Designing Online Learning That Builds Real Connection

We talk with Dr. Brooke Helling about how an unexpected path led her into English, ESL, and curriculum work, and why student connection matters as much as content. We also share what makes NorthStar Academy’s online model feel personal, growth-focused, and worth remembering for the relationships. 

• Brooke’s real-life snapshot as a teacher, church leader, wife, and mom of four boys 
• The “accidental English teacher” story and what she learns from ESL students’ resilience 
• Designing a strong learning experience through belonging, buy-in, and student choice 
• Measuring growth with mastery learning, reteaching, and assignment retries 
• Why online school can deepen teacher-student connection through feedback and messaging 
• What traditional sit-and-get models miss in a short-attention-span world 
• Boy-mom lessons on grace, consistency, listening, and saying yes wisely 
• “Anything worth doing is worth doing well” and why excellence points beyond ourselves 
• The hope that students remember people and community most of all

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

Stephanie Shafer 0:02

Hi, this is Stephanie Shafer, and you're listening to the NorthStar Narrative, a podcast from NorthStar Academy. I want to thank you for joining us. I hope you're encouraged, challenged, and motivated by what you learned today. Enjoy the story. Hey everybody, today I'm joined by someone who brings both deep expertise and a genuine love for students and learning. She has spent over two decades in education, holds a doctorate in English pedagogy, and is now helping shape curriculum here at NorthStar Academy in very meaningful and innovative ways. She is also a wife, a mom of four boys, and someone who lives out her calling with both excellence and joy. So I'm so excited to welcome Brooke Helling today. Thank you, Brooke, for joining us.

Dr. Brooke Helling 0:47

Hi, hey Stephanie. It's great to be here.

Life With Four Boys

Stephanie Shafer 0:50

Yes, I have been asking Brooke to come on a couple times because she I can't wait to hear her talk about her four boys. I have one. So four, I'm like, wow, let me hear all of your expertise and fun. Um, so give us a snapshot of your life right now. What does a full real day look like in your world?

Dr. Brooke Helling 1:10

Oh man, it's pretty chaotic. It's a little exhausting too. Um so as you said, I have four boys. Um my oldest is not quite 16. He will be next month, and we'll have finally have a have another driver in the house. And um, then my youngest is nine. So we're busy with um school and soccer and homework and all of the things that you have to do to, you know, make life with four boys work. It's not uncommon to have a have a broken bone. We had one of those about a month ago, so throw that into some of the chaos. Um, and then I also work at NorthStar. Obviously, I teach several different classes for the um English department, and then I've started helping out with curriculum, and that's been so much fun. I've gotten to write courses and edit courses and help coach some of the teachers, and so um that's really added a lot of joy to my life because something that I just you know have fun doing. Um and then I also work part-time at my church. Um, I'm the director of Next Gen there. So I uh kind of head up the youth group and the young adults group. So it's busy.

Becoming An Accidental English Teacher

Stephanie Shafer 2:17

Yeah, very busy life. Um so super glad that you are here at NorthStar and then just willing to, you know, move into whatever direction God is leading us. And so I I love your out-of-the-box thinking and um yeah, just super, super excited. So you have described um yourself as an accidental English teacher. What is a story God was writing that you did not see at the time?

ESL Students And Stories Of Faith

Dr. Brooke Helling 2:45

Well, you know, whenever I went to college, I went for education, elementary education, and that's really all I was interested in. I never thought that I I would want to, first of all, teach high school students or college students. And definitely I wasn't subject specific. So I went for elementary, you know, self-contained to teach all the subjects, and I wanted to just be with the little babies, right? Um, and then somewhere along the way, after I'd been teaching for about three years, I um was offered a position just as an adjunct at a community college in the evening. This is before I had kids, and it was an English class. Um, and I taught the English class. I was so nervous the first time I taught it as well. Um, I was, you know, because these people at that point in time were pretty close to my own age, to be honest. Um, and I was I was really, really nervous about it. Um, but I ended up really enjoying it. And through that process, I actually found my way into um teaching at the college level, um, teaching ESL. And what I really loved about that was getting to know learners' stories, and they were just so respectful and so kind. And a lot of times our students who are, whether they are on student visas or they're immigrants or whatever, they um have such a profound story to tell. Um, you know, things that have happened in their lives and things that have shaped them. Probably the one that comes to mind that inspired me the most was um this was probably about 10 years in. I had a student and um she was a mom of three boys, and she was older than me at the time, um, but she was from Egypt and she was a Christian in Egypt. She had five older brothers, and she was the sixth, and she was an attorney there, very, you know, prominent attorney. Her entire family were Christians and they were being persecuted. And so they actually came to the United States knowing like the ABCs. That was essentially all that they knew. And when they came here, she went from being an attorney to working in a kitchen and a daycare. And her husband, who owned his own business, very successful, had a master's in business administration in Egypt, came and he worked at Walmart stocking groceries. Um, and they, so their lives were up-ended, but their faith was so, so important to them that they were willing to do that. And that was just so inspiring to me. So I really fell in love with um teaching English to uh ESL students in particular, um, but just students in general. And so just basically goes to show I thought I would be an elementary teacher. I did not want, I wasn't interested in English. I don't even like grammar, don't tell anybody that they'll probably take away my teaching certification if you do. Um, but somehow I ended up, you know, actually really, really loving it. So God had handed it and I had no idea what was coming.

