Zooming In on Teacher Creativity with Jane Reynolds
How to reach Jane and her brothers
Transcript
Melissa Milner 0:09
Welcome to The Teacher As... podcast. I'm your host Melissa Milner, a teacher who is painfully curious and very easily inspired. This podcast is ever changing. And I hope with each season, you find episodes that speak to you in your work as an educator. This is the fifth season of The Teacher As..., and it's exciting to see the growth in how many educators are listening. Episodes are released every other week. If you enjoy The Teacher As... please rate it on Apple podcasts and leave a review. It helps the podcast reach more educators. Thanks for listening.
Melissa Milner 0:41
First of all, I want to apologize for my voice. I'm still working on the laryngitis situation, but I'm very excited to have Jane Reynolds here. Jane, you're going to introduce yourself and tell us who you are, and who... maybe who you're related to, that people might... the listeners might be very familiar with.
Jane Reynolds 0:59
I don't know, maybe they've never heard of my brothers, at least one of them they might know which is Peter H. Reynolds and his identical twin brother Paul. And they are both busy writing books, but mostly Peter. And Peter is also the illustrator for...of all of the books as well as books for other people like Judy Moody. So yes, Peter Reynolds, The Dot, is my brother.
Melissa Milner 1:23
Yay. But Jane, in her own right is a storm of creativity, and is behind a lot of the educational foundations and everything that we're going to talk about today. So Jane, where do you want to start with? Do you want to start with TLC? Do you want to start with Fablevision? What do you want to start with?
Melissa Milner 1:45
Yes.
Jane Reynolds 1:48
I actually was... first I was going to be a historian at Brandeis. But then I went into the world of business. And I went off to Harvard and got an MBA in the year that when I graduated, it was only the 10th anniversary of women being allowed to have an MBA from Harvard. So I think we were chatting about this the other day.
Melissa Milner 2:12
Yes.
Jane Reynolds 2:13
And how women, young women don't realize how far the world has come. So yes, it was quite amazing to be to be there. In those early days of women being allowed to have an MBA. I then had a wonderful career in business. And then my brothers asked me to help them in their company Fablevision, which I did, and fell in love with the whole ed. tech. And forgot to tell you the the other day, I can remember precisely, it was the night of the moon landing. And, and we were camping in Cape Cod, and this man from the we had a TV. So everyone was like crowding around our campsite, where we had a TV to watch the moon landing. And this man asked me, "What are you going to do when you grow? When when you grow up?" And I said, I'm going to be a superintendent of schools. And I think that I say, teacher, I wanted to create, create the environment for a good school. That was my idea. And so anyway, many years go by and I start working with Peter and Paul at Fablevision, which Peter started over 25 years ago. It initially was an animation studio. And we all know he loves animating. And he he of course has his own animation software for teachers called Animation-Ish, so you can get it, get it wrong, or right. You can animate to your heart's content. So that's a lovely program. So yes, it was the animation company, which to this day, creates wonderful digital media programs for all kinds of different clients like Reading is Fundamental or Sesame Street or whomever wants to reach children interactive games for the educational world. And then we then Peter has another company called Fablevision learning that creates programs for the classroom. So anyway, when I got started with Peter and Paul, I fell in love with the whole concept of ed tech. And I came back to England, which were a British family in case anyone wants to know I live in England, it's 10 o'clock at night. And I came back to England and I bought an independent school. And it was for ages five to 16 Although we could keep them till they were 18. We could do A levels as well. I taught A level history. So here I just decided I'd have my own school.
Melissa Milner 4:56
That's amazing.
Melissa Milner 4:58
It was quite, quite the adventure, so I had it for about 10 years. And then I merged it with the, with an online virtual academy, just before the pandemic, in fact, and then came back to help Peter again. And now we're really focused on taking everything that I learned from having my school, and taking Peter's books and melding that together to create the kinds of resources that will really help teachers. And I was really very much aware of, of how my teachers would, I would have these brilliant ideas to bring more creativity into the school, it's like, "Go away, Jane. You know we have our lesson plans, they differentiated, if the Ofsted inspectors come in, we know what the outcome is going to be, you will let us fiddle with this. We don't know what the outcome is." And parents were very much the same once it's reached in England, around age 11, when they start preparing for GCSEs, which is National Testing Program, parents don't want anything that interferes with the grades the students are going to get.
