I don't remember much about the education policies at the time I was at school. I do remember the classes and teachers that got me excited about learning, and those that created an environment for me to grow, thrive and be me.

This is so key. If this feeling could encompass a whole school you know great things would be possible for everyone involved. It is down to each of us to be that person - to show how and what is possible to those around us and to be a beacon for growth. This helps pupils, staff and parents believe anything is possible. The world is a wonderful place of opportunity so let's make it our focus to 'be the change we wish to see in the world', to quote Gandhi.

It is this bed of creativity that will give rise to the skills, understanding and knowledge that we will need in the future for a sustainable, happy and tolerant planet. Let's show our pupils what has been achieved, what is known and how this came about. Then set them free to explore, enquire and grow so they can become the person they were born to be. In that gift the world has a bright, happy and exciting future of wondrous possibilities.

Mark has been a professional percussionist for 25 years and has had the opportunity of performing with some the UK's finest orchestras and theatre companies. With 3 children and his experience of delivering whole class music workshops around the UK, Mark wanted to share the creative and inspiring learning he was witnessing in schools. This was the start of the Education on Fire podcast in 2016. Today the show has released over 350 episodes and has been downloaded in 147 countries.

Website, Facebook, (X), LinkedIn, Podcast, Education on Fire

Classic Cinema With the Sage Sisters

Through a Different Lens: Lessons from a Life in Education, Ger Graus

Neil Laird is an LGBTQ+, multiple Emmy and BAFTA nominated Executive Producer who has worked extensively on both the network and production side of non-fiction TV since 1997. I've developed, overseen and produced over 1,000 hours of factual programs and specials in nearly every genre, with a particular passion, expertise and professional contacts in history, mystery, science and adventure.

As a showrunner/producer for several highly-respected production companies in the US and UK, I traveled to over 70 countries, with a specialty in history programming in often difficult terrains. My shows have aired on Discovery, Science Channel, Netflix, HBO Max, A&E, History, PBS, BBC, Channel 4, Animal Planet and National Geographic Channel, where I helped launch several successful series, including Brain Games and Border Wars.

Over the years, I've built an extensive list of contacts across the globe in both the production world and with foreign organizations, including antiquities boards in the Middle East, Asia and the Americas, I am a member of scientific institutions such as the Archeological Institute of America and the Explorers Club, and write book reviews for World History Encyclopedia.

I published my first novel Prime Time Travelers in May 2024, with the follow-up, Prime Time Pompeii, following later in the year. Both are inspired by my years in the field making antiquity TV shows.

Website , Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, IMDb

Judith Starkston, Author, Story-Power Episode 114 aired 11/20/24

Gobeli Tepe, Turkey

Pompeii, UNESCO World Heritage site preserved Ancient Roman City

Troy, Ancient Ruins in Turkey (2004) Achilles, Briseis, and Patroclus

Lilith: A Novel Niki Marmery

Julia Felix (Praedia luliae Felicis), Wealthy businesswoman in Pompeii

Luxor, Thebes, Diro Medina, Saqqara Egyptian cities Saqqara where King Tut's Tomb was discovered is a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) First Indiana Jones Movie

Star Trek, Doctor Who

The Space BetweenTime, author, Lucinda Sage-Midgorden

Barry Maughan, Author, Story-Power Episode 146, 2/11/26

The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe, Matthew Gabriele

Omm Sety (Dorothy Eady 1904 - 1981) Lived and worked in Abydos, Egypt

Ethiopia Jewish Community claimed to be the home of The Ark of the Covenant

The Odyssey, Homer

The Song of Achilles: A Novel, Madeline Miller

Circe, Madeline Miller

Peter O'Toole, British Actor played Priam in (2004) version of Troy

Disaster Movies of the 1970s, The Poseidon Adventure, Airport, Airplane (1980)

"Some places stay with you, not because you lived there long, but because something in you recognized them. I've always felt that landscapes hold memory, something older, deeper. That's the terrain I keep returning to."

I've moved across continents, carried languages, left and found homes again. Through all of it, I've learned that connection to place isn't about PERMANENCE, it's about RESONANCE. I'd love to share a conversation about what it means to feel rooted even when life moves you, how landscapes can reflect back who we are becoming, and how memory, belonging, and identity live in the spaces between.

There's this stretch of coastline in Parksville, not particularly grand or dramatic. It's quiet, mostly. The tide comes and goes without fuss. Driftwood rests where it lands. The sand holds the marks of birds, dogs, children. I walked there often, never with a plan. Just walking.

At first, I didn't think much of it. I was new to the area, still feeling like a visitor in my own life. I didn't speak the landscape's language yet. But little by little, I started noticing things. A crooked branch that looked like it was waving. A stone that never moved. Light that changed the shape of everything.

And then one day, I realized, without meaning to, that I had started to memorize the land. Like it was starting to memorize me back. I knew where the shadows would fall. I knew when the birds would come. I knew how the wind sounded just before it rained.

That was the moment I realized I was building a kind of home with familiarity, with presence, with noticing. I wasn't looking for roots. But they found me anyway.

It made me think of all the places I've been, all the ways I've tried to belong. Sometimes it's hard to say where "home" really is. But for me, it often begins with land, with walking, listening, paying attention.

I didn't know I was gathering home. But I was.

Website, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram

Federation of Canadian Artists

Art Vancouver, Vancouver Art Foundation at the end of May 2026