Stephanie Shafer 5:41

That is so cool. Yeah, I love how God likes to mix things up, change things. But it's always a fun adventure um when we end up somewhere different than maybe we thought. Did you think you would end up with four boys?

Dr. Brooke Helling 5:55

Oh no, never. I'm a girly girl, I like pink, I don't play sports, I don't like action movies. So actually, whenever I found out I was having my first son, I was a little like, oh no, like how am I gonna identify with him? You know, I I don't I don't do boy stuff. Um, but some you know, kind of the same, somewhere along the way, I figured it out. And now, to be honest, I can't imagine having a girl. I guess I don't know what I would do with what I'm so used to being a boy mom.

Stephanie Shafer 6:27

Oh, I love it. I love being a girl mom and a and a boy mom. But yeah, boom boys are are different. For sure. I can't even remember what he was doing. Oh um, we were we were on a a rowboat, like a paddle boat that you use your feet to um I don't know why it's why is it called a paddle boat when you use your feet to um like a little bicycle? And so his him and his friend were in the front, and me and um my one of my daughters are in the back, and then all of a sudden they lean up and I'm like, Are you gonna fall out? And they're using their hands to pedal instead of their feet. And I'm just like, that's a boy thing. Like girls probably would not reach down and start trying to pedal.

Dr. Brooke Helling 7:11

For sure. Yeah, anything to get you know, get dirty and be active. And I think it's pedal boat.

Stephanie Shafer 7:18

Is it pedal boat?

Dr. Brooke Helling 7:20

I think I don't know.

The Feel Of A Great Class

Stephanie Shafer 7:22

So yeah, maybe I mean that would make sense. Paddle boat, maybe that's it. That would make sense, huh? It was fun though. Yeah, so sunny and bright yesterday. All right. If you could design the perfect learning experience for a student, what would it look like and feel like?

Dr. Brooke Helling 7:39

Oh, that's a great question. I mean, I there's so many moving parts um to this. One of the things that I'm really passionate about is the effective side of learning. So I think that if students have buy-in to their learning and if they're connected to their classmates and their teacher and their school, um, that they they do so much better. I mean, if if we think about it as adults, you know, if you've ever had a class and you really, really disliked the content, maybe for me it was math because I'm terrible at math, but sometimes you maybe had a teacher who was amazing or you had had a class with all of your best friends, right? Um, and so you actually ended up really enjoying that class because of the experience. And so I think if I was gonna design kind of the perfect class, that would definitely play into it. Um, you know, keeping in mind the affective component. What can I do to make sure the students are connected with me and connected with each other and connected with the subject matter? In some cases, um, that looks like allowing them a lot of choice in what they do and how they do it. So, you know, there are certain things that we have to teach, but there's no reason that we have to teach it in a one size fits all sort of manner. You know, we can give a lot of choice. And so um, you know, instead of assigning a particular topic for a paper, maybe the student has the option to choose the topic. Or instead of writing a paper, maybe they get to, you know, do something creative. And so I think that would also a student choice would also kind of play into um into that perfect classroom. Um let's see. I mean, really great literature, that would definitely have to be a part of it. And what's great to me might not be great to you. And so uh that's kind of an another another feature that that I would probably definitely include.

Stephanie Shafer 9:36

Yeah, I love that. And then um letting students have more agency. I love that we're leaning into that over how, you know, what do they want to learn? And um, yeah, grading the process over the final end product, um, how do you see that playing in some of the courses we're writing?

