remember that I've been in other staff rooms where there was no one or maybe one or two people. And I remember reading something or saying that you can really see how well a staff is functioning as a unit by going into the staff room.

If that's the case, then I'm a little concerned about my colleagues because they're really not connected or able to take that time. So why am I talking about this? It's because I was on Facebook and I saw all the things that you've done on Facebook, amazing places that you traveled. But one thing that really resonated with me when you did a pop-up

at Cindy Lauper concert. And in the pop-up that you did, you talked about the concepts that were evident in the concert. And so there's the artistry and the innovation. There was the honoring, the playfulness, the process and transformation. And for some reason, that really connected with me.

and I don't know how I could made the transition from a Cyndi Lauper concert to a staff room. I'm with you. I'm following your I'm following your lead. so the idea is that you inspired me and through your pop-up studio is how can we transform the staff room into a warm and welcoming place. so I'm...

for our listeners out there, what I'm trying to say is how can we kind of make it so that the staff comes in and they can connect and recharge together. And so what about a soup club? That's the idea. creating a space, right? Creating community, nourishing the body, nourishing the soul, creating relationships that are important for schools to thrive.

building community. what do you think? I love this. I love that you made this beautiful connection between the Cyndi Laufer concert and the soup club at school. you know, you were talking about culture, right? And being able to see a space differently, right? We were talking about transformation and your

clear ask was, know, how do we transform these staff rooms into that are lonely, you know, they're cold, they're not being used, they're not this place of vibrancy and this hub, you know, that maybe they could be. And you offered a beautiful contrast in your experience with the soup club. So like, we might ask, well, what's the magic of the soup club? Is there some kind of recipe that's there that we could learn from?

so when I was listening to your story about the soup club, you know, again, I'm off of a PhD, I theorizing it lived experience is something I have lots of experience now. My master's was a living inquiry where we did this. So, so I'm, you know, theorizing here and making connections, which is what I was doing at the Cyndi Lauper concert. Like where do these concepts that we need to teach live in the Cyndi Lauper concert? So if you're a concert goer, you can use this as a context for learning in your own classroom, right? That's, that's kind of the connection.

So what's going on in the soup club that's creating this great culture? And I heard a number of things, but here's a few that I wanted to point out. Deborah McNamara is a psychologist. She works with Gordon Neufeld. She's an attachment, parenting expert and theorist. And I was listening to her keynote at a conference we were both presenting at, and she was talking about care.

and specifically around how we all want our kids to be caring. How do we help them to be caring, right? Especially our young children. And what I took away, which very much resonated with me and kind of a theme of what we're talking about here is we have to have experience as adults in care. Caring for others, being cared for ourselves so that we can mediate that for our young people. And she said, and I agree, we've lost our caring village.

So it's a little bit around what you're talking about of how can the staff room be a caring village, right? And so she also talked about that one of the very earliest expressions of care is when a baby feeds the parent. You know, it's one of those times where we've all been there, right? And you can kind of see it, right? Like the baby's putting the cookie in, know, mama or whoever the caregiver is. The sharing of food.

food is a material. It's concrete, right? It is nourishment. So all of these abstract things that we talk about, we need to be cared for. We need to be nourished. We're feeling so depleted as teachers. What better way to do the care than something that is so basic, so human, our very first forms of attachment is feeding one another, right? And the soup is warm.

Right? Warmth. So it's a clear concrete representation of the affects that we desperately need. You were guided to the staff room. You weren't left to go there and transfer from one lonely classroom where you're sitting there by yourself to the staff room and maybe get lost along the way. It was like, come with me, walk with me. We talk about this pedagogically. Walk with me. We're on a journey. We're walking with our students. Right? But...

to literally walk beside someone remembers you to the companionship that we're looking for. So all of these qualities that we're desperate for, can see reflected in your story, right? And you don't have to do anything, just show up. She also, or he also, or they also, I don't know the pronoun for the person who guided you, but they also gave you permission to leave when you wanted to.

They gave you permission to not be obligated. They were not saying you have to be compliant. They were extending an offering, an invitation to feed you. And that is the basic form of care. And what's so wonderful about the story that Roy tells and then your use of the word caring village. I think of when I started teaching in 1990, the older teachers automatically showed me this is a caring village here. Somewhere along the way we lost that.