Melissa Milner 6:00
Yeah, they definitely see it as extra.
Jane Reynolds 6:02
Yeah, and so you have, I really got to feel the pressures from the government in terms of what they wanted us to be doing. Even though we were independent, we had all the same rules and regulations. And whatever the latest thing was, on the, in the newspaper, they would say, Let's have the schools take care of that one, you know, oh, let's be responsible, here's more training that you have to do. And so you had the government and, and the national curriculum and parents, teachers and students, I mean, the best bit with the students, you know, you'd arrive at school and these children running across the playground, Miss, Miss I have a new poem to tell you.
Melissa Milner 6:43
Aw, amazing. So Fablevision was your vision, or it was together with Peter and Paul.
Jane Reynolds 6:52
Together. But it was tended to be focused very much on the on the, on the tools, the software tools. And what we, what I realized was that we had to create the programs around it so that you had to be solving a problem for a teacher had to be providing it in a way with lesson plans and curriculum that makes sense to a teacher. And that's what we've really focused on. And we focused on starting with you know, we want Peter's messages in his books are all about creating bravely, being brave enough to get started. And by the way, if you're around in Boston, I think it's this Saturday it's on, it's the musical Dot Dot Dot is on. Dot, Dot, Dot is the musical that was created by TheatreWorks, USA around Peter's first three books, The Dot, Ish, and Sky Color, which are the Createtrilogy. And it's all about a lot of people know The Dot and they stop there they No, no, no, you gotta keep going. Gotta keep going.
Melissa Milner 7:53
Ish is my favorite. Ish is by far my favorite.
Jane Reynolds 7:56
I know my teachers always used Ish. Yeah, everyone knows, you know, Vashti in the dot, but the little boy at the end is Ramon, but he doesn't have a name in the dot. But if you read Ish, you discover his name is Ramon. And he has his own book. And he, you know, that is the first book, a teacher inspires the student. The teacher is the actual hero of that book in my mind, the unnamed teacher who finds a different way of approaching a child who's asking for help. And you have to even understand how she's asking for help because her, you know, she's all upset, but she's staying after class. And therefore, obviously, she wants to do better, but she doesn't know how to ask. So you have getting started in The Dot, and then Ramon, he gets started but then when you get started, you can lose your confidence. If people look at it sideways, you know, you lose your confidence is it good enough. And and his confidence is destroyed. And he finds support through his sister.
Melissa Milner 9:07
Yes, I love when he walks in and her whole... I just love it. Her whole bedroom is filled with his crumpled up art. Oh, I just love that.
Jane Reynolds 9:18
Well, she's Marisol, and she gets her own. And so obviously this little girl she's full of confidence and she helps she helps her brother. She's full of confidence. And but her big problem comes about not through something that is in her control. She is going to be painting the... helping with the mural at the school and this and she is given the job of doing the sky and there's no blue paint. Now she could have had a tantrum, she could have said oh well can't do it. She the problem caused her to see the world differently and discover that the sky isn't always blue. The sky can be a mix of colors, especially in England, the sky is normally gray. It can be gray, red, orange, you don't need blue to paint the sky anyway.
Jane Reynolds 10:08
Now, we know that creativity, which is not art, it's a creative mindset, it's like the most important skill for our students to have, well, actually, the World Economic Forum has, I think, is number three of the top 20 skills that are required to be able to think differently to problem solve. It's absolutely critical. And yet our educational system is learn the facts and spit them out to a large extent. And what we need is I mean, children are going to be in a world that we can't even imagine, when they leave, we can't teach them enough knowledge to survive in whatever world they're going to be in, in jobs that we've never heard of.
Melissa Milner 10:56
Right. Exactly, exactly.