Why North Star Works Online

Dr. Brooke Helling 10:01

Yeah, um, I think whenever we look at what students are are learning, so sometimes, you know, if you if let's say the majority of the grade comes from a test, I mean, we all know that a test is not a perfect snapshot because some students are terrible at tests, right? But if you look at what they've learned from, you know, kind of let's call it the pre-assessment all the way through the post-assessment, I mean, that's really such a great, great way to view because students don't come into a content area or subject area all knowing the same thing, all having the same prior knowledge, the same background knowledge. They come in with different experiences and different levels of knowledge. And so if I come in with very little knowledge, you know, and I maybe my finished product isn't perfect, but it shows significant growth, then that is honestly demonstrating more learning than the perfect than the person who came in and they already knew almost everything about the subject and then you know they did it perfectly at the end. So I think that that, you know, is kind of a great, great way of measuring. One of the things I really love about NorthStar is that as teachers, we are given agency to give retries. So um, if I see an assignment that I just know a student didn't get, or it's a student that I know, yeah, usually their work is a little bit different or a little bit higher quality. So if I notice that a student, you know, maybe their work isn't the same quality as usual, or you know, they they truly, truly didn't understand, then I have the option to go back to reteach it to them, you know, and give them opportunity to kind of learn and grow from those mistakes. And that's ultimately what we want as educators. We are not teaching for assessment, it's not supposed to be a punitive thing, right? Um, instead, we're teaching for growth, for learning. That's that's the end product that that we want.

Stephanie Shafer 11:49

Yeah, I love that. Um, and in an online school, that is happening at NorthStar Academy. And so you've taught in person um as adjunct professor, and then now online. So someone who's thinking about online school, um, how would you describe that? I mean, how are we I like to say we're not lesser than, you know, because some people think in person, but we're very unique. How would you describe us?

What Traditional School Gets Wrong

Dr. Brooke Helling 12:18

Yeah, I um really when I started teaching at NorthStar, I wasn't totally sure what to expect. Um, because as you said, the past several years, my experience has been, you know, it at the college level and obviously all in person. And so I kind of I think when I came in, didn't really think I would get the opportunity to know my students all that well. And that is something that has truly surprised me about NorthStar is the amount of um time I get to spend with my students, whether it's through a live class or even if they don't take a live class, you know, through Teams messages or um, you know, video calls or or even just through their writing, um, that sort of thing. So I, you know, I think that sometimes we think in online school, you know, there's not like a real person behind the grading of some sort of AI bot or whatever. And in Northstar, that's not the case. It is an actual real person who's reading your writing and giving you feedback and um, you know, sending you instructional videos or, you know, pieces of information to help you learn and grow. And so that has that was something, honestly, that kind of surprised me about NorthStar. I also was surprised at the number of opportunities that you have for students outside of a classroom. So besides, you know, just the subject matter, with which in and of itself is pretty impressive because we have such a wide variety of different classes that are offered. Um, but just you know, from our connect section sessions to, you know, our student council um events and our C Spiritual Emphasis Week events and then all the other fun grade level calls and stuff like that, the book club and the creative writing club, and there's really so much that students can do. Um, you know, sometimes we might think, oh, online they're gonna be missing out. Well, at NorthStar, they have the opportunity to do as much as they want. And so I think that makes it very, very unique and special.

Stephanie Shafer 14:08

Yeah. Yeah, I love it so much. Um, what do we get wrong about learning when we rely too heavily on traditional models?

Dr. Brooke Helling 14:18

Um, a couple of things, some of them I've kind of already um hit on. Uh, one is the sit and get, which is something that I really despise. Um, you know, when you walk into a classroom and we think of a brick and mortar, but you know, and the students are sitting there and the teacher is lecturing, and that's it. Um, so the average attention span right now of of um teenagers, what do you think it is, Sydney?

Stephanie Shafer 14:45

Eight minutes. It's 30 seconds.

Dr. Brooke Helling 14:51

So adults, um the average is seven minutes, but I mean that means that there's gonna be adults who are under the seven minutes, of course. But students, 30 seconds, okay? So sit and get doesn't work, you know, where you just because they're they're thinking about something else, they're doing something else. And so I mean, I think that same can be true for NorthStar. We try to do everything that we can to make sure that you know they're doing different things. Maybe they're reading a little bit of information and then they're watching a video and then they're creating a product. And so I think just constantly changing the way that we're presenting information and a way that we're allowing the students to um showcase their learning, um, I think that is something that kind of, you know, our traditional model of learning kind of fails us on. The other thing that I think of when I think of what we missed is kind of what what I mentioned earlier is that, you know, school is not for assessment. And in so many cases, in so many classrooms and so many schools, that's it. You know, everybody does the same paper at the same time. And if you fail, you just get an F and then you have to move on to the next thing. And so true learning is not taking place. Um, so I think instead, if we focus on, you know, teaching or school with with the idea of learning in mind or mastery in mind, I think that, you know, that is that is really what everyone wants for their student and what every student wants for themselves.

