Thought-provoking, research-informed, and interactive experiences that invite educators to think and feel differently about what’s possible for themselves, their students, and their schools. Misty's Keynotes are hands-on, in-person events.
START A CONVERSATION YOUR COMMUNITY WILL WANT TO CONTINUE.
Keynotes That Integrate
Accomplishment,Wellbeing, and Inquiry
What if we’re misdiagnosing teacher burnout?
When passionate teachers are exhausted and disengaging, the instinct is often to give them less. But in our efforts to address burnout, we’re overlooking something important.
Drawing on her research, Misty reveals an often-missed reason great teachers disengage—and sometimes leave the profession altogether. Through creative inquiry, including spontaneous creation-making, your community becomes part of the research, surfacing patterns and revealing a tangible picture of the conditions shaping your own organizational culture.
Leave seeing teacher burnout differently—and with new insight into what your people need to do their best work and want to keep doing it.
The interactive experience builds on Misty’s research-informed approach to uncovering factors that underpin successful school culture and generating organization-specific insight and agency.
Rethinking What our Teachers Need
Breaking Burnout
What matters in learning begins with who matters.
As AI changes how we access information and growing concerns about mental health shape conversations about education, it’s easy to focus on what students need to know and do. But learning has always been about more than its measurable outcomes.
Drawing on her signature Pop-Up Studio approach, Misty invites educators and/or parents to remember the deeply human experiences that make learning matter: noticing, wondering, making, playing, relating, interpreting, and creating meaning together. This highly interactive keynote turns the room into a studio where participants experience creative possibilities for themselves.
Because preparing children for the future isn’t only about what they know. It’s about who they are becoming—and how it feels to learn along the way.
Remembering What Matters
in an Age of AI and Anxiety
Success Beyond Marks
Signature Keynotes
— Chris Kennedy, Superintendent of Schools and CEO
“You have given so much to West Vancouver Schools,
and the district is better for your curiosity, your care,
and the way you have always pushed our thinking.”
TRUSTED BY EDUCATORS AND SCHOOLS AROUND THE WORLD
Invite Misty to speak at your school, district, conference, or learning community.
Ready to start a conversation?
Conversations about inquiry, creativity, care, meaningful learning, and what becomes possible when we think differently about education.
Featured Interviews
Ideas: graduate research podcast series
AFTER THE BELL: THE STUNT BROTHERS
— Darcy Dufresne, PYP Teacher
“Thank you for articulating so eloquently just what it is we are feeling and experiencing, but might not yet have the 'languaging' for expressing in words. As Tina Turner crooned, 'You’re simply the best....I hang on every word you say'. ;-) ”.
I love conversations that make room for curiosity, complexity, and new possibilities in education.
Want to invite Misty to be
a guest on your podcast or show?
MEET DR. MISTY PATERSON
Media Kit
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Misty's Brand Photography
Dr. Misty Paterson is an award-winning educator, international pedagogical consultant, best-selling author, and researcher working at the intersections of creative experiences, wellbeing, academic inquiry, and flourishing in schools. Her PhD in Arts Education explored the conditions that help teachers flourish, a focus she continues through ongoing research that weaves arts-based inquiry, teacher wellbeing, instructional practice, and student learning.
Across more than twenty-five years in education, Misty has worked as a teacher, IB Coordinator, school administrator, Adjunct Teaching Professor, researcher, and mentor. She brings empathy, multiple perspectives, and practical wisdom to every aspect of her work. She led the first public school in Western Canada to become an IB PYP World School, has extensive experience with pedagogies complementary to the Reggio Emilia Approach from early years through middle school, and holds an MA in Curriculum and Instruction specializing in cross-faculty inquiry.
Misty is the founder of the Pop-Up Studio approach, referenced and applied in schools and university classrooms internationally. Through keynote speaking, professional learning, books, and the Flourishing Teachers Collective, she helps schools integrate wellbeing and academic inquiry into everyday teaching and learning—creating the conditions for teachers and students to flourish together.
Long Bio
Dr. Misty Paterson is an award-winning educator, international pedagogical consultant, best-selling author, and researcher working at the intersections of creative experiences, wellbeing, academic inquiry, and flourishing in schools. Drawing on more than twenty-five years of educational practice, a PhD in Arts Education, and ongoing research with teachers, she helps schools create the conditions where teachers and students flourish together. Misty is also the founder of the Pop-Up Studio approach, referenced and applied in schools and university classrooms internationally.
Short Bio