Jane Reynolds 10:59
I used to try and explain that to the parents at my school. And they're not going to go and join John Hancock Insurance Company and stay there for 40 years and then retire, that is not the world. Yet, the classrooms very much look like what an insurance company would have looked like years ago, and even they don't look at anymore.
Melissa Milner 11:20
Yep.
Jane Reynolds 11:21
We actually have to give students the skills in order to recreate themselves over and over and over again in their lives, and, and to be able to handle changing situations. So if we're going to deliver programs into the classroom to help students build those skills, you actually have to start with the teacher.
Melissa Milner 11:43
Yeah.
Jane Reynolds 11:44
Because if the teacher doesn't feel confident in their own creativity, skills, their own creative mindset, their own ability to solve problems, how can they be role models for the students, so they have to feel good about themselves, they've got to have that sense of joy, of discovery, of curiosity, and, and willingness to try different things within the boundaries of this square. And we understand that, that there are tremendous constraints. But there are ways that we can do, just, as Peter says, lean just far enough, out out the box not to get fired, you know, so, which is often why some of our programs we deliver through after school programs where there's a bit more flexibility...
Melissa Milner 12:31
Yeah, that makes sense.
Jane Reynolds 12:32
in what's allowed. Anyway, what we have developed is a whole program on creativity for the teachers to give them those skills.
Melissa Milner 12:41
What a beautiful, that's such a big point is, you know, for teachers to be able to model this, they need to have those mindsets. The mindset. Yeah.
Jane Reynolds 12:54
Exactly.
Melissa Milner 12:55
That creativity mindset.
Jane Reynolds 12:56
Right, exactly. Exactly. Now, I know creativity isn't art. But Peter tends to work talk in terms of like, in art. And he'll often ask children like, are you artists? After they're about in about about the time that they're in third grade, they start saying they're not an artist? I know. It's so sad. They all are they pick it up from adults, too. And they will say to adults, when he's talking in in a keynote or whatever, how many of you have your children's artwork on your refrigerator? And everyone puts their hands up? And he goes, do you have your artwork on the refrigerator? Oh, no. Yeah. Why not? Because I can't draw well, what message does that give to your student Exactly? To your child? If you're not willing to share yourself?
Melissa Milner 13:49
Yeah.
Jane Reynolds 13:50
It's very frightening. So. So that's what we've been up to. We have. We have a wonderful member of staff, Sarah Smith, who was our director of creativity. She was an educator, who went and got her Masters at SUNY Buffalo in creativity.
Melissa Milner 14:09
I laughed when I heard that. I'm like, I mean, that's great. But it seems like it's fake.
Jane Reynolds 14:14
Doesn't it? Like, well, even she thought, really get a degree in this. She said, You know, she said that most of her classmates were business people who you know, who had been sent their business people need to learn creativity. How do I reinvent the world is changing my product? How long is it going to last? You've got to be always ready to rethink how people do things. I worked for Xerox for many years, and they were always worried that paper was going to disappear. You know, always how are we? How are we going to recreate ourselves before paper disappears. So companies are very aware that this is a requirement to constantly rethink. You cannot sit back and assume what the environment is, what, what customers want, and what competitors are doing. So you're constantly rethinking. But we don't do that rethinking in the education world, do we we don't say, Okay, this is, you know, we develop schools and the way schools look and the way classrooms look was built in the way when we were trying to develop people who could work in the economy,
Melissa Milner 15:26
Even choosing what we think we should be teaching, you know, the content doesn't necessarily have to be chosen by us. The skills and the standards, great, but the content could be chosen by the students. I've been saying that since 1991.
Jane Reynolds 15:43
Wow, you were way ahead of your time. You could have gone and gotten your masters in creativity.
Melissa Milner 15:49
Oh, my gosh.