Stephanie Shafer 16:20

30 seconds. Do you think it's a little bit longer for our NorthStar students? Oh, good question.

Dr. Brooke Helling 16:27

Um probably so because they because of the type of learning environment that they're in. I mean, I think a lot of the research says that the reason students have such a short attention span now is because of how many short form videos and um, you know, like the the constant stimulation that they get from swiping online and that sort of thing. So your your brain just doesn't learn to attend and it needs constant um stimulation to to keep focusing. Um and so I mean, I would I would think a lot of our NorthStar students probably don't have that short of an attention span um because they are most of them are self-motivated and they're you know they're able to kind of kind of prioritize their learning and handle it to a certain extent, you know, themselves or or with limited help from their supervisor.

Boy Mom Lessons From Sports Life

Stephanie Shafer 17:23

Yeah, I see that. I see that a little bit more when teaching NSA Connects, hanging out with them. Um they're fun students here at NorthStar. Lots of uh surprises all the time. And they seem to be talking. Like I I got a email from a mom Friday, and she said, you know, never underestimate the work you're doing there. What you're doing matters. I love it when my son, you know, brings what God is doing through his school, through his church, and just having conversation. So I see that with the students um here at NorthStar wanting to have conversation about what they're learning and yeah, whether it's with teachers or um parents. So it's always fun to get those kind of comments. All right, let's step into your um kiddos, because I want to learn more about your boys and what that's like. So, how is raising for boys shaped the way you see students and their needs?

Dr. Brooke Helling 18:19

Well, I have to tell you, before um I I started having it was actually the the school year before I had my first son, I had a class of at the time fourth graders in a brick and mortar classroom, and there were 17 boys and three girls in my class. So I think that was God's way, and none of the other classes were skewed that way. Okay, it was just mine. Every every other class was kind of half and half. Um that's kind of God's way of preparing me for like, okay, here are the I'm getting ready to send the boys, sort of thing. So I mean, I think that um boys and girls are very different. Um, and really understanding how boys operate, the things that interest them. And I I honestly think that they learn different than girls. We know if we look at research that you know, biologically their their brains do function differently than girls. And so um I think that the way it's kind of informed my work is by giving a lot of grace to boys when they need to display their knowledge in a different way or they need more breaks, or you know, they they just they learn different than I do because I'm a female. And if I hadn't had that experience with my own sons and I hadn't seen it firsthand, um, I don't I don't think that I would have understood that as fully as I do now. But yeah, boys and girls learn differently, and that's okay. We just kind of have to embrace that and try to um tailor our teaching to their learning styles.

Stephanie Shafer 19:48

Yeah, that's true. Yeah, they're so much fun though. Um, boys and girls. That's funny because when you said that, I was like, oh, Holton's class right now, he's a fifth grader, and his is girls. Um, so many girls in the courses, you know, in the classes, and then a few, a few boys. All right, so what are some things? And tell me about soccer. I know um early on you said you weren't sports, um didn't love sports, but now how has that changed with boys?

Dr. Brooke Helling 20:20

So spend a lot of time at the soccer field. A lot, a lot. All four of my boys play soccer, and then my two older ones, when they're not playing soccer, they ref. So basically in the fall and the spring, I essentially live at the soccer field. I don't know if you've seen them, but we have, you know, there are some people on soccer fields that'll have up those, those pop-up tents that are like they're they're like for one person, you can put a chair in there. When I first saw those, I thought they were so ridiculous, but Stephanie, I had to go out and buy one because they're so practical. You know, they don't cancel soccer games for rain, they don't cancel them if they're freezing cold. And so, you know, if you're gonna be a soccer mom, you gotta you gotta come prepared. Oh, and so we spend a lot of time on the soccer field. Um, my two youngest boys also wrestle, and so that's been a lot of fun to see. It's very strong, it's a very stressful sport. I don't understand it. Um, my third son is excellent. He went on to um nationals this year. That was two weeks ago, and so that was awesome to kind of see and get to cheer him on. My youngest broke his arm in wrestling, so he had a short season that that was a little rough for for me. But um, you know, he says he still wants to keep doing it. So um, and then we also do one of my sons also does tracks. So sports, sports, sports. We're out there all the time. Um, kind of a funny story about soccer. I um my youngest son last season did not have a coach. And I kept asking for coaches, and no one was stepping up. And so I was like, Well, I want him to play soccer, I don't want his team to get canceled. So I got the broad idea that It was fine and I was gonna coach. Okay. Now keep in mind I don't really know all the rules of soccer. There are some I still don't get offsides. I mean, I've tried, it just doesn't make sense to me. So I decided I was gonna coach a soccer team. I had no idea what I was doing, but we got first place in the league.