So new teachers come in and everyone's in their class, so that's the norm to them. I started teaching at a time, the norm was that's what you did. People would make soup, the staff room was just a vibrant place. We lost that along the way, right? We have to get back to that caring village. We have to get back to the caring village and I think part of...

potentially what happened and those of your listeners who've got more of a historical, know, an accurate view on things will be able to augment what I'm saying. But I feel like maybe the Christy Clark era was a turning point in the stripping of the collective agreement. This loss and erosion of support and the portfolio

shifted more and more on individuals, which is the neoliberal way, right? We're gonna, you know, don't look at what's happening in the system. It's all going on the individual and you're failing as an individual till you're not saving the world. And maybe that's if you just had better morals, you know, like you would save the world. And so just the depletion of resources and going back to the soup club, I'm sure some listeners are like, my gosh, you know,

these friends are gathering around and they're telling us to make soup on top of everything else I'm doing. Are you kidding me right now? You know, like someone who can bring in the soup, right? Can we get catered soup? Well, who's going to pay for that? And so the, yes, we do need these caring villages and our, our new teachers. mean, I'm a new teacher mentor, like, yes, they need that modeling. but unfortunately care has been weaponized.

in our profession as well. Whether that's you're not caring enough or you're too caring, no one cares for me, the care has been stripped away. There's a lot of weaponization and so it's, you gotta dig really deep to get to these resources where you're going to extend that care. We also have ideological changes happening too, right? Where, you know,

I want more work-life balance. What is a job versus career versus vocation? You know, we were talking maybe another show. We'll talk about vocation. But so there's a lot of recovery to kind of try to get back to this village. But I think there's hope there. And I do think it's about, you know, finding your people and building in community and

extending that sense of hospitality, but we can't extend from an empty cup. And so I think this is where the public plays a really big role in advocating for education, or this is where teacher appreciation, or, you know, I mean, again, I am coming from a privileged context, and I recognize that PACs don't look the same everywhere. But I just wonder about...

more education for community, for public around what things look like. Like, can there be some money set aside for, you know, soup to be catered? Because it doesn't have to be homemade by someone on the staff, although that is such a, you know, care gesture. But it is about a place to gather around being nourished in the most concrete, basic way possible. Yeah.

Well, I think that's a wonderful place to end, Dr. Patterson. Thank you. Thank you so much. And I suggest we get together again, and we do so with a bowl of soup, and we each could bring a different type of soup, and that would just be a good way to practice what we preach. I love that. I like that. Yes. Yeah. Thank you so much. It's been an absolute pleasure. you for having me. I really appreciate it.

their ego, Mr. Hunt, Dr. Misty Patterson. What an enjoyable and engaging guest she was. Yes. I really enjoyed learning more about, pop-up studio and just, the kinds of things that she's been doing through her career. Yeah. Amazing. I always feel there's just a, you know, everyone presents these issues in a different way. So I think everyone will get a different nugget from what we present in our podcast. And I think she had several that I think will just be a little piece that helps in the journey of being a teacher.

And I thought that was fabulous. And I really enjoy just getting onto the idea of the soup day, right? There's some kind of soup celebration. Soup club. Soup club is what you called it. And I think that's something that we have seen maybe doesn't happen. Those gatherings in the staff room. But maybe it does. Yeah. If our listeners have something that they do in their staff room that brings people together, I would love to hear about it. Share.

your comments, I know that we at Ridgeway when I was there, we used to have a once a month macaroni and cheese club. Everybody would make a different kind of macaroni and cheese for people. it's so exciting to show up to school knowing you didn't have to pack lunch. There's something about that feeling. Why is that so liberating? things, right? don't understand. Small little things. Yes. You wake up in the morning and go.

We've got lunch coming today. Yes. I know, no. But it does bring that joy. And here's a little challenge to our listeners, wherever you are in the world, because we know you listen from many, many parts of this planet. Yes. Go to your staffs. if you don't have a way of constantly getting together on a regular basis, come up with some idea. It could be the soup club. It could be another idea that you have. Just to get away sometimes from the classroom.

I wouldn't want you to get there and complain about the kids. Like I think it should be something where you get away from the class, you get your mind cleared from that. It will help with your afternoon, right? If you have a good lunch hour where you have a few chuckles, right? You talk about something you saw together on TV or some idea, it's a something that clears the mind. Yes. So there's our challenge to you and we would love you to share what you're doing to help bring the staffs back into the teacher.

lounges or the teacher staff rooms, right? Because some have shrunk and it's hard to get everyone in, I know, right? But there's creative ways. Maybe you go to a classroom now, right? You found a spot. Someone has a large classroom and maybe people say, I'm going to buy some donuts. remember some people would buy Harmony donuts on the North shore here. Very delicious. Harmony donuts and some coffee. Yeah. And just share that.

and any administrators listening will tell you the best way to a staff's heart is with food. Yes. Right? If you can get food involved, you will find a staff that will do anything for you. So on that note, I'll go home and take one of those remedies you suggest from ancient times and see if, you know, I don't know, porcupine quills and How about some good chicken noodle That's a classic. The classic remedy. It's comforting. And I think for my own soup.

And the theme of this episode, I will go and have some chicken soup. There you go. So there you go listeners. Another episode has come to an end. And as always, I ask you to stay healthy, stay active, stay fit, look after yourselves, do better than I am right now. And we'll see you again next time. And after the bell. podcast is organic, taking shape with each episode, building resiliency for teachers everywhere. That sounds great. And our website is stuntbrothers.ca. That's stunt brothers.

We will chat again after the bell.