Jane Reynolds 15:50
So when Sarah took her course, she said, you know, she was one of the few educators there, they were mostly business people. And she was going my goodness, gracious, every single teacher needs to take this course. Yeah. So one of the things we did was we created an online version of her course, that's available, our creative educator certification course. So you can actually do a self paced online course. And that's our way of delivering it to teachers we have and we have, we've been accredited by the state of Massachusetts, for giving credits as well. So we have our own creativity course. And we also have in going around districts and providing it through professional development. And every we're from Guam. I loved it. When we got sent off to Guam. That was fun. Five days of working with the gate, teachers out there. And they learned all about creativity. And it's just amazing to watch. Teachers just think differently. And imagine what a creative mindset is and what a creative classroom looks like. How do you know it's a creative classroom? If you're the administrator and you walk around, how do you know it's a creative classroom? What would you be hearing? What would the language be? How will you know the open ended questions? The No, that's not the right answer, versus that's what made you what made you think of that? Right.
Melissa Milner 17:14
A lot of teachers are doing some of that. But it's more really incorporating it daily. And having your whole classroom run that way. Paul, Paul Solarz. I don't know if you've heard of Paul. He's fantastic. He has a new book coming out. He did Learn Like a Pirate. So there was Teach Like a Pirate he did Learn Like a Pirate. And it's very self directed learning really great stuff within the constraints of a public school. But his new one, his new books, even even more interesting, but you know, he might be someone to connect with as well. I what I've been doing is I've been all I've been looking at all my guests and I've been sending to Jane, guests that I've had that I feel would be a good match.
Jane Reynolds 18:02
Absolutely. Absolutely. I loved the math puzzles from your last podcast, loved that. And as I was saying to you earlier, I was started visualizing having them all printed out for them in our new learning center. So in a while we've been going out to districts.
Melissa Milner 18:20
Yes.
Jane Reynolds 18:22
And providing training. And we also have the online course. We are opening up the Reynolds Center for Teaching Learning and Creativity in Dedham, Massachusetts. So we're building a media center, a media lab,
Melissa Milner 18:37
And I just want to share it is like three exits down from where I live. I was so excited.
Jane Reynolds 18:43
Yes. Melissa came over. I was Dedham at the time, I think it was just before I was going out to Atlanta, we were going we were going to be speaking at the Nebraska State education... This is and so you came over and we met and you had a nice little tour of our new center.
Melissa Milner 19:02
Amazing.
Jane Reynolds 19:03
It's going to be a place for us to be able to provide some of our courses right there. And a place we're going to really embed in media opportunities for people to try things out in a safe environment. And you can you can sort of figure out how would I actually I've heard about podcasting, or I've heard about green screens, or I've heard about that. But how would you actually do it in the classroom?
Melissa Milner 19:31
Right.
Jane Reynolds 19:31
So this would be a place where Oh, I don't know maybe like Melissa might run a course for us. And you log in find out how you use podcasting in the classroom because I know that while Melissa does this lovely podcast with us for adults, she also does it within the school, and they do and most amazingly creative teacher helping students find their voice.
Melissa Milner 19:59
Why thank you.
Jane Reynolds 20:01
You're very welcome.
Melissa Milner 20:02
Yeah, there's a lot of great things, you know, plan there at that. TLC,
Jane Reynolds 20:07
TLC. Yeah.
Melissa Milner 20:08
I'm very excited to be a part of even a little part of anything that goes on there. Very exciting.
Jane Reynolds 20:14
We're going to be a major part of our TLC.
Melissa Milner 20:17
Oh, good.
Jane Reynolds 20:17
Yes, absolutely. Come and play with our green screens and our...
Melissa Milner 20:23
Three exits north of you. I mean, seriously.
Jane Reynolds 20:27
We do have students from Dedham Public Schools coming this summer. We have organized their program offering for the summer school. And the students will be coming down and doing some work in the studio, which is great fun.
Melissa Milner 20:44
I love it. Let me know if let me know if you need anybody.
Jane Reynolds 20:47
Don't worry, don't worry. It's still it's nice that the schools in Massachusetts will be able to be more integrated with what we're what we're doing. And for other teachers across an a bit around, I know that many teachers have on their bucket list to go to Peter's bookstore, the Blue Bunny,
Melissa Milner 21:08
It's right across the street.