Stephanie Shafer 22:19

Wow.

Dr. Brooke Helling 22:20

I have no idea how. It was just a fluke. But that just goes to show never say never of all the things that I thought I would ever do. Coaching soccer and having four boys, those are not on my list, but you know, it worked out.

Stephanie Shafer 22:34

Yeah, so do they always have a ball in their hand? Or with wrestlers a little bit different?

Dr. Brooke Helling 22:40

Yeah, I mean, we we have an obscene number of soccer balls in our garage and in the backyard. And yeah, in your case, feet.

Stephanie Shafer 22:48

The ball on your feet. Mine plays uh basketball and baseball, so there's always a ball literally bouncing off the walls in our living room. So I'm like, if there are four boys, what in the world? Um, with balls everywhere. But yeah.

Dr. Brooke Helling 23:01

I'll have to wait to have nice things until after they move out. That's what I've decided because animals, do you all have any animals? We don't. Yeah, my boys would love to have animals, but my husband's allergic to dogs, and I'm allergic to cats. So really the only option would be like a fish, and that just feels like a lot of work and you know.

Stephanie Shafer 23:22

So just one boy, but yeah, the dog. Dog is jumping and all over, all over the couch. So lots of playing. Um, yeah. Well, what do you love most about being a boy mom or just a mom in general?

Dr. Brooke Helling 23:37

Um, I think that what I love most about it is how surprising it's been for me. As I shared a little bit earlier, when I first found out I was having my first son and then, you know, another son and then another son. I kind of thought, how am I gonna identify? I I really don't, you know, I don't do boy things, but you know, it turns out that there's so many ways that moms identify with their sons that you, you know, really couldn't guess what happened from, you know, I talk more intimately with my sons than let's say my husband do does. We talk about, you know, uh how they're feeling, and you know, my oldest son has a girl that he has a crush on, and so you know, getting to share some of those sorts of things. Um, I think that's something that's unique to kind of a mother, mother-son relationship. Um, and then I mean, some of the things that I thought I'd never get to do with my boys, like going shopping, or I mean, one of my sons loves to shop. So um, I think what's been surprising is or what I've loved is that I have continually been surprised by the way that even, you know, as they got older and maybe didn't need me as much, the way our relationship has morphed and changed. And, you know, we've still been able to stay close and uh that sort of thing.

Stephanie Shafer 24:55

That's wonderful. And you said you like to travel. Do you get to travel as a family a lot?

Dr. Brooke Helling 25:00

I do. Yeah. Um we go on a vacation, usually every every year over Thanksgiving, we go somewhere fun together. And then over the summer. So lots of different we we like warm spots. Well, I should say I like warm places. And so since I'm the one that plans the vacations, that's usually where we end up going. Uh, last summer we went to Michigan. I have some family that lives there, and that was nice because it was in the heat of the summer here in St. Louis, where I live, and Michigan was a reprieve from some of the heat since it was in the summertime. But uh that was fun. So we got to, we road tripped up there. It was about eight hours, and we got to, it's really beautiful, beautiful country. Um, and then we also love going to different sorts of tropical places. Uh Dominican, Cancun, that sort of thing. The boys love, love, love the beach. And I love that I can sit on the chair and read a book while they, you know, frolic in the water and build sandcastles. So it's a win-win for everyone. A true vacation, I should say.

Parenting Advice That Builds Trust

Stephanie Shafer 26:09

Yeah, that's fun. Well, um if we've got any boy moms listening, what is something that you've learned that you think is so important, especially uh living uh in the world the way it is right now? Anything that you would really want to share to encourage? Um maybe something uh you've learned along the way that's important.