Jane Reynolds 21:11
Exactly. And so. And so when they're coming out to see the Blue Bunny. Oh, my goodness, they can take a course. at TLC studios.
Melissa Milner 21:22
Yep.
Jane Reynolds 21:23
Won't that'd be fun.
Melissa Milner 21:24
It's literally across the street guys, like literally, across the street is the TLC.
Jane Reynolds 21:30
But for those of you who can't get there, you can take our online course. And you can buy Peter's books through the Dot Central, his online shop.
Melissa Milner 21:38
Of course, when is the TLC officially opening for teachers?
Jane Reynolds 21:43
I believe we will have a soft launch I mean it's looking pretty good. Now we're just adding the the media into it. But I'm sure that we'll have our programming up soon on the website. I'm sure there'll be lots of courses in September when we when do you want to come for a course?
Melissa Milner 22:04
I just want to know when it starts up? And how I can help, you know, and be a part of it if you want me to? Or just take a course. Yeah.
Jane Reynolds 22:13
Well, all of your listeners, don't you all agree that Melissa is pretty outstanding as a teacher? And wouldn't you want her involved? I would.
Melissa Milner 22:24
Yeah, I do. I do look forward to teaching how to incorporate podcasting. At the planning process, you know how to plan help students to plan and write content. It's really, it's not one extra thing. It's actually part of what you need to teach. It's, it's all there. So...
Jane Reynolds 22:41
We have to start rethinking about, you know, like communication skills, if that's why we've always used our animation course, to give just another way of being able to have students express themselves. Maybe some are better in doing an animation than in writing, or even speaking on a podcast and that we have to give students different ways of expressing themselves, especially foreign language students, and maybe maybe expressing through it an animation works out. We've been running a program for New York City schools for the special needs students for middle school for six years now their after school program all around learning yourself through animation and storytelling. So hopefully, we're going to do like miniature versions of that.
Melissa Milner 23:30
Yeah.
Jane Reynolds 23:31
TLC studios.
Melissa Milner 23:33
I definitely want to take like an animation. Yes. Why would I want to take why wouldn't. I also always wanted to be like a movie director. So I might have to take some of those classes, too.
Jane Reynolds 23:45
I can remember Peter and Paul making movies when they were young. I bet so I should tell people I was I was six we were we left England and we went to Canada. And Peter and Paul were born there. Then we came to America. And then my sister and I may came back to England. But when when the twins were in late elementary, early middle school, they were they were always been very creative. They they created comic books, and they did their own little newspaper and magazine and things awesome. And, and then there were these two boys up the road. Their family was was also from England. And Mum used to go to the English club. All the English women in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, they would gather together once a month. And so anyway, one of the other English families was on the same road and it just so happened that Peter and Paul, were very friendly with the two brothers and they were into moviemaking. And so they would write scripts and they would I mean, it was all very serious with what it was that whatever those camera We're in the wind up. Yeah. And so I remember one, certain shots off them, I wonder where the films even went. But one was a Superman based film. And in the middle of Chelmsford, one of the twins, goes in dressed as Clark Kent, you know, the, into the phone box, and then the other one pops out immediately. Superman,
Melissa Milner 25:27
it's helpful to have twins, it is
Jane Reynolds 25:31
very identical. I tell you all the things they used to do hold loved French. And Pete was Peter wasn't quite as into French. So Paul would go in and take his French lessons for finish drawing. That was that was there was another film they did where I swear they had my sister tied to the railway lines. Oh, you have to have one of those. Yes, exactly. You know, when the the train is coming, the train, rail should be saved in time. Oh, yes. They were really into their filmmaking. It's awesome. Paul has to this day stayed with filmmaking because he's, he teaches at Boston College for 30 years now. Teaching digital storytelling and video production. Yeah.
Melissa Milner 26:21
What what do these guys all three of you? What do you not do? I mean, you're everywhere you have your hands in a million things. It's unbelievable.
Jane Reynolds 26:32
Well, I do certain things that they don't like to do. Like, I'm the family historian. Okay. I believe, because I was a historian too. Well, I am creative. I also believe in facts. So yes, if anyone wants to know anything in the family, they have to call me and say, When did Uncle Tony die? Or what did that do during the war? Ryan, historian, and I love I love working on ancestry. And before our mother died in October, she was writing her personal life story. So we typed up, I've got a little bit of editing to do. Yeah. And then we'll have her book done.
Melissa Milner 27:10
Oh, good. Wow, just is there anything else you want to share with the listeners?
Jane Reynolds 27:16
I'm just suddenly thinking of my mother just then. And really, she is the reason that all of us are creative. I mean, it really comes from her. She was so especially for a woman who lived in World War Two with bombs dropping as she lived in London during the war. She was 14 when World War Two broke out in 21. And that's a good portion of your life gone. Like she was just always so open minded. And forward thinking when I was four or five, I got a nurse's outfit from my grandmother for Christmas. And I was like, Well, you know, I had the little cap and the little thing. And I said, I'm going to be a nurse when I grow up. And she said, No, Cheney, you're going to be a doctor.
Melissa Milner 28:03
I love it.
Jane Reynolds 28:05
You know, this. I can't tell people how old I am really. But you know that it was rather amazing for during that time when women were expected, grow up, get married, and stay at home and have a baby. And if you're going to do anything, well, you can be a nurse. But Simone was quite open. And she was very, very creative in everything that she made sure we had in the household. We were a household full of books. Her father was in the book publishing business in London. Oh, wow. And her sister was a book buyer at Harrods. And then my father had a bookstore in London, which was why my mother married him because he had a bookstore. And my great grandfather...
Melissa Milner 28:52
So there's a whole history of books.
Jane Reynolds 28:55
Yeah, like my great grandfather started at the University of Wales.
Melissa Milner 29:00
Wow.
Jane Reynolds 29:01
There's a big statue to him outside of Carnarvon Castle.
Melissa Milner 29:03
What's his name?
Jane Reynolds 29:04
Sir Hugh Owen.
Melissa Milner 29:06
Sir Hugh Owen.
Jane Reynolds 29:07
He his he was campaigning for university to be available in Wales, rather, because the Welsh had to go to England and therefore they had to learn English to go to university. And he wanted them to be able to have university in Welsh. So that was his big decision that was stargazing, ran teacher colleges in Bangor, and started the university there. So yeah, I guess we've always been a book family. And mother, Mom always taught we're very involved in the community. She taught religious education for years and right up until she was probably 85. She was teaching religious education in Brewster, Massachusetts.
Melissa Milner 29:52
Wow.
Jane Reynolds 29:53
She had sixth grade, which is teaching the Old Testament and that's got to be like the most boring thing in the world, right? She couldn't, she couldn't give up because everyone wanted to take her course. Because guess what she did, she took the textbooks and threw them away. That was start number one. And she got these paper towels that she attached linen to. And each child had this paper towel going into it. And each week, they they read a story from the Old Testament and discussed it. And then the next week, they would come in, and they will all of these art materials. And they just got their scroll out. And they drew a picture of last week story. So by the end of the year, they should attach the other paper to and they had a scroll of the Old Testament in the child's depictions.
Melissa Milner 30:50
That's fantastic.
Jane Reynolds 30:52
Parents kept them as like heirlooms. And so every time mom said she was retiring, it was like, no, no, no, I've got one more student. Yeah, nearly approached how how do you get students to enjoy and engage with the story? And so yeah, so she embedded art, and creativity and storytelling into her Old Testament course.
Melissa Milner 31:17
Amazing.
Jane Reynolds 31:17
I think, I think a little bit of what Peter does, comes from her.
Melissa Milner 31:21
I'm sure a lot of it. Amazing.
Jane Reynolds 31:25
To the memory of Hazel Reynolds.
Melissa Milner 31:27
Yes. She passed recently, right?