Dr. Brooke Helling 26:33

Yeah, um, one of the things that actually a pediatrician told me whenever I had little toddlers at home, she said, Um, don't say no when you can say yes. And when she said that, I was kind of like, hmm, what does that mean? And basically um she explained it to me like this if there is something that your child asks to do, you know, hey, can I invite a friend to go to the park with with me? Okay, that's an easy thing. Yeah, sure, why not? So save your no's for times that you really, really have to say no for whatever reason. Um, and then follow up on those no's. If you say no, you have to mean it. Uh and if you say yes, you have to mean it. So I think just consistency and follow through is so, so important. Probably not just with boys, with, you know, any any child, but I couldn't compare. Um and then another thing is that I feel like the the way that you listen to them when when they are little is really going to dictate the relationship that you have with them as they're older. So when they're five or they're six and they're telling you about their your their Pokemon cards and you really don't understand what those are, or you know, act interested even if you're not, ask questions and you know, try to engage with them because if they if they won't share the if they think you're not listening when you when they're sharing the little stuff, as they get older, they're not going to share the big things. And so I just think, you know, um putting into practice uh a habit of listening and letting your kids know that, you know, you're here to listen for the small things and you're here to listen for the big things. And especially if you do that when they get little, you know, when they're little, then when they get older, it makes it makes your relationship all the more solid.

Stephanie Shafer 28:18

That's good. Yeah, listening so important. And that makes me uh think the nose of yesterday. Have you seen that movie?

Dr. Brooke Helling 28:26

Yes, it's so fun.

Stephanie Shafer 28:28

Yes to everything, yeah. That's fun. All right.

Dr. Brooke Helling 28:31

I don't know that I would go that far with my yeses, to be honest, but oh gosh.

Excellence As A Daily Practice

Stephanie Shafer 28:39

Um we have I think we have done it. We've done it a couple of times. Um after I can't remember, but you know, even in the movie they put stipulations. Okay, you can only go, you can only go so far. But it is fine. All right, you have some great details um of who you are about yourself. I know that you put in the survey, no socks, ASL, and then we we've already talked about the coaching soccer winning or anything else you can think of, but what out of all of that captures your personality the most and why?

Dr. Brooke Helling 29:14

Um I mean, I guess I I think probably the my mantra that I live by um and kind of encapsulates who who I am is what I tell my boys all the time. Anything worth doing is worth doing well. And so that is something that's really important to me. If if I commit to doing something, I'm gonna do it to the best of my ability. And I'm gonna give it 100%. I try to pursue everything that I do with excellence. Um, and whether that is my job or my mothering or my marriage or my volunteer work in my church or whatever it is, um, I think that that kind of mantra, anything worth doing is worth doing well, really captures who I am. Colossians 3.23 is probably my favorite um verse because it just reminds us that, you know, we're not here to to work for for humans. So even though we're here on earth for a very, very limited amount of time, especially in the scope of eternity, right? It's just a blip. Uh, we're still working for the Lord. And everything that we do has the ability to reflect on him and to glorify him or not. And so it's really important to me that all of my actions, the things that I do, um do glorify him at the end. And excellence is part of that. And so I try to, I try to pursue everything uh with as high of a level of excellence as possible. That doesn't mean it's perfect, but you know, I definitely give it my all.

What Students Remember Most

Stephanie Shafer 30:47

Yeah. That's good. Very well said. All right, let's finish this sentence. If a NorthStar student leaves our school and remembers one thing, I hope it is. The people. I think that's what it would be.

Dr. Brooke Helling 31:03

Like the connections that, you know, he made with other students or, you know, other teachers. I think that ultimately when I think back to my school experience, I don't remember a lot of the lessons, right? I don't remember the specific PowerPoints or the videos that I watched or anything like that. But I remember some of my favorite teachers. And I remember some of my best friends, and I remember the things that we, you know, did together and the fun that we had and the you know, times we laughed over different things like that. So I mean, I think that's what really makes the school experience is the people. And so yeah, that's that's what my hope would be.

Stephanie Shafer 31:42

Yeah. I totally agree. Love the community here, love that you're here, and just thank you so much for coming on and sharing your heart, letting us get to know you more. And I love the intentional work, yeah, that you're doing here with students. And I know there's a lot more to come, so so excited about the future of education, um, technology, and where Northstar is gonna be right in the middle of that. So thank you so much.

Dr. Brooke Helling 32:07

Absolutely. Yeah, it's fun to get a front row seat. I can't wait to wait to see how everything evolves over the next two years. It's awesome.

Stephanie Shafer 32:16

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