Jane Reynolds 31:30
Very recently, to go.
Melissa Milner 31:33
Sorry for your loss.
Jane Reynolds 31:34
But just after Peters daughter had a baby girl that is named Hazel. Hazel lives on on every day that we talk about creativity. And we and her biggest thing was be kind be kind be kind. And and that's something that Peter also emphasizes in his books.
Melissa Milner 31:53
Absolutely.
Jane Reynolds 31:55
The power of a mother love.
Melissa Milner 31:56
Oh, it's so amazing. That's so nice. To finish up.
Jane Reynolds 32:02
Yes. You mean, I can go to bed soon, Melissa?
Melissa Milner 32:04
I know it's so late for you. And honestly, like we could talk for hours. And we probably will at some other time. But what are you, not Peter? Not Paul? Although they might be related to this? What are you zooming in on right now.
Jane Reynolds 32:22
What we're working on is a subscription model where we can provide a whole set of resources so that people who aren't who can't get to Dedham, TLC will be able to have the same experience. So that is our big project that we're doing behind the scenes. And then Peter is here in London, but he's at a play right now.
Melissa Milner 32:42
Yes, I was hoping I can meet him.
Jane Reynolds 32:44
Well if it was tomorrow night, you could. But but he and I were in London yesterday, because we are planning our first international creativity event. So next October, I believe we found a venue for it. And we're going to have a creativity event in London. So if any of your listeners are in London.
Melissa Milner 33:07
Yes!
Jane Reynolds 33:09
You can come to the first London creativity event. That's a bit of fun. And then we're going to do one in France and one in Australia.
Melissa Milner 33:15
And what do you mean creativity event?
Jane Reynolds 33:18
introducing teachers and hopefully some people from government into what we've been talking about, about the creative mindset, the importance of innovation, and flexible thinking. And our students, therefore, we have to build that in within the curriculum and build that in in our teacher training and support our teachers to try different things and makes wrong sometimes. So we will have a bit of a film fest with Peter's books. And because they're animated films as well. And we will have a whole discussion on innovation and give some experiences to the teachers here in England.
Melissa Milner 33:58
Are there... are there breakout sessions? Like how...
Jane Reynolds 34:02
Well yes, I mean, right now, we've been doing our creativity events to incorporate families as well. I didn't mention this. But when we do the training with the teachers, we also have been running family nights where we engage with the parents so that they understand creativity and they can support what the teachers are doing. So in a way it's going to be little elements of that within this lovely hotel in London. Are you coming, Melissa.
Melissa Milner 34:28
I hope I'm coming.
Jane Reynolds 34:29
Or are you waiting for the French one.
Melissa Milner 34:32
I hope I'm working it.
Jane Reynolds 34:33
London, Paris?
Melissa Milner 34:34
Give me a job. I'll be there.
Jane Reynolds 34:36
Very, very good. We're always looking for great people. I got to say, Melissa, you are a great person.
Melissa Milner 34:43
You are a great person. You're amazing. I just I don't know where you get the energy to do everything that you're doing and to even like remember to get on this zoom call at 10pm After I'm sure you know doing everything that you do I just you're amazing.
Jane Reynolds 35:01
Well thank you so much. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you.
Melissa Milner 35:04
So Jane, thank you again for taking the time out. And again, I apologize for my voice. But thank you for just talking to us and I, I can't imagine anyone listening not being completely inspired. And I'm gonna put, you're gonna give me all the links to all the different informational websites, and I'll put them on the episode page. So everybody go to theteacheras.com and check out the links.
Jane Reynolds 35:28
Thank you, Melissa. I look forward to doing lots of exciting creative things with you in the future.
Melissa Milner 35:35
Same.
Jane Reynolds 35:35
All right. Good.
Melissa Milner 35:37
For my blog, transcripts of this episode, and links to any resources mentioned, visit my website at www.theteacheras.com You can reach me on Twitter and Instagram @melissabmilner and I hope you check out The Teacher As... Facebook page for episode updates. Thanks for listening. And that's a wrap.